Bishop rant on clothing
Metropolitan Chicago Bishop Wayne Miller (center) speaks outside the State of Illinois building June 15 as part of the “Moral Monday” protests against Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed state budget cuts.
Bishop joins protest
Wayne Mi l ler, bi shop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, was among 28 clergy and activists ush- ered into a police van June 15 as part of Chicago’s “Moral Monday” dem- onstration. Participants marched on the corporate headquarters of bil- lionaire Sam Zell, chair of a private Chicago-based investment firm. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a man who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven,” said Miller, beginning with a few verses from Matthew 19 and referencing the wealth of Zell and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has proposed state budget cuts the activ- ists oppose. “Moral Monday” protests feature civil disobedience and peace- ful arrests patterned after action first launched in North Carolina in 2013.
Grant opportunity
To help cultivate young leaders, embrace a culture of diversity and inclusion, and build a robust net- work of support, a grant process is available to support the ELCA’s pri- ority of expanding ministries among youth and young adults. The grant process is part of Always Being Made New: The Campaign for the ELCA, a five-year effort approved in 2013 to raise $198 million in support of new
and existing churchwide ministries above and beyond those supported by regular weekly offerings (www.
elca.org/campaign). The goal for the ELCA youth and young adults priority is $4 million. Grants will be used to expand vision for youth and young adult leadership, particularly minorities.
A joyful reunion
Pongsak Limthongviratn, pastor of St. Paul Thai Lutheran Church in Forest Park, Ill., was featured in a May ABC Nightline program in which adult sisters once part of the Children of God cult returned to the Chicago church that in 1994 helped their fam- ily when it returned from mission- ary work in Thailand. Their father, Bill Edwards, contacted Limthong- viratn when he arrived in Chicago after the cult’s leader died. The family had no financial support and asked the mission developer for help. The congregation aided the family of 14 for more than a year before they left for California without a trace—until May when Flor Edwards contacted the church to tell of the family’s suc- cessful re-entry into “ordinary” life. The story focused on the reunion of Limthongviratn and the twin sisters, Flor and Tamar, as well as the wel- come the congregation had extended.
Thomas Tobin, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence (R.I.), wrote a column in June rant- ing about the sloppy ways of summer worshipers. His warning was written to “Hirsute flabmeisters spreading out in the pew, wearing wrinkled, very-short shorts and garish, unbut- toned shirts; mature women with skimpy clothes that reveal way too much, slogging up the aisle accom- panied by the flap-flap-flap of their flip-flops; hyperactive gum-chewing kids with messy hair and dirty hands, checking their iPhones and annoying everyone within earshot or eyesight.” Church is a church, not a beach or pool deck, he wrote.
Campolo reversal
Tony Campolo, a nationally known Baptist minister and progressive evangelical, in early June called for full inclusion of gay couples in the life of the church. For years he spoke out against gay marriage. It’s time to include gay couples fully into the church, he said on his website, credit- ing his wife Peggy and their friend- ship with gay Christian couples for changing his mind. The “exclusion and disapproval” they receive from the Christian community must now end, Campolo said, warning that the church is in danger of repeating the same kinds of mistakes it made when it supported slavery and opposed the ministry of women.
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Tamar (left) and Flor Edwards are welcomed by St. Paul Thai Lutheran Church, Forest Park, Ill. Once supported by St. Paul, they’ve re-entered “ordinary” life after a cult experience.
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BEN ADAMS
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