The ELCA vs. UCC

The Lutheran Church and the United Church of Christ has many similarities and also some differences. I have a better understanding of this from the readings and from the presentation delivered by Carla and Meghan. One general thing that I observed is that both the ELCA and the United Church of Christ are liberal churches.

When it comes to sacraments in the two churches, they observe the same sacraments. They observe Baptism and Communion. In the United Church of Christ, Baptism is observed as a child and is part of the service. In the Lutheran church, they observe an infant baptism. Communion is a meal in remembrance of the sacrifice that God made for us all. It is open to anyone who believes and the age of the first communion is up to the parents. The fact that it is an open communion and the age at which children partake is the same for the Lutheran church.

Both churches have a very liberal stance on homosexuality. They recognize it in the church and ordain homosexuals. The Lutheran church that I am working with has gay members in their congregation and willingly accepts them. Immanuel does not have any open gay members and they are waiting for the situation to present itself.

To me, it seems like the United Church of Christ has a more liberal stance on abortion than the Lutheran church. The Lutheran church would prefer that it did not happen but understand special cases where the mother’s life is in danger or in the case of a child conceived due to rape. The UCC agrees with this but also says that it is the women’s choice.

The stance of war in the two churches is a little different. The Lutheran church recognizes that we live in a fallen world and accepts that war is bound to happen. The UCC sees war as “playing God” and they do not participate in that.

We did not talk about prisoners with Pastor Jay so I do not know what the Lutheran church’s stance would be on this issue. The UCC believes that prison is a place for rehabilitation. They also believe that the death penalty is wrong. They also believe that this is playing God. They are very vocal about the death penalty. I think that Lutheran’s would agree that the death penalty is wrong but I do not know for sure.

The UCC is in favor of women’s rights as is the ELCA. They both ordain women as pastors. It also seems from talking to Pastor Jay and listening to Carla and Meghan’s presentation that there is more prejudice against women pastors by other women. In the UCC there is more prejudice against the head pastors but the regular female pastors are generally treated well.

When it comes to the ELCA and UCC, it seems that both churches have the same stance on Immigration. They are for the rights of people as human beings.

The ELCA and UCC both recognize divorce but for different reasons. The ELCA recognizes that we live in a fallen world and sometimes it is better to get a divorce than keeping the marriage together depending on the situation. The UCC does not see divorce as a problem because they look at the context of this Bible. I have never looked at divorce that way. It kind of opened my eyes to that idea.

The UCC and the Lutheran church have the same ideas on human dignity and taking care of people that are in need in the neighborhood. St. John’s has the open closet, coats for kids, and various health care programs to offer to people in the church and in the neighborhood. Immanuel has the food pantry. Both churches help with this in bringing food to church and then it is taken to the food pantry. Both churches have an older congregation.

Immanuel wants what is best for the community and if that means packing up and moving it sounds like they would be willing to do it. They think someone who is better equipped to deal with the issue in the neighborhood should be working in that area. They are afraid to work in the community because of the violence etc. that has been going on lately. I do not see this in St. John’s. The open closet has almost two hundred people that come through on any given Saturday that they are open. They have people that work there from the neighborhood and it seems like they are more involved in the neighborhood. It does not seem like they are afraid to work with the people.

I think that the ELCA and UCC have a lot of similarities and some minute differences. I learned a lot this week about the United Church of Christ that I did not know before. I feel more educated about the different types of faith traditions.

Updated Service Learning Plan

My initial learning plan was kind different than everyone else’s. My plans have also changed quite a bit since the first post. In my first post, my goals were:

1) Obtain a sense of accomplishment from this service experience.
2) Become closer with the people in the honors class.
3) Learn something from this experience to take into the future.
4) Accomplishing a sense of understanding about people from different walks of life.

I would say from my experience so far, I am working on all of these tasks. I am won’t fully gain the sense of accomplishment until I have completed the course but I am working on it. It is so rewarding to help with the open closet. There are approximately two hundred people that can come through on a given Saturday. I will have to admit that some of these people probably take advantage of the open closet and do not really need to get their clothing from there, but there are many people that come through that truly need the open closet. I have really taken to the children that come through on Saturdays. When one walks through the door I am determined to find them something that fits, and something they like before they walk out the door. A little girl came in last Saturday morning wearing flip flops, a skirt, and an oversized sweatshirt and it was extremely cold outside. We went through a whole industrial laundry cart to find her something. I also went through the children’s room to find her some clothes. When I handed her a dress and her face lit up, it made me feel great. Even something as small as giving her an article of clothing made that girl happy. I am guilty of taking the everyday necessities for granted, and I am sure many others are as well. I feel bad for wanting stuff now, and I am thankful for what I have been given. I know that when this service experience wraps up I am going to be grateful for the experience I have received. It will probably be something that I will never forget.

I think our class is becoming closer. There are only about a fourth of us left from the original class, so I think that helps. Class seems more laid back and we laugh a lot more than we did when we were first years.

One thing that I have learned already from this learning experience is that I want to continue volunteering for the less fortunate for as long as I can. It is so rewarding to put a smile on someone’s face, and also to provide someone with something that they cannot provide for themselves. I know I will learn more from this experience that I can take with me into the future.

I am receiving a sense of understanding about people from different walks of life. People come through that do not have jobs, are homeless, are disabled, etc. Now I have never been any of these things so I am learning a little bit about what it is like for them. Some people are sick and cannot afford the necessary medical help they need so they suffer from it. Is constricts their movements and stuff they should be able to do on their own.

One thing I would like to add to my learning plan is adding something to the open closet. To me, it does not seem like they are really in a church. People come in, get the clothing they need, we treat them with a friendly smile and a helping hand, and that’s it. There is little to no ministering that goes on on these Saturdays and I would like to see more of that. It could be something as small as handing out a flyer for the upcoming church events and inviting them to come, or more of a personal discussion with the people that come through. Since there are a lot of people that come through on a given Saturday, this would be very hard. I think the flyer would be more realistic.

Another thing I would like to add to the lesson plan would be something independent of the open closet. I will not be able to complete all of my service hours with just the open closet, and I want to help out with more than just that. We talked about getting stuff set up with the soup kitchen but the communication is lacking there and I do not know if we are going to be able to get much done with that. Terri, who is the head of the open closet, has talked about getting supplies for Christmas baskets to hand out to the elderly people in the community. This would be the first time that this would be done through them. They are looking to do about twelve, but would do more if they had the resources. Clarke is helping them out with some donations so after they figure out what they are getting, Terri said she would let me know what they still needed and I said we might be able to get some stuff as well. Small ideas keep popping up and they are very feasible. I just hope to make a difference in the community down there, even if it is in a small way.

I think St. John’s would like to connect to the neighborhood with the soup kitchen. They have been trying to get this set up for a long time. I think if we could get the other churches to help out, they could connect to each other that way. I think it would be nice if the churches got together and provided some sort of Christian entertainment for the neighborhood. I do not think there is enough Christian activity with the open closet and it would be nice to make an improvement there as well. I know the church would like to increase the number of people that come to the services each week and this could be a way to do that.

Our class could help tie the churches together. We can each talk to our respective churches and get them to come together on some sort of activity or event for the community. This might be the soup kitchen or some new event.

My "Talk" on Catholic Social Teaching

In my brief talk, I would talk about some basic ideas from Catholic Social Teaching and how they could possibly be used in their church. One of these ideas is that of human dignity. This is the focal point as explained in Himes chapter three. Christians need to know that we are made in the image of God and he is the creator of all. Human beings are creatures of dignity and worth not because of anything that we have done. Another idea from Catholic Social Teaching is the communal aspect of Catholicism. I think that every church needs to work on this as well on their individual relationship with Christ. I do not think that a religious community should be limited to Catholicism, even though they are most known for it and other religions are more personal. If the church works on their religious community, they can help each other grow in their faith, and they can hold help other accountable. There are a couple other main topics discussed in Himes book on CST and they are human rights, justice, common good and social life. Human rights are ever changing according to Himes. I would talk about the human rights in place today and where they could find those. Justice would then be defined for them according to the church. CST develops an understanding of justice that serves human dignity. A lot of these main concepts seem to tie together so this could lead to more discussion. A discussion on common good would be next and I would probably read question 34 from Himes text and then read his response. I think this fits well into what their church is doing with the open closet.

There are many ideas from Catholic Social Teaching and general questions that people might have are answered in the book by Himes. I think that if I was going to give a brief talk on Catholic Social teaching to my service site, I would make them read Himes chapter three so that some basic questions that they might have could be answered, and they can learn more about the basic concepts. It is a great starting point. Before this class I really did not know anything about CST and this book is easy to read and it is helping me understand more and more about CST.

I think it would also be beneficial for them to read the section entitled Application of Social Teaching of part IV of Mater et Magistra because it talks about applications of social teaching. There is a lot in part II about economics. I would have them read that just to understand their responsibility and all the good that they are doing in helping the poor in their community (as if they do not already know!). One thing that struck me in part II says: “…they will perform their work not merely with the objective of deriving an income, but also carrying out the role assigned them and of performing a service that results in benefit to others.” This seems like common sense but I believe that not a lot of people understand this. Obviously volunteers do because they do not get paid. Most people volunteer because they truly enjoy it. This would apply to their social progress, so I would emphasis this just as a gracious reminder.

I would not break them into groups but more have an open discussion with them on things they think they could improve in their church community with some ideas from Catholic Social Teaching. Some ideas are common sense, but human beings are forgetful and even if they do implement some of these ideas already, they might need a friendly reminder. I would also ask them how they can increase community involvement in their church based on CST and also how they can make their church community more communal. I think this would draw more people to the church. This is one area in which I think they are lacking just from being around the church and activities such as working at the open closet.