CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutheran Services in America (LSA) will move its national offices from St. Paul, Minn., to Baltimore in December. LSA is an alliance of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and their 280 social ministry organizations, providing $6.9 billion in services for more than 3 million people in 3,000 communities each year.
LSA's national office has been in St. Paul since LSA was established in 1997. LSA is one of the nation's largest organizations of housing, counseling, child care, adoption, refugee resettlement, disaster response, health care, nursing home, hospice and AIDS ministries.
"LSA's national office will be moving to the Lutheran Center at Baltimore's Inner Harbor," said Jill Schumann, LSA president and CEO. She said LSA will continue to have staff in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, as well as in Chicago, Richmond, Va., St. Louis and Washington, D.C.
LSA will fill two director and one administrative positions in Baltimore. Current staff members are developing a staffing plan to "assure that every LSA member organization has at least one LSA staff member who is well-acquainted with its particular industries and related issues and opportunities," said Schumann.
Baltimore's six-story Lutheran Center is already home to offices of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), Lutheran World Relief (LWR), the ELCA Delaware-Maryland Synod and Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries, which is based in Topton, Pa.
"Baltimore offers proximity to national media markets, other national associations, the nation's capital and Lutheran partners," said Schumann. "It also offers opportunities to create partnerships for services and programs and to increase LSA's convening and hosting role."
"By the new year, LSA will be fully staffed, housed in new offices and even more actively engaged in implementing its immediate priority initiatives," she added.
The Lutheran Center is next door to Christ Lutheran Church, Baltimore, a congregation of the ELCA Delaware-Maryland Synod. The ELCA includes 10,816 congregations organized into 65 synods across the United States and Caribbean.
LIRS is a joint ministry of the ELCA, LCMS and Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was established by Lutheran churches in the United States to carry out the churches' ministry with immigrants and refugees around the world.
LWR is the overseas relief and development ministry of the ELCA and the LCMS. In addition to supporting development projects worldwide,t LWR is a member of Action by Churches Together, an international alliance of churches and relief agencies assisting thousands of people recovering from emergencies in more than 50 countries.
Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries offers a range of services to help children, youth, families, older individuals, refugees, congregations and groups. It serves about 50,000 people each year in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. It is an LSA member affiliated with the ELCA. -- -- --
The Lutheran Center at Christ Church, Baltimore, was formally dedicated Oct. 24, 1999. Photos of the dedication are available at http://www.elca.org/co/news/images.baltimore.html on the ELCA Web site.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html
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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.8 million members in more than 8,500 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands.," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.
For information contact:
Candice Hill Buchbinder
Public Relations Manager
Candice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org
