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CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and 15 other religious organizations released a joint statement of principles last week aimed at informing the U.S. Congress as it considers how to preserve and strengthen the Social Security program. "Our religious communities speak with one voice on the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. H. Karl Reko, River Forest, Ill., will assume the role of interim executive director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) Division for Congregational Ministries (DCM) effective May 1. Reko, 64, retired in 2002, after serving as program director for Western Europe and the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Martin D. Wells, 56, was re-elected April 23 to a six-year term as bishop of the Eastern Washington-Idaho Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Wells was re-elected on the second ballot for bishop at the synod assembly in Spokane, Wash. On the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), joined four other U.S. religious leaders in criticizing U.S. Sen. Bill Frist's (R-Tenn.) decision to participate in an April 24 teleconference which portrays Democrats as "against people of faith" for blocking President...

NASHVILLE (ELCA) -- The Religion Communicators Council (RCC) honored several Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) communicators April 7 here at its annual DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards program. Communicators were recognized for outstanding communication projects in eight general categories. One ELCA periodical was named "Best in Class," the top award given...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Lutheran World Federation hosted a consultation, "Deepening the Bonds of Communion," March 31-April 2 here for its member churches in North America. Using the churches' current discussion on matters of human sexuality, 35 participants discussed how the world's Lutheran churches are interrelated around issues of God's...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) continues to respond to "silent emergencies" around the world. Through the ELCA International Disaster Response, members of the church provided more than $1 million last year to support relief efforts following disasters, many of which have been long forgotten by...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- With Pope Benedict XVI's election, Christians should pray that God "may bless, strengthen and guide him as a heavy mantle of responsibility is now being put upon him," said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and president of...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) recommended that the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly approve a relationship of Interim Sharing of the Eucharist between the ELCA and the United Methodist Church. The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The liturgical celebration of Earth Day is not "a romantic rite of spring," said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It is a matter "of life and death," he said in a written message for Earth Day, April...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) discussed at its recent meeting a suggested approach to designated mission support funding from the ELCA Saint Paul (Minn.) Area Synod. In the end the council declined to endorse the synod's proposal, thanked the synod for...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is developing a social statement on human sexuality. The ELCA Church Council approved a request from the task force for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality to extend the timeline for completion of a proposed statement from 2007 until 2009. The...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) designated more than $4.5 million to support specific ministries related to the church's strategic priorities. Most of the money -- $4 million -- was extra income to the churchwide organization in 2004, the result of significant...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) recommended the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly commit the church to continue a plan to renew worship. A part of the plan includes the production of a new book of worship. The Church Council is the ELCA's...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) recommended the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly approve strategies for ministries among Arab and Middle Eastern people and among people of African Descent, and it recommitted the church to three other ethnic-specific ministry strategies. The Church Council...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) adopted a plan that would complete a process to pair the 65 synods of the ELCA with one another for churchwide governance purposes. It also elected people to fill vacancies on boards, steering and advisory committees...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) affirmed a strategy for ELCA engagement in Israel and Palestine and acknowledged an "urgent" call from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) for action regarding the construction of an Israeli separation...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) developed and forwarded three resolutions to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly this summer. The resolutions address whether or not the church will bless same-sex relationships and whether or not the ELCA will allow people in such relationships...

ST. LOUIS (ELCA) – Starting new congregations and mission outreach were dominant topics in discussion among leaders of the two largest U.S. Lutheran church bodies meeting here March 30. Twice a year, representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod (LCMS) meet as the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Benjamin J. Dueholm received a $500 grant toward his tuition at the University of Chicago Divinity School for his essay, "Separated by a Common Faith: Dialogue and Proclamation in Light of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification." The Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives Network (LERN) of the...