ELCA News Blog
July 31, 2006
Nobel nominee featured at closing of ELCA Global Mission Event
by Katherine R. Hinck*, ELCA News Service
Closing worship at the 2006 Global Mission Event (GME) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) featured Nobel Peace Prize nominee Wahu Kaara, a video presentation and global music. Co-sponsored by The Episcopal Church and endorsed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the event brought together some 1,300 participants of all ages from the United States and around the world July 27-30 to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. The GME featured plenary and workshop sessions, keynote presenters, global music and worship under the theme "Sent! by God's grace for the sake of the world."
"When we refuse the truth, then we refuse God," said Kaara, Millennium Development Goals campaign program coordinator, All Africa Conference of Churches, Nairobi, Kenya. "We are here to rise up. We are here to be ignited by the Scripture," she said, urging participants to "stop taking half-measures" to ease their consciences, and instead "take a stand to act on your conscience."
Rather than being labeled, "we must get our rightful identity -- that we are global citizens. We have equal rights because we are alive," Kaara said. "We need global mission, but we need global mission with a difference, a different mission for a different orientation. For the mission is to see that God indeed lives and lives in us." She concluded her sermon with a call to action, "I believe that we are global citizens who must take responsibility, who must stop going around and talking about issues, but act upon issues."
*Katherine R. Hinck is a senior journalism and religion major at Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D. This summer she is an intern with the ELCA News Service. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog