OELC Recognition

“For with God nothing shall be impossible” Luke 1:37

October 27, 2013 REFORMATION DAY Sunday at the

Washington National Cathedral

The Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church (OELC) that started as a separate worship group of the Oromo Evangelical Church in March 2013 was formally received as an ELCA congregation by the Metropolitan Washington DC Synod on September 21, 2013.

The OELC was formally recognized as an ELCA congregation on Reformation Day Sunday October 27, 2013 in front of hundreds of guests and friends of the OELC at the historic National Cathedral in downtown Washington DC. The event was presided over by Bishop Richard H. Graham of the Metropolitan Washington DC Synod and the recognition ceremony was led by the Rev. Dr Phillip Hirsch, Assistant to the Bishop & Director for Evangelical Mission of the Synod accompanied by OELC council and its well known choir. We invite you to listen to the moving sermon by Bishop Graham with the theme “Hope and Freedom” following this link. http://metrodcelca.org/wordpress/wp-content/themes/dcelca/audio/13refsvcsermonmp3.mp3.

Members of the OELC erupted in jubilation at the end of the ceremony and people from different congregations present at the service congratulated our members with clapping and shaking of hands. Our members sang and danced for Christ on the stairs outside the magnificent National Cathedral in celebration for more than an hour.

We would like to say CONGRATULATIONS to all our members and supporters and invite you all to enjoy some of the pictures from the event in our Gallery.

Our call:

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander

be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to

one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,

as God in Christ forgave you. Eph. 4:31-32