Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

"Marked with the cross of Christ forever, we are claimed, gathered, and sent for the sake of the world." We are an evangelizing church, and this mission flows out of a life attentive to God’s Word and rooted in unceasing prayer for the Spirit's life-giving work with the Word. In the seven weeks leading to the start of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly on August 17, I invite you to join in 50 days of renewed and focused prayer around the Scriptures that will be used at the assembly, when your co-workers in the Gospel are daily gathered, centered and sent into mission.

The accompanying Scriptures, prayers and songs are a resource you can use in small groups, in individual devotions or as a congregation-wide initiative. As you gather around God's Word, I ask you to pray especially for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, for those who will gather in Minneapolis, for decisions to be made, and for faithfulness in discerning those directions to which God is calling this evangelizing church in mission and service for the sake of the world.

In God's grace,

Mark S. Hanson Presiding Bishop

ELCA  Presiding Bishop's Call to 50 days of Prayer

Churchwide Assembly “Call to Prayer” – NWO Synod Plan