ELCA Members Contribute $1 Million Toward Tsunami Relief
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) International Disaster Response, members of the ELCA have contributed more than $1 million to support relief efforts in southern Asia, after a tsunami claimed thousands of lives in several coastal countries of the Indian Ocean last month. Contributions to...
ELCA Studies Lutheran Legacy In Education
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The 5 million members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) can spend much of this year studying their "legacy in education." A 16-member Task Force on Education developed the study materials, "Our Calling in Education: A Lutheran Study," as one of the early stages in...
ELCA Staff Visit Tsunami-Hit India, Thailand
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Staff of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) churchwide organization are assessing needs for short-term relief and long-term community building first-hand as they visit tsunami-struck areas of India, Jan. 13-20, and Thailand, Jan. 20-22. In response to a special invitation from the United Evangelical Lutheran Church...
Rev. Raynold Lingwall, Former LCA Synod President, Dies
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Raynold J. Lingwall, retired pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and former longtime Iowa Synod president in the Lutheran Church in America (LCA), died Jan. 6 in Des Moines, Iowa. Funeral services for Lingwall, 93, were Jan. 10 at St. John's Lutheran...
ELCA Task Force Issues Recommendations On Homosexuality
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A task force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is recommending that the church continue to provide pastoral answers to two key questions on homosexuality. In August the ELCA Churchwide Assembly is to decide whether or not the church should bless same-gender relationships and whether...
ELCA Publisher Reduces Staff, Expenses, Focuses On 'Core' Resources
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Augsburg Fortress, the Minneapolis-based publishing ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), announced in a Jan. 11 news release that it is reducing 24 staff positions, discontinuing product lines and consolidating select overhead costs. The decision means the company will focus on "core ministry resources...
Storms, Lawsuit, Candidates' Letter Among Top 2004 ELCA Stories
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Natural disasters, a civil trial in Texas, the presiding bishop's letter to U.S. presidential candidates, sexuality issues and a revival of two well-known animated characters from television in the 1960s and 1970s were among the top news stories of 2004 involving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America...
ELCA Wellness Team, Mayo Clinic Offer 2005 Health Risk Assessment
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- As part of their "Healthy Leaders Enhance Lives" wellness campaign, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Board of Pensions, Minneapolis, and ELCA Division for Ministry teamed up with Mayo Clinic Health Management Resources, Rochester, Minn., to offer ELCA leaders, employees and family members use of the...
Lutheran Churches In South Asia Continue Tsunami Recovery
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutheran churches in South Asia, in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), continue to raise and provide funds and distribute emergency supplies to survivors of a tidal wave that struck southern Asia Dec. 26, when an underwater earthquake created the tsunami that claimed lives...
ELCA Sends $150,000 To Help Initial Relief Efforts In South Asia
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) International Disaster Response released $150,000 to assist immediate relief efforts in several coastal nations of the Indian Ocean, after a massive underwater earthquake Dec. 26 created huge waves that claimed more than 77,000 lives in 12 countries. The Rev. Y. Franklin...
ELCA Member Killed By Tsunami In South Asia
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Tamara Mendis, 55, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), died when a tsunami struck southern Asia Dec. 26. Mendis and her daughter, Eranthie Mendis, 25, had been traveling by train along the Indian Ocean coast between the cities of Maratuwa and Hikkaduaw, Sri...
Lutherans Honor Soldiers Through A Variety Of Ministries
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Corporal Nicolas "Nick" Lee Ziolkowski, a sniper for Bravo Company of the First Battalion, U.S. Marines, was "intensely patriotic, leaving for active duty as soon as he graduated from Boys' Latin School of Maryland," said the Rev. Paul Collinson-Streng, Baltimore, a campus pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran...
ELCA Task Force Hones Recommendations On Homosexuality
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The task force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Studies on Sexuality discussed key issues regarding the church and homosexuality, and it made significant decisions about recommendations it will place before the church Jan. 13 for action in August by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The...
Lutheran Students To Meet At LSM-USA Gathering In Houston Area
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Some 350 college-age students will meet in the Houston area Dec. 29-Jan. 2, 2005, for the annual gathering of the Lutheran Student Movement (LSM-USA). The gathering's theme is "Houston, we have a problem: Endeavoring to more fully discover our mission as young adults of faith and challenging...
Mensaje Navideno De 2004 Del Obispo Presidente De La IELA
Cuando los angeles se volvieron al cielo, los pastores comenzaron a decirse unos a otros: "Vamos, pues, a Belen a ver esto que ha sucedido y que el Senor nos ha anunciado. Fueron de prisa y encontraron a Maria y Jose, y al nino acostado en el establo. Cuando lo...
California ELCA Synod Hopes For Reconciliation In Congregation's Removal
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In the wake of a decision to remove Central City Lutheran Mission (CCLM), San Bernardino, Calif., from the congregational roster of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the bishop of the ELCA Pacifica Synod said he hopes someday to "find some reconciliation" between the synod and...
New 'Davey And Goliath' Special To Air On Hallmark Channel
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Hallmark Channel will broadcast "Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Christmas" -- a new one-hour, stop-motion animation television special from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) -- on Dec. 19 at noon (ET/PT), with an encore broadcast on Dec. 26 at the same time slot. The program is...
Jonathan Messerli, Former Lutheran College President, Dies
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Dr. Jonathan C. Messerli, former president of Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., and Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa., died Nov. 28 of apparent heart attack. Messerli, 78, was president of Muhlenberg from 1984 to 1992, and was president of Susquehanna University from 1977 to 1984. Muhlenberg and Susquehanna are...
ELCA Board Of Pensions Trustees Discuss Health Plan Options
MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- Trustees of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Board of Pensions approved concepts for the ELCA medical and dental benefits plan design for 2006 that would make all services subject to a deductible and coinsurance. Trustees met here Nov. 5-7 and discussed the proposal, which would...
ELCA Communication Officer, Others, Respond To TV Ad Rejection
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In the wake of the CBS and NBC television networks' refusal to air an advertisement from the United Church of Christ (UCC), communication officers from several religious denominations and organizations decried the "arbitrary standards of the network gatekeepers" that kept the ad from being broadcast. In a...
