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Gather, the magazine of Women of the ELCA, offers a mix of articles, theological reflections, devotions and stories of comfort and challenge that help readers grow in faith and engage in ministry and action.
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May 2025 – Receiving the Spirit’s flame: Spiritual gifts in the life of the church, by Cara Strickland
As we begin to dig into Scripture and talk about our spiritual gifts, it’s important to remind ourselves that these gifts are given to us by Someone who knows us intimately. A spiritual gift is nothing we can ever earn, and usually not something we’d think to ask for,...
Journey with us through Advent
Read Gather's 2024 Advent devotional, "In God's Garden." View the devotional video supplement. Read “A sacred season,” an article from November/December 2024 issue of Gather that features 23 Advent disciplines. Download Advent resources from Women of the...
Chalk blessings
For several years, our suburban Philadelphia ELCA congregation had a practice of setting out a big basket in our narthex with a different special item that people could take with them after worship. Back then, I was in charge of coming up with the items, alongside my...
Building Advent traditions
Every Advent, mom would drag the yule log out of storage and place it on the kitchen table. She’d made the dusty birch centerpiece herself, complete with greenery and holes to anchor the Advent candles. Although I can no longer remember if we lit one or all the...
Trenches and flowers
The power of hope in Kharkiv, Ukraine People were planting flowers next to trenches along the main road leading into Kharkiv, a city in eastern Ukraine, when our Lutheran World Federation (LWF) delegation visited in May 2024. Checkpoints, concrete blocks and...
Faith in economics
What is the rule of your household? How do you manage your home? How do you make sure that everyone gets what they need and sometimes what they want? Who feeds the dog or cleans up after the cat? Who does the grocery shopping, and who pays for the groceries? How are...