Blessing and Message from Bishop Anne Edison-Albright for a Time of Electing Leaders

How are we going to be?

The question “How are you going to be?” has been coming up and back to me, again and again. The question comes up most often at times when I’m feeling worried about our upcoming election. The question feels, to me, like a reassuring nudge from the Holy Spirit, prompting me to focus my energy and thoughts in a different way.

I always cringe when “doing” and “being” are pitted against each other, and certainly in these final days before the election there are some very important things that we’re called to do. As Lutheran Christians, part of the way we live out our faith is by faithfully participating in civic life: voting, advocacy and engaging with law-making and law-makers. I’ve participated in non-partisan faith-based advocacy for many years, and I’ve seen firsthand the difference it makes when people of faith speak out. Throughout scripture, God’s people are repeatedly exhorted to care for “the alien, the orphan and the widow.” That’s why I vote, and that’s what I’m thinking about when I vote. Voting–and having a plan to vote and encourage others to vote–is an important and faithful thing to do.

In addition to the vital doing of these days, there’s also those lingering nudges about being. How am I going to be, in these last days leading up to the election, on election day, and in all the days that follow? How are we going to be, as a church? I think this question is helpful because it’s as much about God as it is about us. It prompts us to think about how we’re going to be rooted and grounded in scripture, in our baptismal calling, and in our core shared identity with our neighbors near and far: beloved children of God.

The resources we’re sharing today are focused on helping with that being piece: grounding us in our baptismal liturgy, scripture, and prayers that ELCA worship has gathered for election seasons. In the video, I invite you to participate with me in a beautiful liturgy that comes to us from the ecumenical catechumenate–a way of welcoming people of all ages, but particularly adults, into baptism that dates back to the earliest days of the Church. The liturgy invites us to make the sign of the cross on our heart, our eyes, our hands … even our feet, which sometimes takes some time (or a friend) to accomplish. There is something so tangibly reassuring about remembering Christ’s promises in this way together: we have been marked with this sign of endless, unconditional love, and that gives us our embodied answer, our way to be in the world and in relationship with God and our neighbors.

May we perceive the hope to which Christ has called us! And may we be the church, together, praying with and for each other this week and in the days to come.

Bishop Anne Edison-Albright

PDF Version of this Letter - https://buff.ly/3NNi1jr

Liturgy for Blessing for a Time of Electing Leaders - https://buff.ly/4e4Wcqp