Since coming to St. John’s in July, I have been asked to speak about my life in Cairo on various occasions.  I have welcomed these opportunities as my life, family, and ministry were indelibly shaped by those years.  In fact, I continue to learn from those experiences and am ever-realizing how fleeting and yet lasting it all was.  Since speaking at St. John’s Women’s Board this past Monday, I’ve been thinking especially about my spiritual life in Cairo and the way in which living in my neighborhood and walking the streets infused me with a sense of God present in and with the world. 

By our third year in Cairo, I knew our neighborhood pretty well.  I knew which streets were quieter than others, which streets had a fairer share of palm trees and flowering bushes.  I knew where to catch a glimpse of the Nile, and where I could even find a place to stop and think, perhaps even read.  I relished those urban bits of peace, knowing that within paces, I would be back to bustling Brazil Street, replete with carts, cars, and chaos. 

When I had time to myself, I would often look for those oases of calm, and open my Celtic Book of Prayer.  I had recently (and quite randomly) found it at the American University in Cairo bookstore, and it quickly became a treasure for me.  The expansive images of God and creation within these ancient Christian prayers renewed my prayer life.  The language of journey and blessing spoke to me as I tried to develop a spiritual life as a sojourner in a strange land.  I found myself reading this book on the streets, on my busy balcony, at cafes.  And my sense of God’s presence with me and amidst all creation–especially amidst the humanity and cacophony of Cairo–deepened. 

This particular prayer took hold of me, and is yet affixed to my office wall.  I share it with you that it may guide your sense of God and Christ’s presence with you. 

I bind to myself today

God’s power to guide me,

God’s might to uphold me,

God’s wisdom to teach me,

God’s eye to watch over me,

God’s ear to hear me,

God’s word to give me speech,

God’s hand to guide me,

God’s way to lie nefore me,

God’s shield to shelter me,,

God’s host to secure me,

Christ with me, Christ before me,

Christ behind me, Christ within me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ at my right, Christ at my left,

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

(From St. Patrick’s Breastplate, in The Celtic Way of Prayer: The Recovery of the Religious Imagination by Esther De Waal)

Peace be with you! On May 20th, my family and I shared in worship, meal, and conversation about ministry and at St. John’s with the Congregational Council, and I was overjoyed upon their vote to welcome me among the pastoral staff.  As of July 1st, I have begun my work among you as Associate Pastor—Worship and Music. 

Last August, we moved to Bloomington from southeastern Michigan so that Stewart could begin work as a professor in the history department at Illinois State University. Stewart is a Lincoln scholar who teaches Civil War and Reconstruction, including American Religious History courses. At the same time, I left my first call at St. Paul Lutheran in Dearborn, and determined to go “on leave” as we transitioned to this new community. Our daughter, Catherine, has finished her kindergarten year at Bent Elementary, and our son, Daniel, has finished his nursery year at Metcalf.

I am overjoyed to have been asked to serve in the area of worship and music. I have been graced my whole life long with diverse and interesting worship experiences. As a daughter of a children’s choir director at Calvary Lutheran in Minneapolis, I spent many a Thursday afternoon in our church basement rehearsing, and many a Sunday in maroon robes singing anthems, liturgy, and hymns. This pattern continued as I sang in our high school choir at Zion Lutheran in Iowa City, and then led a college chaplaincy ensemble (and a rocking a cappella group) at Wellesley College.

During my college years, my sense of call to ordained ministry began to take shape as I delved into academic study of the scriptures. I was and continue to be enthralled by the diversity, power, and challenge of our Bible, and it was the stories of encounter with Jesus that sparked my intellectual and spiritual passion and response to the Gospel.

Upon graduation from Wellesley College, MA, in 1995, I entered the Divinity School of the University of Chicago where I received a Master of Divinity degree in 1999. I was also a student at The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and completed a Certificate of Studies there in 1999 as well.

After my husband, Stewart, and I had married, we moved to Cairo, Egypt, where he taught at The American University in Cairo, and I began work at an ELCA-supported refugee ministry at St. Andrew’s Church and then served as an intern at its international congregation. Four years, two children, and many life-transforming experiences later, we left Egypt and headed for Michigan, where Stewart taught and where I began my first call as Associate Pastor for Youth and Family.  I was blessed beyond measure to serve at this congregation and to grow in my abilities as a preacher, worship leader, and pastor among youth and adults. And now I have come to serve among you. When I reflect on my ever-deepening sense of call to ordained ministry, I recall Frederick Buechner’s words of wisdom: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” 

I know that there is a deep hunger for worship that connects us with God, with God’s means of grace, and with our own call to love and serve in the world. And it is indeed with deep gladness that I have and will continue to help craft and prepare worship that responds to this hunger. I am so grateful to have come to faith and service within the Lutheran Christian tradition, for at its best, it celebrates the renewing and reforming power of the Gospel as it expressed across cultures and traditions.

Luther created the German Mass so that people could more fully understand the substance of their faith and participate as people of God in worship together! He penned hymns to beer songs so that people could connect to the substance of God’s promises in a familiar idiom. This impulse is alive and well in so many ELCA churches today and we have unbounded freedom to explore cultural and global styles of prayer, music, and life.

The style and format can and should vary. But the substance must be consistently rich with the transformative power of the Gospel and the renewing means of grace. The substance of our worship life should celebrate the depth and breadth of our history and our present, and must proclaim God’s promises and provocations to each of us. We are to be comforted and discomforted; we are to be consoled and called to account; we are to be claimed and converted to God’s ways of justice, peace, hope for each of us and God’s whole creation. 

The living tradition of hymnody, prayer, poetry, song and readings is there for us to celebrate and renew for the sake of our children, our communities, and Christ. I am so very eager to share in this living tradition with you at St. John’s and pray that I will be responsive to the myriad gifts and talents present within this congregation. And I ask that you pray for me as I begin ministry with and among you.

Rev. Elyse Nelson Winger

P.S.  Please call me Pastor Elyse!