Bishop Curry Invites Lutherans to Mark America’s 250th with Truth, Memory, and Hope

This post is a reflection on the second in ELCA Bishop Yehiel Curry’s monthly ‘All Together in One Place’ series, published 06/23/2026.

As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, ELCA Presiding Bishop Yehiel Curry offers a pastoral invitation: look back honestly, give thanks where we can, repent where we must, and step forward in faith.

In his message, Bishop Curry reflects on the founding promise that “all men are created equal” and names the tension between that ideal and the lived history of this country. The anniversary is not simply a patriotic milestone; it is a moment for moral reflection. What does it mean to belong to a nation whose highest ideals have inspired hope, while many communities have also endured exclusion, violence, displacement, and discrimination?

For Lutherans, this kind of reflection is not about despair or blame. It is about telling the truth in the presence of God. Our tradition teaches that confession is not the end of the story; it is the doorway to repentance, renewal, and repair. Bishop Curry reminds the church that we are people joined to Christ in baptism and sent into the world to serve our neighbors.

That calling matters for advocacy. In Arizona, questions about hunger, immigration, housing, voting access, public education, health care, and care for creation are not abstract policy debates. They are questions about who is seen, who is heard, who is protected, and who has what they need to live with dignity.

Bishop Curry’s message also points to the common good. In a time when public life often rewards division and suspicion, Lutherans are called to a different posture: rooted in grace, honest about sin, and committed to the well-being of the whole community. We can love our country without ignoring its wounds. We can critique injustice without giving up hope. We can participate in civic life without making politics our ultimate trust.

As Arizona Lutherans prepare to mark America’s 250th anniversary, LAMA invites congregations and ministry leaders to use this moment for prayer, conversation, learning, and public witness. Ask whose stories have been left out. Listen to neighbors whose lives reveal where our civic promises remain unfinished. Look for ways your congregation can serve, advocate, and build relationships across difference.

Bishop Curry’s word to the church is ultimately a word of hope. The anniversary before us is not only about what happened in 1776. It is about how we live now: as people formed by grace, called to truth, and sent to love the neighbor in public.