In this jam-packed “Hymn Sing with Sarah” episode, Sarah leads Erin, Bri, and Rachel through a celebration of African American hymns and spirituals in honor of Black History Month. Beginning with the story of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (often referred to in the U.S. as the “Black national anthem”), Sarah discusses the remarkable lives and creative work of brothers James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, who penned the hym...

In this Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge short, the Ladies discuss their options and announce the next book club read: C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold. Click to learn more about or order Till We Have Faces, to see a complete list of Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club picks and runners up, or to revisit past online book club events in the Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook group. Connect with the Lutheran ladies on social media in The...

In this episode, Rachel leads Sarah, Erin, and Bri in a recap discussion of a Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club “Ladies’ Choice” selection: Ellen Raskin’s Newbery-Award-winning middle-grade mystery The Westing Game. How do children’s authors create surprisingly complex works that respect the intelligence of readers young and old? What can a story about a diverse group of people sharing an apartment building teach us about the Body of Chr...

This February, as winter and the global pandemic alike drag on and on and on, why not enjoy some good old fashioned comfort food? In this installment of Erin’s Recipe Card, the ladies share their favorite recipes for “hot fat carbs,” from savory red beans and rice, to crowd-pleasing meat loaf, to “ooey-gooey” peanut chicken curry—and beyond. Whether your comfort food of choice is lasagna or stew, cookies, pizza, or even coffee, ...

Stanisława Leszczyńska (May 8, 1896 – March 11, 1974) was a Polish Catholic midwife and member of the Polish Resistance who was incarcerated at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. During her time in the notorious death camp, she provided obstetrical and other medical care to her fellow prisoners and delivered over 3,000 children — most to certain death, a precious few to life. In this heartbreaking-yet-hopeful St...

Thinking back over the year since “coronavirus” entered their collective vocabularies, Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel revisit the subject of social distancing (first covered in March 2020) in this all-hands-on-deck conversation. Taking an honest (and occasionally uproarious) look at the joys and woes of life in lockdown, each of the Lutheran Ladies offers her own heartfelt answer to the following prompts: The thing I hate most abou...

Beginning the New Year with what has now (officially) been branded a “Wild Card” episode, Bri celebrates physical, mental, and spiritual by offering her heartfelt paean to a program that has helped her achieve greater measures of all three: Concordia Plans and its Vitality® wellness benefit.  Extoling the virtues of this virtual tool that incentivizes participating church workers to track their health and fitness activities in exc...

In this edition of “Rachel’s Trivia Challenge,” Rachel guides Sarah, Erin, and Bri back through 4,000 years of New Year’s tradition as she quizzes them on the past and present of New Year’s resolutions. Who made the first annual resolutions? What does Julius Caesar have to do with the New Year? Which Medieval party day made New Year’s Eve look tame by comparison? How have Lutherans (including Martin Luther himself) traditionally c...

Tearing a page each from Amy Grant’s “Grown-Up Christmas List” and NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! Predictions segment, each of the Lutheran Ladies here offers five good wishes and one wacky prognostication to ring in the New Year. Will 2021 be the year of the analog hobby? Will it go down in history as the year Lutherans on both sides of the northern border inaugurate a multinational seminary hockey game (replete with commemorat...

Travelling back in time to a simpler, happier, less 2020-ish point in history, Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel revisit their 2019 “poetry slam” holiday special, as each (re)shares an original Christmas poem. From a Dr. Seuss-themed power ballad to a nativity “limerichard,” from a rhapsodic ode to Christmas hymns to a Hamilton-inspired angelic rap verse, these homespun poems will have you snapping their fingers (and maybe even grabbin...

In this “Erin’s Recipe Card” episode, the Lutheran Ladies take part in their first-ever Iron Ladle Challenge, as they each present a festive seasonal recipe showcasing an assigned ingredient — in this case: cranberries. Which recipe will be your favorite? Will you favor Erin’s super simple sugared cranberry hors d’oeuvres? Rachel’s cranberry kale salad? Sarah’s cranberry thumbprint cookies? Bri’s cranberry ginger (AKA “cringer”) m...

Advent hymns have taken on new resonance in 2020, as Christians pray “Come, Lord Jesus!” with ever more eagerness and urgency. In this “Hymn Sing with Sarah” episode, Sarah leads Erin, Bri, and Rachel in a discussion of Advent hymns, old and new. Drawing from the results of a Facebook group poll, the ladies identify which Advent hymns are most beloved and talk more generally about what makes an Advent hymn an Advent hymn. Sarah th...

Last Christmas, in her “How to Lutheran” episode “The Lutheran Ladies’ Guide to Chrismons™,” Bri introduced Sarah, Erin and Rachel to the past and present of the handcrafted gold and white ornaments that adorn so many church Christmas trees to this day. In this follow-up conversation, Bri looks forward to the future of these “fancy Jesus ornaments,” proposing five new Christological symbols that she feels should join the Chrismo...

In this episode, Rachel leads Sarah, Erin, and Bri in a recap discussion of the Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club Anniversary Read selection, I Don’t Want to Have the Prayer: A Messy Pastor’s Kid Does Her Memory Work. The show opens with a special guest appearance by author Karen Kuhlmann Averitt, who answers reader questions about the book submitted via Facebook, then continues with a conversation covering key questions raised by the ...

Just in time for Thanksgiving, the Lutheran Ladies are taking on that flakiest and most finicky of festive desserts: pie. In this special #PieFest installment of Erin’s Recipe Card, the Lutheran Ladies each try their hand at one or more different kinds of pie, from sweet to savory, lattice top to open-faced tart, all-butter to crumb. Pies featured include apple cranberry, Japanese sweet potato, chocolate pretzel, butternut squas...

Rachel quizzes Sarah, Erin, and Bri on “All things All Saints’”—from the mundane to the miraculous—in this slightly belated edition of “Rachel’s Trivia Challenge.” Beginning and ending with a Lutheran view of saints and a discussion of how the “holy ones” among us—living and dead—can best be honored, the Ladies take time to traverse two millennia of saints’ lives, drawing inspiration and sometimes amusement from these occasionally...

In this week’s episode (recorded days before Election Day 2020), Bri asks a timely and relevant “Big Question”: How do I survive election season as a Lutheran woman? In the honest and open conversation that follows, Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel cover a range of topics and ideas at the intersection of Lutheran faith and politics: voting out of love for our neighbors, trusting “not in princes,” and finding our ultimate identity in C...

Anna of Denmark (1532–1585) was a Danish princess from the House of Oldenburg who became Electress of Saxony through her marriage to Augustus of Saxony in 1548. As one of the most influential women in post-Reformation Europe, she played a vital role in preserving and promoting Orthodox Lutheranism in the years following Martin Luther’s death in 1546. In this “Story Time with Sarah” episode, the Lutheran Ladies revisit the life a...

In her latest “One-Question Interview,” Erin welcomes missionary nurse and health educator Steph Schulte to the Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge for a frank and honest conversation about reproductive health issues facing women both in West Africa and the United States. “You are loved. God sees you. God knows who you are,” Schulte tells Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel, echoing the Gospel message she shares with the women who attend her health ...