News

BALTIMORE (ELCA) -- The Committee on Lutheran Cooperation, a group that includes top officials of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) met here Oct. 25. The officials discussed a variety of current concerns and issues. The meeting was held here to mark the...

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- Through the first eight months of 1999, Augsburg Fortress Publishers has experienced an operating loss of $211,000; however, the company's general financial position is strong as it prepares to reorganize its operations, said George W. Poehlman, vice president for finance and treasurer. The financial news was reported...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Four primary goals or "end statements" Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will lift up in the years 2002-2005 are families, leadership, spirituality and stewardship. The executive board for Women of the ELCA, the women's organization of the church, selected the end statements at...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Carla June Hochhalter, the mother of a Columbine High School student severely wounded in last April's shooting at the school, was remembered by family and friends at an overflow funeral service attended by 650 people Oct. 27 at Christ Lutheran Church, Highlands Ranch, Colo. Hochhalter, 48, ended...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Division for Ministry will continue to study issues related to homosexuality, especially the possible ordination of gay or lesbian Lutherans. Several conversations and actions taken during the division's board meeting here Oct. 14-17 "reflected a desire to continue a discerning...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The irony of the "full communion" proposal the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has made with The Episcopal Church is that Episcopalians look forward very much to receiving the gifts of Lutherans who oppose the proposal, said the Rev. Duane H. Larson. Larson chaired the annual...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Membership in the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) gives the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) a sense of "church" far beyond its own borders, said the Rev. Duane H. Larson, president of Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa. Larson chaired the annual meeting of the U.S.A. National Committee...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Since the end of August, people in eastern North Carolina have endured the impact of three hurricanes -- Dennis, Floyd and Irene -- said the Rev. Gilbert B. Furst, director for Lutheran Disaster Response, a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and The Lutheran...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The board of the Division for Church in Society (DCS) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) approved a "Message on Suicide Prevention" during its Oct. 14-16 meeting here and transmitted it to the ELCA Church Council with the recommendation it be adopted. The Church Council...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are initiating a "fresh and deeper understanding" of stewardship. ELCA Stewardship and Mission Giving staff unveiled a new multi-year plan, "Stewardship at the Heart of the Church," to the board of the ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries (DCM)...

[Please replace "billions" with "millions" in the 11th paragraph, so it reads:] In other business, the Mission Investment Fund board reported that, as of Sept. 1, 1999, the fund balance is larger than $271 million -- $40 million more than a year earlier. Personal interest-earning investments fuel the fund, which...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "For the first time, we are taking a comprehensive approach for Latino ministry," the Rev. Ruben F. Duran told the board of the Division for Outreach of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The board met here Oct. 7-10 and affirmed the church's new Latino Outreach...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A proposal to establish and maintain a regular budget for the development of language- and culture-specific resources and for the translation of important ELCA documents into languages other than English was accepted by the board of the Division for Congregational Ministries (DCM) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Eight "windmills" will produce "electricity" for = the ministry of the Commission for Multicultural Ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The commission's steering committee learned about the eight windmills at its meeting here Oct. 8-9. "Today, about 50 miles inland from the southern coastal...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The steering committee of the Commission for Multicultural Ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), at its meeting here Oct. 8-9, heard about the ministries of five ethnic communities in the life of the church and society. The ELCA's ethnic ministries are African American and...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, was ranked among the Midwest's best liberal arts colleges, according to U.S. News and World Report's 2000 edition of "America's Best Colleges," issued Aug. 30. Wittenberg is one of 28 colleges and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. A typographic error...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Some 450 lay leaders and clergy, representing all of the 65 synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), outlined strengths and challenges of the church and heard presentations from past and present church leaders in a "Mega-Consultation"= =20 here Oct. 2-3 at the Westin Hotel....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Confederate Battle Flag issue is "a very divisive and painful issue for South Carolina," and the controversy about its placement atop the state capitol must be solved by the South Carolina legislature, wrote Democratic Gov. James H. Hodges in a Sept. 27 letter to the Rev....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Scott M. Minson, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) teacher, was found dead Oct. 12 in his apartment at Jian Teachers College, Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. The cause of death has yet to be determined. Minson, 25, was serving with the Amity Teachers Program,...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Women from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have responded to "Katie's Fund" with gifts totaling more than $200,000. The first allocation from the fund will be used for "Young Women See Visions" and "Feasting at Katie's Table: A Theological Retreat" developed by Women of the...