ELCA Rural Ministry Alliance to Form Around Affinity Groups
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- People and groups who share a common interest in small town and rural ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are developing into an alliance. A diverse group of people representing those ministries gathered here Feb. 19-20 to imagine the alliance and to figure out...
Lutherans Keep Disaster Response in Africa a Top Priority
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) keep disaster response in Africa a top priority despite little attention from the secular media, according to the Rev. Y. Franklin Ishida, director for international communication, ELCA Division for Global Mission. Information about "ongoing international disasters appears as...
Lutherans Eulogize Nightclub Victims in West Warwick
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Family and friends will gather for a memorial service at Emanuel Lutheran Church, West Warwick, R.I., today at 7:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) for those who died at a nightclub fire last week in West Warwick. Emanuel is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. "Emanuel...
LWF Appeals Israel Court Ruling on Jerusalem Hospital
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) challenged a Jerusalem court ruling regarding the tax status of its activities in Israel and Palestinian-controlled territories, saying the decision, if implemented, could jeopardize the LWF's humanitarian work in the region, the LWF said in a Feb. 19 news release. If the...
Lutheran "New Life Center" Serves Fujianese in New York
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The sounds of children echoed in the halls of True Light Lutheran Church, New York, N.Y., as the Rev. Gilbert B. Furst, director of Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) met with staff of the "New Life Center" earlier this year. The Center, located at the church, strives to...
Palestinian Lutherans Worship Despite Curfew
BEIT JALA, West Bank (ELCA) -- Twelve communicators from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) drove here in two vans from Jerusalem Feb. 2 to attend worship at a Lutheran church, but, with an Israeli curfew in place, the Lutherans wondered if anyone else would be at the church....
Lutherans, Presbyterians Celebrate Shared Seminary Campus
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and McCormick Theological Seminary, a seminary of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), are completing construction this month of McCormick's new offices on the LSTC campus. Ceremonies on Feb. 27 and...
Latino Lutherans Put Talents to Work for Mission and Ministry
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- According to U.S. census figures released this year, Latinos may be the fastest-growing and largest ethnic group emerging in the country. Taking that into consideration, Spanish-speaking congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are putting their "God-given talents and gifts" to work to enhance and...
Stewardship Leaders Are 'Circulatory System' of the ELCA
CHICAGO (ELCA) More than 200 stewardship staff, mission interpreters and partners coordinators volunteers who tell the stories about the work of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and others gathered for the Stewardship Leadership Conference and heard they are the "circulatory system" of the church. Staff of the ELCA...
ELCA Presiding Bishop: Commit to Prayer, Deliberation, Peace
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In a Feb. 13 e-mail message to professional leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the ELCA presiding bishop said he is greatly troubled by the situation between the governments of the United States and Iraq and the possibility of war. The Rev. Mark S....
ELCA Task Force Wants Church to Talk about Sexuality
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "The vast majority of this church has chosen not to be involved in this work," the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), told the church's Studies on Sexuality Task Force when it met here Feb. 7-9. The task force...
ELCA Ecumenical Affairs Staff Seeks Advice on Priorities
DENVER, Colo. (ELCA) -- The Department for Ecumenical Affairs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was advised to continue current bilateral church dialogues, build on positive signs from recent meetings with officials of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and maintain funding for the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). The...
Lutheran Women, Youth Offer Vision for LWF Assembly
DENVER, Colo. (ELCA) -- Women and youth of the North American region of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) met here separately in consultations preparing for the July 21-31 LWF Assembly. Both groups laid out a series of social and political concerns, and strategies to address their concerns. The LWF is...
ELCA Congregations Move from 'Scarcity Thinking to Abundance'
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In the context of the current economic climate in the United States, the stewardship ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is providing the 10,766 congregations of the church opportunities to move from "scarcity thinking" toward "abundance and generosity" with a new "money leadership" approach....
Church Leaders United Against War in Iraq
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Three U.S. church leaders, including a representative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), joined 22 church leaders in Europe and the Middle East in opposing war in Iraq and calling for a peaceful resolution of conflicts. The Rev. Rebecca S. Larson, executive director for the...
ELCA Task Force Sees Health as 'Our Shared Endeavor'
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Task Force on Health and Health Care of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has prepared a possible social statement on health, healing and health care that emphasizes the need for a successful health care system to be interdependent. The task force finished editing "Caring...
North Americans Choose Nominees for LWF President, Council
DENVER (ELCA) -- North American delegates to this summer's Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Assembly in Winnipeg, Manitoba, selected the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), as a nominee for LWF president. Hanson and other nominees -- to be determined at LWF pre-assembly...
Lutheran Agreements Fuel Multilateral Ecumenical Movement
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Ecumenical agreements the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) forged with the Episcopal Church and with three Reformed churches are providing some help to nine church bodies that are moving toward relationships of full communion, according to the two ELCA representatives who attended a Jan. 15-17 meeting...
"Communion" of Lutheran World Federation Assembly Key
DENVER, Colo. (ELCA) -- Some 70 people attended the North American Pre-Assembly Consultation of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) here Jan. 23-26, and heard from many speakers that the upcoming LWF Tenth Assembly is a significant event for enhancing the world "communion" of Lutheran churches. The assembly will be held...
LWF Assembly Participants to Visit U.S., Canadian Ministries
DENVER, Colo. (ELCA) -- North American Lutherans will welcome participants who attend the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Tenth Assembly this summer to 47 church ministry sites in the United States and Canada. Lutherans will host assembly participants from around the world before and after the LWF assembly in Canada and...
