This mural by street artist Faith 47 appeared on a wall in Capetown, South Africa. Faith 47 is one of the artists participating in wondercafe's "paint your faith" event in Vancouver. More on Faith 47 here. More on Paint your faith here.

Other stuff we're into... and previous features...
street art.... blogs... social justice events...

G20 Mayhem
LC bloggers weigh in on their experiences!

Ryan on the G20 Fail

"I was reporting on the G20. As such, I was actually in the vortex of both the peaceful and absolutely inane black bloc tactic “anarchists.” I took in both the police and protester violence firsthand. Now before people voice their opinions and presumably take their sides (protester VS. police), let me note something. What happened in Toronto over the weekend and past week (as I covered it all) was too nuanced to take a side. Nor is that the real issue at play. And if you weren’t there to see how both sides reacted, it is tough to make a strong argument. No really, it is. Because peace, civil liberties, justice, fairness, proper judgment and control were all lost. Absolutely lost. On my account, it was a saddening moment." Read more.

Marsha on Standing up!

"As I headed to downtown Toronto this past Saturday, en route to an appointment with my (hair) colourist, I had my iPod tuned to a “the best of” compilation by John Mellencamp. One lyric that got stuck in my head for the rest of the weekend was this: You’ve got to STAND for something or you’re gonna FALL for anything. I thought to myself, hmmm, there’s a lesson in there. It seems that John Mellencamp, like many of us in “the second half” (of our lives) have learned these lessons the hard way. (But at least we’ve learned!)" Read more.

Rebekah on attempting to be faithful during the G20!

"So as we stand witness to the G20 this week are we ,"the church", raging with life? I read the demands of the Summit of World Religious Leaders: governments must close the gap between rich and poor, prioritize environmental sustainability, end militarism and cycles of violent conflict, and put the Millennium Development Goals back on track. Of course I want these things! It is a very important thing to bridge religous boundries and discover what we agree on. It is very important to speak out and demand just governance and policy. But why are we asking the governments and corporations of the world to do our work! Isn't bringing about the Kingdom of God on earth our job? Shouldn't we also be looking at the gap between the rich and poor that we foster, the way we fail to prioritize environmental sustainablility, the way we perpetuate conflict through consumerism, and our lack of respect for women's right, GLBTQ rights, and indegenous rights? Where is our imagination?" Read more!

Janaki witnesses another siege in Jamaica

"I'm here for a few months, "visiting" from Canada. I'm staying with my mom in a home that is in "a good part of town". The windows all have grills on them - standard practice in urban Jamaica. The house is surrounded by a 10-plus foot wall. The wall has barbed wire on top of it. We have a large double-gated entrance to this protected property in this good part of town. It is operated by an automatic gate opener. We have a rottweiler (Paris) and a pit-bull (Toby) in the yard. All the grills have vibration sensors on them. In the night we set an alarm. We have panic buttons. If we think someone is on the property and press the button (or the alarm is triggered), a security company (whose services my mom receives for a monthly fee) sends armed personnel to our home. They have a key to open the gate. They check out the premises to keep us safe. My mom pays taxes in Jamaica. When I worked here I too paid taxes. By the time all the deductions are made, these taxes approximate one third of one's salary. This is in "a good part of town." But we are 'safe'." Read more.

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Damien on the G20 and pacifism

"It is because I work and pay taxes that I will personally subsidize the erosion of my personal rights as a citizen, and the erosion of my children's world by the consolidation of public wealth into private hands. I believe myself to be a pacifist, motivated by love. But it is only because I choose to remain passive that activities of violence occur in my name. As Howard Zinn would put it, "one cannot stand still on a moving train," but the apparent truth is that even when we all jostle, or wave picket signs, or convene in a park, or march down a street, we are unable to shift  the train's trajectory." Read more.

Ryan posted this picture he took to BlogTO. Someone had written: "G20: New World Order" in red paint on a streetcar shelter. Also, check out below Ryan's amazing adventures in Ecuador!

What the heck!? What's wrong with this picture?

This artists drawing represents the proposed setting for the media, removed from the Muskoka region to Toronto to report on the G8/G20 proceedings. It 'simulates' the Muskoka experience. Log on to our blogs or forum pages - or onto our Facebook page and tell us what's wrong with this picture!

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Me. Ecuador. 25 Kids. Rudimentary Spanish:
Ryan reports on Me to We in Ecuador!

"I recently ate guinea pig. It was quite chewy, speaking frankly. And slightly traumatizing as I had a pet guinea pig as a wee one. His name was Haro. He was fluffy and suffered from severe ADD, I believe. And now that I have your (unwavering) attention, I thought I would share some of my experiences from my recent trip to Ecuador with my company, Me to We. Since my profession allows me to play with words for a living, supposedly I can tell stories. Alas, this is my attempt." Read more.

Fight Bill 94 in Quebec!

Bill 94 in Quebec will limit many ordinary freedoms of access to health care for women who wear the veil for religious reasons. Check out this video! Although the day of action has now passed - think about what you can do! Post here or join our Facebook page! 

Anglican Community Justice Camp winds up in Niagara

People of all ages gathered in the Niagara region to attend the Anglican church's Community Justice Camp. On Friday, they met at Christ Church cathedral in Hamilton to share their experiences. Presentations were made on Food Security, Environmental Justice, Aboriginal Justice, Housing, Building Communities and Welcoming the Stranger. Participants went out into the local areas to meet wtih projects and people who are doing great work in these areas. Interested in doing something meaningful this summer? Check out some of the other camps happening, on our About page. 

Update on ISARC Social Audit of poverty in Ontario:

Earlier this year, Bruce from ISARC (the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition) wrote about ISARC's social audit of poverty and the steps they are taking to make the voices of those on the margins of Ontario's societies known to the government. The interviews with people living in poverty in Ontario and town hall meetings have continued throughout this spring. Here's an excerpt from a report on a gathering in Waterloo:
"Barriers to breaking the cycle included better, less expensive transportation, more affordable housing, increased social assistance rates and higher minimum wage, more dental care especially for adults, and access to doctors." Read more here.

Rebecca on the Olympics and Faith

"Shortly thereafter I realized that my inability to properly express my feelings about the Olympics is often how I feel when trying to explain my faith. Words elude me. I can talk about all of the main reasons why I believe in God, about how I've grown up in the church and what it has meant as a foundation in my life, but I feel like my responses always fall flat.
Watching my roommate last Sunday singing O Canada on a bus full of complete strangers , with tears in her eyes and a giant smile on her face made me realize something. The reason that words elude me whenever faced with questions of my faith or the Olympics is because to me it's a feeling. My faith is a feeling of strength and peace I feel when praying or in church. It's a feeling of community when I'm talking with other Christians." Read more.

Pastor Patricia on WISH life

Pastor Patricia has been writing about her experiences at WISH, witnessing to the "other side" of the Olympics in Vancouver. Now she offers us some final thoughts:
"Toward the end of the Olympics you would see more and more homeless men and women sleeping on the street and in door entrances. The city had tried to keep them away from the business sections of town and the tourist haunts, however, nearing the last few days there were more and more panhandlers and people pushing shopping carts filled with cans and bottles. One man stated on TV one evening that he felt he had found the 'mother-load' these past few weeks as he couldn't fill his cart fast enough due to the diluge of empty beer cans and bottles and liquor bottles he was finding on the street and in the recyling bins." Read more. And here's Patricia's previous post:

"I participated in a wonderful spirit-filled "Women's Memorial March' on Sunday afternoon. It was a sunny, warm day... a perfect day as 4,000 of us marched to remember the murdered and missing women of the Downtown East Side. The aboriginal drums and chanting created a resonance of heartbeats and voices as we proceeded through the streets of downtown Vancouver." Read more!

Ryan on the 'big game'!

"Although I do hold my reservations against the Olympics – a lot of that (ludicrous) money could and should go towards more pressing issues (say, homelessness, cancer research, alleviating that issue called poverty) than a glorified global battle royale – I wasn’t protesting the Olympic torch when it came to town, forcing it to detour off Yonge Street. There are bigger things I can take a stand against and for. This one I put up with. It does build patriotism, bringing all walks of like together under one title: Canadian. I listened in (OK, overheard) a recent immigrant rant to his friend, in broken English, today about how proud he was to be Canadian." Read more.

Bruce on a project that will listen to stories about living in poverty

Bruce joins us to talk about a great social audit of poverty in Ontario that's going on right now. Here's what he says:
"People testifying feel a spark of dignity returning. A group of persons with low incomes, after holding a session to talk about their experiences with staff from a social planning centre, decided that they would testify at a public meeting where politicians and other community leaders attended. They found courage." Read more here!
Does poverty touch your life? Login to our forums page and share.

Marsha on living "in the deep"

"So, here was my aha! moment. Success in the shallow waters is what looks good to today's world. A world that studiously avoids the deep waters, keeping to the relative safety of the tidal pools...or (to those of us who grew up in the wilds) the mud puddles. I did not experience the deep waters until my 2nd year in Toronto, a city where I will soon have lived for 1/2 of my life." Read more here.

Haiti.

Image, courtesy of feministlookingglass.com

Diane on "missionaries"

"Wow -- like many of us I cannot fathom that in this day and age ten "missionaries" felt that it was their place to take children from Haiti to the Dominican Republic and perhaps afterward to the United States. My mind and soul are turning. On Sunday I officiated at a special service on the situation in Haiti. I preached on Haiti and Christ Consciousness --- Haiti is in a critical dire situation -- there are so many around the world suffering at this time too -- but for some reason Haiti has awakened the world to what we do not want to see and what we are called to be ....which is much much more than we have been so far. "
Read more.

There's also lots of good stuff happening in world relief aid.
Here's a report on the better side of things and some very human stories from the ground in Haiti.

Image courtesy of the Associated Press.

Rebekah on "natural" disaster

"Unlike San Francisco, which can afford to retrofit buildings to be earthquake resistant, Haiti, struggling to subsist, cannot. Looking over the last decade we see disaster strike again and again in the impoverished regions of the globe. The 2001 Savadoran earthquake, the tsunami in Sri Lanka, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the list goes on... Thousands die where infrastructure and institutions cannot be afforded to protect individuals from natural phenomena, resulting in a disaster." Read more. 

Marsha on suffering there... and here

"It almost seems as if natural disasters were designed to refocus the world on social issues, of the suffering that is a part of the daily lives of so many people across the globe. The graphic images make us uncomfortable, make us want to share the wonderful things that have been given to us by virtue of living in Canada. It’s a wakeup call for all of us whose senses have become dulled by the comparatively easy lives we’ve come to accept as our birthright in this country." Read more.

Areeba, Erica, Janaki, Rebekah, Damien and Ryan all say good night and thank you!
Read their blogs here!

People in 24 Canadian cities caught our live blogging event on January 31st. We had a great time and thank you for joining us (and for those of you who tried hard to join us, thank you especially!). Check out the videos on youtube and read some of the blogs that were posted that night.

"Who are these people?" 

Welcome to Lutherans Connect!

Are you wondering who we are? Our ministry starts with the college campus life of the city of Toronto and that's where it comes back to too - but we aim to reach anyone anywhere who might share some of our ideas. Are you searching for other people of faith? Are you not into faith but feel strongly about global justice issues? You don't have to be religious or share our particular faith to join us.  Write us at: info@lutheransconnect.com or  lutheransconnect@gmail.com.

What is Lutheranism?

Lutheranism was born out of the ideas of Martin Luther, a German monk and theologian, who was upset about some of the practices of the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century. He took issue with their focus on the importance of confession, the infallibility of the Pope, and the practice of indulgences, in which people paid tithes for masses that allowed their deceased loved ones to leave Purgatory and enter Heaven. Luther wrote 95 theses in opposition to all the ways he felt that the Catholic church had become corrupt. He posted this document on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg , Germany, on October 31st 1517. It was common practice at this time to post articles on church doors, as they acted like bulletin boards for university events. These theses led to a great theological debate, and the eventual Protestant Reformation of the Church, where many Europeans rejected the ideas of Catholicism and left the Roman Catholic Church. Christianity was then split, and the Lutheran, Reformed and Anabaptist traditions were formed. Martin Luther preached that we can be saved by God's grace alone through our faith. Through this grace, we can find an eternal connection to God both now and even after death. Lutherans believe the Bible to be the divinely inspired word of God but Lutherans reflect a wide range of how that inspired word should be interpreted. Like any faith group, Lutherans have some pretty conservative folks and some pretty liberal folks. Whatever your walk is, we hope you'll find a voice for yourself here.

Where can you find us?

At the moment, Lutheran Campus Ministry does not have its own office anywhere. In a way, this website is our office. So do drop in or leave us messages to know you were here. We'd love to hear from you.