“We have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” —1 John 4:16
April 2025
Dear friends in Christ,
Thank you for your dedication and faithfulness, as together we continue to share God's love throughout the world.
During the past year and a half, I had the privilege to gather with many of you at our God’s Love Made Real regional conversations. Connecting with you during these events was extremely inspiring as we heard about the many ways God’s love is being made real in communities across this church.
Among the stories that were shared, we heard about a congregation’s “bold” decision to reconstruct a food pantry to help increase the capacity to serve more people, a Christmas in July celebration for a single mom and her five children experiencing homelessness, a Queer youth poetry open mic event described by one pastor as a tangible experience of God’s Love Made Real, a partially gutted parsonage that was renovated to provide long-term housing for survivors of human trafficking, and an ecumenical ministry group that developed a community center that feeds people with meals and spiritual connections.
Our vision of a world experiencing the difference God’s grace and love in Christ make for all people and creation is being made manifest in these ministries, but these are only a few examples of what’s happening throughout our church. I know this is work your congregations do every day, and I thank you for helping people know the way of Jesus to discover community, justice and love.
The world around us is changing, and our church will also experience change with the election of a new presiding bishop and a new secretary at the 2025 Churchwide Assembly this summer. Many of you will be electing a new synod bishop and other leaders.
Amid these changes, our call remains the same: to love and serve others as Jesus taught. Our church will continue our work to proclaim the gospel and to serve all of God’s people.
It has been a privilege to serve as your presiding bishop. May God continue to hold us and guide us into the future.
In Christ,
The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America