Choices & Voices for Peace
August 14, 2024
Dear Pastors and Deacons,
The ELCA bishops of Pennsylvania, working closely with our public policy office in Harrisburg (LAMPa), have written a statement committing ourselves to the active pursuit of peace and calling on civic leaders, the members of our synods, and fellow Pennsylvanians to join us. The statement will be delivered in a press conference at the capitol on September 5, two months before the General Election. It is designed to serve as an ecumenical and inter-religious statement, so its language reflects a broad common ground of human decency and the transformative power of our daily choices to treat one another with kindness instead of violence; it is not faith-specific.
I am inviting you to sign onto the letter if you believe it reflects your own commitment to choosing hope over hate. You may also come and join the ELCA bishops of Pennsylvania and our ecumenical and inter-religious guests to be present at the press conference on September 5.
As this statement is necessarily an appeal to the most basic human decency and not faith-specific, the ELCA bishops of Pennsylvania will each be writing a companion statement in advance of the General Election that draws directly on our Scriptures and Confessions to call for the active pursuit of peace within our synods. I encourage you to do the same within your ministry site as this appeal will be most productive if it reaches people through language that resonates with their very local context.
Thank you for your partnership in the ministry we share in this synod as together we tell the story of the one who is called the Prince of Peace.
With you in Christ,
Bishop Kurt F. Kusserow