New Director Named for ELCA Ministerial Health, Wellness Program
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Division for Ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has named Dr. Gwen W. Halaas, Kenosha, Wis., as project director for the ministerial health and wellness program for rostered clergy and lay leaders. Halaas will guide the program through the ELCA Division for Ministry...
Lutherans Gather for 2001 Global Mission Events
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Guests came from around the world to meet, talk, worship, pray and learn with missionaries and other members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) under the theme "Live God's Peace Together." More than 2,200 people gathered for Global Mission Events (GMEs) July 12-15 at the...
Lutheran Social Services Merge in Idaho, Oregon and Washington
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutheran Social Services of Washington & Idaho and Lutheran Family Services of Oregon & Southwest Washington merged July 1 to create a new, tri-state social ministry agency -- Lutheran Community Services Northwest (LCSNW). LCSNW serves Washington, Oregon and Idaho communities through 25 offices and dozens of other...
Aid Association for Lutherans Awards Grants to ELCA Synod Projects
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Aid Association for Lutherans (AAL) awarded 19 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) synod ministry projects grants totaling $244,000 as part of the agency's Judicatory Grant Program 2001 Project Awards. AAL is a fraternal benefit organization based in Appleton, Wis. Recently, AAL announced plans to merge with...
ELCA Congregations Approached for Wireless Antenna Leases
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- With the rise of mobile communication services, congregations across the country have been approached by wireless carriers such as Sprint, Motorola, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, with hopes of installing antennas on the congregation's property. More recently, congregations have been approached by companies leasing bandwidth to wireless carriers...
ELCA Ministries Awarded Grants
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Twenty ministry projects of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) were awarded grants totaling $443,300 from the Lutheran Brotherhood Foundation (LB) and Aid Association for Lutherans (AAL) as part of the agencies' churchwide grant awards program for 2001. AAL, based in Appleton, Wis., and LB, based...
Resolution Complicates ELCA-Missouri Synod Relations
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), said a St. Louis convention resolution The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) passed July 20 "saddens me a lot." The LCMS said, "We cannot consider them [the ELCA] to be an orthodox Lutheran...
Lutheran Diaconal Ministers to Meet August 6-8 in Indianapolis
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- About 45 of the 50 consecrated diaconal ministers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will gather Aug. 6-8 in Indianapolis to discuss how the lay leaders will relate to each other and to the whole church. "Together for Ministry" is the theme for three days...
The Rev. Conrad Thompson, Former Lutheran Vespers Speaker, Dies
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Conrad M. Thompson, 84, speaker for Lutheran Vespers from 1970 to 1982, died July 18. Lutheran Vespers is the radio ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The funeral will be held at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Burnsville, Minn., on July 22...
ELCA Supports Relief Efforts Virginia, West Virginia after Storms
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are helping to distribute food and provide temporary shelter for survivors of floods that resulted from severe storms in Virginia and West Virginia July 8-10. The ELCA Domestic Disaster Response provided a $5,000 grant for Immanuel Lutheran Church,...
Income for ELCA Congregations Tops $2.3 Billion in 2000
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Income for the 10,816 congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in 2000 amounted to $2,387,673,220, up $126,468,870 or 5.59 percent from 1999, as reported in the annual tabulation of statistics from congregations, according to the Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary. Of total congregational...
ELCA Mission Investment Fund Announces New Interest Rates
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Mission Investment Fund (MIF) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has announced new interest rates effective July 1 for its adjustable-rate and fixed-rate unsecured investment obligations. "The MIF offers investment opportunities through which ELCA members, congregations and ELCA-related institutions earn interest on their financial...
ELCA Membership Declined Slightly in 2000
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- With a total of 5,125,919 baptized members in 10,816 congregations, the membership in congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) declined slightly last year, decreasing in 2000 about one half of one percent. That figure represented a reduction of 23,749 baptized members from 5,149,668 in...
ELCA August 2001 Calendar
ELCA AUGUST 2001 1-3 Board of Pensions, Trustees, Marquette Hotel and Conference Center, Minneapolis 3-5 Division for Congregational Ministries, Ninguno Tome En Poco Tu Juventud, Centro Vacacional, Loiza, Puerto Rico 4 Lutheran Men in Mission, "Blueprints for Service," Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, Babylon, N.Y. 6-8 Commission for Women, First...
ELCA Principal Receives National Distinguished Principals Award
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Barbara M. Clark, principal for St. Mark's Lutheran School, Hacienda Heights, Calif., was honored by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Association of Elementary School Principals as recipient of a 2001 National Distinguished Principals Award. She will be honored at an awards banquet October 19...
Lutherans Continue to Support Relief Efforts in Cameroon
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) contributed $20,000 to the church's International Disaster Response fund to support relief efforts from drought conditions in northern Cameroon, a country in west-central Africa. "Drought conditions began last year, when the seasonal rains ended abruptly in July, before...
AALA Assembly Looks at Restructuring
PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- With more than 50,000 African American, African and Caribbean people in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), only 119 people, 44 of whom were youth, attended the African American Lutheran Association (AALA) eighth biennial assembly here June 21-24, at the Wyndham Franklin Hotel. "We are not...
Lutherans Continue to Support Relief Efforts in Sudan
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) recently contributed $50,000 to the church's International Disaster Response fund to support relief efforts in Sudan. Civil war and drought in the north-central African country have led to the displacement of people and to food shortages. "An estimated...
Asian Lutherans Gather to Build Evangelism and Bolster Ministry
ISSAQUAH, Wash. (ELCA) -- Mission is typically seen as a commandment or a task, according to the Rev. Dr. J. Paul Rajashekar, who led a keynote presentation at the seventh biennial assembly of the Association of Asians and Pacific Islanders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (AAPI-ELCA). The assembly...
Lutherans Plan to Make Christ Known in the New Millennium
CHICAGO (ELCA) When asked what will it take for mainline Protestant churches, particularly the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), to bring people to church in the new millennium, the Rev. Marta Poling Goldenne said "it will take a willingness to speak the language of the people, which means being...
