News

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) continue to encourage members of their respective synods to become familiar with two documents released by the Task Force for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality. In February the task force released a proposed social statement on human sexuality....

CHICAGO (ELCA) - When Liz Kourtesis of Florida heard that 37,000 Lutherans -- mostly teens -- were heading to New Orleans this summer to help hurricane survivors, she raced to add her name to the volunteers. She's a hurricane survivor, too. Kourtesis, 19, lives in South Florida, also walloped by...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Hoping to encourage other church leaders and lessen the stigma and discrimination that often surrounds HIV and AIDS, most members of the Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) participated in HIV screening March 5 here at the Lutheran Center. The ELCA Conference...

ITASCA, Ill. (ELCA) -- As economic uncertainty continues, responding "quickly and strategically" to changes in income will be critical to the continued financial stability of the ELCA churchwide organization and its capacity to sustain its mission and ministries, wrote Christina Jackson-Skelton, ELCA treasurer, in a March 7 written report to...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Mission personnel of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) serving in the Republic of Madagascar have evacuated the island due to recent civil unrest. Madagascar is located off the southeastern coast of Africa. According to BBC News, Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana and opposition leader Andry Rajoelina...

ITASCA, Ill. (ELCA) -- Noting that 2009 is "a difficult year," the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) reported March 7 to the ELCA Conference of Bishops, focusing on the effects of the economic downturn on the ELCA, as well as two documents released Feb. 19...

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service Three seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) received a $215,000 grant from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation, Appleton, Wis., and Minneapolis. The three seminaries are working with schools of business and ELCA social ministry organizations to start the Intersections Institute, a...

by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service According to the National Weather Service many Midwestern communities are experiencing moderate to major flooding, and rivers and streams continue to rise. Flooding has already occurred in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, while in North and South Dakota, Wisconsin and elsewhere new snowfall could...

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service Roanoke College, Salem, Va., will host a reception March 31 for Stephanie A. Doyle, the 2009 Virginia Teacher of the Year. Doyle is a sixth-grade history teacher at James Breckinridge Middle School, Roanoke, Va. She is a member of the National Museum of the...

ITASCA, Ill. (ELCA) -- Reporting that its own conversations "expressed the diversity of opinion that is common throughout the church," the Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) addressed the church in a "pastoral word" concerning the contents of two ELCA documents. Last month the Task...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Dr. Troy D. VanAken will become the 19th president of Thiel College, Greenville, Pa., in July 2009. The college's board of trustees elected him Feb. 20. VanAken is executive vice president of Albion College, Albion, Mich. Thiel is one of 28 colleges and universities of the Evangelical...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A Lutheran college alumna working as a journalist in Tehran may soon be released from an Iran prison where she's been held since late January, according to March 6 news reports quoting an Iranian official. Roxana Saberi, 31, is slated to deliver the May commencement address at...

by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service More than 300 million palm fronds are harvested each year for use in the United States, mostly for Palm Sunday worship and floral displays for church-related events, according to Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Baltimore. But the overproduction of palms threatens forests and the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- As a mainline denomination, the 4.7 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is engaging in an effort to start new congregations and strengthen its existing 10,448 congregations across the country. Each of the ELCA's 65 synods is creating a mission strategy unique to its regional settings,...

WASHINGTON (ELCA) -- On April 26-29 a coalition of faith-based organizations, churches and global antipoverty groups will convene here at The Mobilization to End Poverty. Thousands of Christian and antipoverty leaders will engage in education, worship and activism at the event, most of which will be held at the Washington...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- John Breaux raced to open doors for strangers. He left flowers on the doorsteps of people in need of cheer. He shoveled snow for others, carried grocery bags for shoppers and brought food to people in need. Not for pay, but out of kindness. Children called him...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Robert E. A. Lee, the Lutheran film executive behind Academy Award-nominated productions that brought out tensions between Catholics and Protestants in the 1950s and captured America's racial divide in the 1960s, died of cancer Feb. 27 at his Baldwin home on Long Island, N.Y. He was 87....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Senior staff of the Washington Office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) noted that U.S. President Barack Obama's 2010 federal budget outline affirms many ELCA domestic and international priorities. Staff also expressed concern about other items in the proposal. The Obama administration unveiled first details...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- About 400 college and university students, student leaders and campus pastors are planning a special alternative spring break called "What a Relief!" The program, which begins in March, is sponsored by Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) and the Lutheran Student Movement-USA (LSM-USA). LDR is a collaborative ministry of...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) expressed "great disappointment and deep sadness" as he shared comments with the LCMS on the content of two documents from the Task Force for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Studies on Sexuality. The ELCA is the largest...