Aug. 14, 2026
Dear Saints of the Northwest Intermountain Synod,
It has been just over ten days since the wildfires began burning in Spokane. We grieve with the around 7 households of our ELCA congregations whose homes were destroyed by the wildfires and of course so many of you know friends, co-workers, and relatives whose homes were destroyed. All our ELCA church structures are still standing. We celebrate the heroism of firefighters, the way the community came together, the acts of kindness (including all of you who welcomed evacuees into your homes).
I want to take a moment to tell you about the Washington VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) meeting I attended Wednesday. Ray Sherjven, WA VOAD representative for Lutheran Disaster Response invited me to join the statewide Zoom meeting at 10 am Pacific. The VOAD President Christie Merrill of the American Red Cross warmly welcomed so many members by name as they entered the virtual space. She introduced the board. She then asked for county and tribal participants to name their needs. There was a beautiful moment of synergy and Spirit when hay for livestock was requested. “Bails or Rolls?” “Either.” “We’ve got hay. Can you find a way to transport it?” “We can help with transport!” Next each agency represented was asked to raise their hand and share what they had, what area of expertise they brought. We heard about people who could help with childcare center, lots of food, hazardous material gear for people going into burned areas.
We heard about this website for after urban wildfires: https://washington.postfire.org (organizations passing along everything they learned from the wildfires in Los Angeles two years ago).
Our United Methodist Church and Disaster Response siblings will be offering Disaster Case Management Training in October. I wonder if some of you might be willing to take this excellent training and then put it to use as a form of neighbor love. Watch our synod newsletter.
And then the day after this hopeful online VOAD meeting, I was giving my presentation on United at the Font: Partnering for the Future (our rural ecumenical experiments) at Wartburg Seminary in front of around 40 ministry partners from across the ELCA. I teared up when I pulled up the map of our synod—grief surprises us! I think it reminds us that the love of God is in our hearts and bodies. As we celebrate all the good, I want to name that our Christian faith tradition also makes space to lament. The movement from gratitude to lament to anger to sorrow to hope and back is not linear. From my own experiences it has always been more wavy or cyclical.
And this all made me turn to the lament sections of our hymnals because I think the poets are great helpers when we are sitting in ashes:
A familiar tune but perhaps a song we have not sung often—How Long, O God (ELW 698)
Once We Sang and Danced by Pastor Susan Briehl from the NWIM Synod. I love her setting of a famous psalm set to a Latvian tune (ELW 701).
And to help you cry for peace in so many places: For the Suffering and Troubles (ACS 1051).
Around the kitchen table, on your commute, at a prayer vigil, during Sunday worship, I invite you to lament. It is one way the Holy Spirit helps us move through grief.
God’s peace and mercy,
Bishop Meggan