by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service
"Trading Graces" -- an online auction on eBay hosted by Lutheran Services in America (LSA) -- will open Feb. 5 and continue through June 10. In its third year, Trading Graces is an effort to raise awareness and funds to support Lutheran health and human service organizations across the United States and Caribbean. Trading Graces is open to benefit all LSA member organizations and, new for the 2008 season, Lutheran schools, colleges, universities and congregations.
Lutheran organizations receive donated items from constituents and sell them on eBay to raise capital, according to John B. Carter, LSA's Trading Graces online auction event manager. "Exchanging new and/or used goods for the common good is what makes Trading Graces so powerful," he said.
LSA is an alliance of about 300 social ministry organizations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Reaching more than 6 million people annually and employing a quarter of a million staff and volunteers, social ministry organizations provide care ranging from health care to disaster response, from services for children and families to care for the elderly, from adoption to advocacy and more. eBay is a platform on the World Wide Web where millions of items are traded each day. MissionFish -- eBay's charity support division -- provides technical support for Trading Graces.
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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
