News

by John R. Brooks, ELCA News Service* The board of directors of Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kan., named the Rev. Robert L. Vogel as the college's interim president beginning Jan. 15. Vogel assumes the role from Dr. Paul K. Formo, president of Bethany College for the past five years. Formo announced...

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service Women of the ELCA, the women's organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a trip April 16-30 to Germany. Guided tours of Berlin, Wittenberg, Torgau, Leipzig, Dresden, Eisleben, Erfurt and Eisenach will focus on the lives...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will offer two winter global mission programs in 2007, and one significant Global Mission Event in July. All three events feature worship, music and learning, with emphasis on how the ELCA can "accompany" Lutherans in mission throughout the globe. An...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation awarded 75 grants totaling $4,838,960 through its Charitable Gifting Initiative program -- approximately half to congregations, schools, camps and other agencies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). ELCA organizations received 36 grants totaling $2,247,883; another nine organizations supported by...

by John R. Brooks, ELCA News Service The Rev. Barbara K. Lundblad, associate professor of preaching, Union Theological Seminary, New York, returns to preach Dec. 31 and Jan. 7 on "Day 1," a nationally broadcast radio program accessible via streaming audio and podcast on the Web. Each program includes a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), joined 33 leaders from Christian, Jewish and Muslim national organizations in calling on U.S. President George W. Bush to make peace in the Middle East a "top priority" for his administration....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), in partnership with the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, organized a theological conference on cruelty focusing on topics such as genocide in Rwanda and Armenia, apartheid in South Africa, sex trafficking in the Philippines, injustice...

by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service The 2007 Annual Gathering of Lutheran Ethicists will take place Jan. 3-5 at the Catholic Conference Formation Center in Dallas. Ethicists, pastors, graduate students and others from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will address the topic of human sexuality. Human sexuality...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and four other Christian leaders in the United States commended members of the U.S. Congress this week for passing landmark legislation to bring economic opportunity to Haiti, one of the world's...

WASHINGTON (ELCA) -- When the 110th Congress of the United States is sworn in Jan. 3, it will include 18 Lutherans -- 11 Democrats and 7 Republicans, according to the ELCA Washington Office, the federal public policy advocacy office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Three Lutherans will...

by John R. Brooks, ELCA News Service* Paul K. Formo, president of Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kan., submitted his resignation to the chair of college's board of directors, the college announced in a Dec. 6 news release. Formo, who became Bethany's president in 2001, said he is leaving to explore new...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Christ Lutheran Church, Aptos, Calif., and Saron Lutheran Church, Ashland, Wis., are the winners of the 2006 Disability Ministries Accessibility Awards. The award is given annually to congregations of the ELCA that display commitment to providing care and concern among people who are living with disabilities. This...

by John R. Brooks, ELCA News Service* The Board of Pensions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Minneapolis, launched its "next generation" Web site Dec. 4, enhancing members' and sponsoring organizations' access to ELCA benefits resources online. Through a new design and technology, the site offers members and...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- More than 250 college-aged students from Lutheran churches and campus ministry sites will be in New Orleans with 350 other young adult Christians to celebrate, see, serve and reflect. The annual gathering of the Lutheran Student Movement-USA (LSM-USA) will be held Dec. 28-Jan. 1 in conjunction with...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Dec. 1, 2006, issue of Mosaic Television, the video magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), is "Holy Communion," focusing on the biblical foundations for Holy Communion, and the Reformation history that defines modern Christian understandings of the sacrament. Mosaic Television is the quarterly...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Voting members attending a special synod assembly Dec. 2 elected the Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, Messiah Lutheran Church, Ashtabula, Ohio, to a six-year term as bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Eaton was elected on the fifth ballot for...

"The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory..." (John 1:14). We live in a visited world. On that holy night twenty centuries ago, God visited the world in the miracle of Bethlehem. Held in Mary's arms that night was the revelation of steadfast, unbounded...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Twenty-three first-year students at the eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) began the 2006-2007 academic term with full-tuition scholarships, and another 14 students had partial-tuition scholarships through the ELCA Fund for Leaders in Mission. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), issued a public statement addressing this week's observance of World AIDS Day. The theme of Hanson's statement is "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise." "On December 1, World AIDS Day, the Evangelical Lutheran...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Preparing for ordained ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is filled with uncertainties -- uncertainties about seminary classes, God's direction, church structures, congregational acceptance and more. A 40-something, African American, single mother of three can expect to encounter even more uncertainties in a 4.85...