Lutherans invited to join two life marches

By Megan K. Mertz

In January, LCMS Lutherans will have two opportunities to publicly show their support for the sanctity of human life.

LCMS members are invited to join the 2014 National March for Life, held Wednesday, Jan. 22, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The peaceful march will take place on the 41st anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion.

Members of the Lutherans For Life delegation, wearing matching blue-and-white headbands and scarves, carry their banner high as they pass the U.S. Supreme Court building during the 2007 “March for Life” in Washington, D.C. (LCMS Communications/Paula Schlueter Ross)

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in 1973, more than 55 million children have been aborted in the United States. The current estimate for the number of abortions performed every year is 1.2 million, which works out to more than 3,200 every day and one every 26 seconds.

Last year, the National March for Life drew an estimated 650,000 people.

Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Va., will hold the LCMS Divine Service of worship on the morning of the March for Life. Following worship, participants will proceed as a group to the march. Call Immanuel’s office at 703-549-0155 for more information about the pre-march Divine Service.

For the first time, the LCMS also will send members to participate in the Walk for Life West Coast, which will be held Saturday, Jan. 25, in San Francisco. Walk for Life West Coast started in 2005, and it drew some 50,000 participants this past January.

LCMS members who plan to participate in the Walk for Life West Coast are asked to notify Ed Szeto, LCMS Life Ministry special projects coordinator, at ed.szeto@lcms.org or 571-481-8830.

“Last year, we had more than 400 Lutherans marching together to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to bring public awareness to the plague of abortion,” said Maggie Karner, LCMS director of Life and Health Ministries. “This year we want to top those numbers.”

According to Szeto, these marches provide wonderful opportunities to “join hundreds of thousands of pro-life Americans exercising their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion, to free speech and to hold peaceful gatherings so that the nation’s leaders know that legalized abortion in the United States needs to end.”

For more information about the two events, visit marchforlife.org and walkforlifewc.com.

Megan K. Mertz is a staff writer with LCMS Communications.