-Motto of the Racine Dominican Sisters
"Commitment to truth in the light of the Gospel compels us to consecrate whatever power we have, personally and as community, to sustain the fundamental right of every person to pursue the fullness of life and to share in the common good.
"Today such a stance demands an explicit solidarity in prayer, struggle, suffering and hope with those who are oppressed by systems designed to serve the interests of the wealthy and advantaged. This perspective governs our every ministry, whether that ministry is among the economically advantaged or among the economically poor."
-from a poster for the 2004 ELCA Global Mission Events (GMEs)
"Claimed by God’s grace for the sake of the world, we live in and share our knowledge that God can be trusted. At the 2004 GMEs, we seek to deepen our understanding of God’s unconditional love that we have through Christ and our baptism into Christ. Through study and celebration, we lift up the freedom from fear that God offers through the trusting and trustworthy community bound together by baptism.
"Claimed by God’s grace for the sake of the world, we are free to admit and face our complicity in promoting fear and eroding rather than building trust. Many do not feel safe and are not safe. Christians claimed by grace work to replace social, material, and spiritual systems of dishonesty and violence with God’s realm of love and safety.
"Claimed by God’s grace for the sake of the world, the mission of the whole church becomes a mission to share God’s salvation from the untrustworthiness and fears that surround us, in unity with people of good will everywhere. Therefore, we unite to work for a world shaped by God’s unconditional love."
These two stand alongside my all-time favorite:
Proclaim the Gospel • Make Disciples • Do Justice
-Mission of the ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod
