ELCA Council Seeks Clarity in Proposed Health Care Statement
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) delayed transmission until this summer of a final proposed social statement on health and health care to the 2003 Churchwide Assembly. Acknowledging the document's strengths, the council said it had several concerns about the document related...
ELCA Council Hears Presiding Bishop's Concerns about Iraq War
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The church must ask moral questions about the "rightness" of a U.S. government decision that the Pentagon -- and not the United Nations or non-governmental organizations -- be in control of service to people, institutions and the infrastructure of Iraq after the war ends. The comment was...
ELCA Churchwide Organization Reduces Budget, Positions
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- As a result of a $1.2 million budget reduction approved April 5 by the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), six permanent employees of the ELCA churchwide organization will lose their positions. In addition, three permanent positions -- two that are vacant and...
ELCA Council Elects Members to Boards, Committees
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) elected clergy and lay people to fill vacancies on boards, steering and advisory committees of the church when it met here April 4-6. The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the...
ELCA Council Forwards Progress Report on Studies on Sexuality
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) transmitted a progress report on the church's studies on sexuality to the 2003 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide...
Lutherans Agree to Discuss Regular Theological Conversations
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) met as the Committee on Lutheran Cooperation (CLC) April 3 here at the ELCA churchwide office and agreed to take the first steps toward regular theological conversations between the two largest Lutheran...
Lutheran Youth Issue Statement about Peace Worldwide
ATLANTA (ELCA) -- The board of the Lutheran Youth Organization (LYO) called for "safety, healing and peace" for people engaged in combat around the world in "Blessed are the Peacemakers," a statement it issued March 30. The board called for the development of "youth oriented" study material on human sexuality...
Women of the ELCA Reorganizes, Builds New Agreement
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) -- the women's organization of the ELCA -- announced a reconfiguration of its ministry March 12 that resulted in staff reductions. The executive board of the women's organization received a report about the reorganization and attended to other...
ELCA Delegation Meets Lutherans in Great Britain
LONDON (ELCA) -- Lutherans in Great Britain are a diverse denomination, consisting of multiple communities established by people from other European countries, said the Rev. Tom Bruch, general secretary, Lutheran Council of Great Britain. Bruch spoke March 29 here to an ecumenical delegation from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America...
Lutheran-Anglican Progress Significant, ELCA Group Told
LONDON, England (ELCA) -- Anglicans have made more ecumenical progress with Lutherans than with any other Christian tradition, said Bishop John Baycroft, director of ecumenical relations and studies, Anglican Communion. However, the ecumenical work may be confusing for some because Anglicans have reached regional ecumenical agreements versus international agreements, he...
ELCA Presiding Bishop Meets Archbishop of Canterbury
LONDON, England (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), expressed hope that the ELCA may one day enter into full communion with Anglican churches with whom other Lutheran churches are in full communion. Hanson made the comment to the Most...
Reception, Unity Key Topics of ELCA Visit to the Vatican
VATICAN CITY (ELCA) -- Lutheran and Roman Catholic congregations must engage in a "reception" process for the agreement reached in the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), and the document should be presented in terms that members can understand, said Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council...
Lutherans Prepare for Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- With the U.S.-led military campaign against Iraq now well underway, Lutherans prepare for a humanitarian crisis in Iraq. As the bombing campaign and ground fighting intensifies, especially in and around Baghdad, Iraq's capital, a humanitarian crisis is emerging there, said the Rev. Y. Franklin Ishida, director for...
ELCA Presiding Bishop's 2003 Easter Message
ELCA PRESIDING BISHOP'S 2003 EASTER MESSAGE "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?" (Mark 16:3) The question which troubled the tiny band of brave mourners that first Easter morning weighs heavily today. The power of death is terribly real in acts of terror...
Helm Named President of ELCA's Muhlenberg College
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Dr. P. Randolph Helm will become the 11th president of Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., on July 1. Helm is currently a professor of classics and vice president for college relations at Colby College, Waterville, Maine. Muhlenberg is one of 28 colleges and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran...
ELCA Commission Advocates for Peace, Women, Employees
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The steering committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Commission for Women took its own advice and studied the church's peace statement when it met here March 14-15. It also challenged the ELCA to honor its commitments to women and to its employees while the...
ELCA Presiding Bishop Meets Pope John Paul II
VATICAN CITY (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), called for the possibility of "limited interim Eucharistic sharing" between Lutherans and Roman Catholics in a brief meeting here March 24 with Pope John Paul II. Currently, it is not possible...
ELCA Board Hears from Companions in Africa, Asia, Middle East
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Division for Global Mission (DGM) elected officers and received presentations from companions working in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The board also studied an ELCA strategic planning process and received a report about the Young Adults...
U.S. Lutherans Hear of Conflicts and Challenges in Palestine, Africa
WASHINGTON, D.C. (ELCA) -- About 300 U.S. church members, including 80 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), took part in "Advocacy Days," an ecumenical gathering here Feb. 23-26, sponsored by Christian advocates working for just U.S. policies in Africa and the Middle East. Participants sought to encourage...
War, Church Unity Themes for ELCA Ecumenical Meetings
GENEVA, Switzerland (ELCA) -- In the 50-year history of the World Council of Churches (WCC), there has never been such unanimity across all church traditions on a matter of public concern for Christians, said the Rev. Konrad Raiser, WCC general secretary. Raiser made the comment about WCC member churches' opposition...
