Welcome to the St. Mark’s website…we’re glad you found us!
We’ve designed this site to keep members updated on church events, and give non-members a “taste” of what we do here at St. Mark’s. We hope you like what you see!
The best way to live your faith is by gathering with others who can reinforce it. As a member, you can be as involved with us as you wish. There’s so much to do! Check out the calendar contained in this site, as well as the descriptions of our church activities.
There is a place for you here at St. Mark’s!
If you’d like more information about anything on this site, send us feedback or give us a call.
The best way to live your faith is by gathering with others who can reinforce it. As a member, you can be as involved with us as you wish. There’s so much to do! Check out the calendar contained in this site, as well as the descriptions of our church activities.
There is a place for you here at St. Mark’s!
If you’d like more information about anything on this site, send us feedback or give us a call.
We invite you to get to know us. Join us for in-person or virtual Sunday morning worship at 10:00 am. You can find us on Facebook and Youtube. Questions? Contact our Church office. stmarkslutheran@gmail.com
Attend our coffee hour!
Join us after church for our coffee and snack hour downstairs! A great way to connect with folks after church!
A little more about St. Mark’s…
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church is in Waukegan, Illinois. Many of our members also live in Wadsworth, Gurnee, Kenosha, and across northern Lake County.
St. Mark’s is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the ELCA.
To us, being a member congregation of the ELCA means:
We are the church that shares a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. For us as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, this faith comes through the good news of Jesus Christ and gives us the freedom and the courage to wonder, discover and boldly participate in what God is up to in the world. Liberated by our faith, we embrace you as a whole person — questions, complexities and all.
As members of the ELCA, we believe that we are freed in Christ to serve and love our neighbor. With our hands, we do God’s work of restoring and reconciling communities in Jesus Christ’s name throughout the world.
Faith & Society
The ELCA has adopted numerous “Social Statements” which are teaching and policy documents that provide broad frameworks to assist in the discernment of social issues in the context of faith and life. They also govern policy related to social issues for the ELCA as an institution and guide its advocacy and work as a publicly engaged church. The most recent was “Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action,” adopted in August, 2019. The social statements are available on the ELCA website.
50•40•10
In 2020, we are celebrating 50 years of Lutheran women’s ordination in the ELCA, 40 years of the ordination of Lutheran women of color, and 10 years of Lutheran LGBTQIA+ individuals’ freedom to serve. For more on this aspect of our history, see “50 Years of Ordained Women.”
Sanctuary
In August, 2019, the ELCA overwhelmingly approved a resolution declaring the ELCA to be a “Sanctuary Church Body.” Bishop Wayne Miller, former bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, clarified the meaning of that declaration by writing, in part:
“The self-declaration of the ELCA as a ‘sanctuary church body’ is, in its effect, a symbolic declaration. It is the emphatic assertion of a long-held value in North American Lutheranism; namely, that churches should be places of welcome, care, compassion, and healing for all people regardless of their race, nationality, age, gender, or place of origin. Historically, we ourselves are an immigrant church, and we believe in the virtue and obligation of sharing with others the hospitality we have received. We continue to advocate for the humane treatment of families and, particularly, vulnerable children, as reflected in the ELCA AMMPARO initiative. None of this is
new. This is who we are and who we have always been as a church body.
“’Sanctuary’ is a term that means different things to different people. For some it is an ethical stance of hospitality–for others it is a legal category that involves the civil disobedience of refusing to comply with what is believed to be an unjust law, and then enduring the legal consequences for that disobedience. The ELCA decision clearly and unequivocally falls into the first understanding of ‘sanctuary.’ We mean it as an ethical position, not as a legal category, or as a prescription for breaking the law.
“…Because of the values implied or stated by this resolution, I whole-heartedly recommend that congregations use this action by the Churchwide Assembly as an invitation for your congregation to enter a time of prayer, study, conversation, and discernment about what Holy Scripture and Lutheran tradition have taught concerning hospitality to strangers, and the proper Christian response to how the church takes part in society. Regardless of whether or not this leads you to assume a public role as a ‘sanctuary congregation,’ the time of study and discernment will enrich your spiritual growth as a child of God and as a disciple of Jesus Christ.”
Embedded Links:
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America : www.elca.org
Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Faith_Sexism_Justice_Social_Statement_Adopted.pdf
Social statements https://www.elca.org/Resources/Faith-and-Society#SocialStatements
50 Years of Ordained Women
https://elca.org/50yearsofordainedwomen
St. Mark’s is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the ELCA.
To us, being a member congregation of the ELCA means:
We are the church that shares a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. For us as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, this faith comes through the good news of Jesus Christ and gives us the freedom and the courage to wonder, discover and boldly participate in what God is up to in the world. Liberated by our faith, we embrace you as a whole person — questions, complexities and all.
As members of the ELCA, we believe that we are freed in Christ to serve and love our neighbor. With our hands, we do God’s work of restoring and reconciling communities in Jesus Christ’s name throughout the world.
Faith & Society
The ELCA has adopted numerous “Social Statements” which are teaching and policy documents that provide broad frameworks to assist in the discernment of social issues in the context of faith and life. They also govern policy related to social issues for the ELCA as an institution and guide its advocacy and work as a publicly engaged church. The most recent was “Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action,” adopted in August, 2019. The social statements are available on the ELCA website.
50•40•10
In 2020, we are celebrating 50 years of Lutheran women’s ordination in the ELCA, 40 years of the ordination of Lutheran women of color, and 10 years of Lutheran LGBTQIA+ individuals’ freedom to serve. For more on this aspect of our history, see “50 Years of Ordained Women.”
Sanctuary
In August, 2019, the ELCA overwhelmingly approved a resolution declaring the ELCA to be a “Sanctuary Church Body.” Bishop Wayne Miller, former bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, clarified the meaning of that declaration by writing, in part:
“The self-declaration of the ELCA as a ‘sanctuary church body’ is, in its effect, a symbolic declaration. It is the emphatic assertion of a long-held value in North American Lutheranism; namely, that churches should be places of welcome, care, compassion, and healing for all people regardless of their race, nationality, age, gender, or place of origin. Historically, we ourselves are an immigrant church, and we believe in the virtue and obligation of sharing with others the hospitality we have received. We continue to advocate for the humane treatment of families and, particularly, vulnerable children, as reflected in the ELCA AMMPARO initiative. None of this is
new. This is who we are and who we have always been as a church body.
“’Sanctuary’ is a term that means different things to different people. For some it is an ethical stance of hospitality–for others it is a legal category that involves the civil disobedience of refusing to comply with what is believed to be an unjust law, and then enduring the legal consequences for that disobedience. The ELCA decision clearly and unequivocally falls into the first understanding of ‘sanctuary.’ We mean it as an ethical position, not as a legal category, or as a prescription for breaking the law.
“…Because of the values implied or stated by this resolution, I whole-heartedly recommend that congregations use this action by the Churchwide Assembly as an invitation for your congregation to enter a time of prayer, study, conversation, and discernment about what Holy Scripture and Lutheran tradition have taught concerning hospitality to strangers, and the proper Christian response to how the church takes part in society. Regardless of whether or not this leads you to assume a public role as a ‘sanctuary congregation,’ the time of study and discernment will enrich your spiritual growth as a child of God and as a disciple of Jesus Christ.”
Embedded Links:
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America : www.elca.org
Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Faith_Sexism_Justice_Social_Statement_Adopted.pdf
Social statements https://www.elca.org/Resources/Faith-and-Society#SocialStatements
50 Years of Ordained Women
https://elca.org/50yearsofordainedwomen