On All Saints’ Day, November 4th, St. John-St. Matthew-Emanuel will formally dedicate Evangelical Lutheran Worship, the new hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and celebrate Holy Communion utilizing Setting Eight, one of the 10(!) liturgies contained in ELW.

What will become, you may wonder, of our Lutheran Book of Worship, the “green books?” Mallory Croak and Lynda Anderson have volunteered to make a list of the dedicatory bookplates in our LBW’s, and we shall try to contact each donor to see if they would like the hymnal as a keepsake. Any remaining hymnals will be given a good home in a congregation of this synod that did not have funds to purchase the LBW, and will receive our offering with great joy.

As of press time, more than $3,000 has been raised toward our purchase of new hymnals. You may still make a donation and have a bookplate placed in a hymnal. The price for each ELW hymnal is $20.00. Make checks payable to St. John-St. Matthew-Emanuel, and write “hymnal” in the memo line. Enclose a note as to how you would like your dedication to read – “in memory,” “in honor,” etc. – and place it in the offering plate, or mail it to the church office.