News

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is launching a nationwide identity campaign to raise awareness of the Lutheran church among people not associated with any church and to reinforce positive views of the ELCA among its members. The campaign, which is being unveiled to a conference...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will begin distributing grants in February for innovative urban ministries of the ELCA thanks to a $1-million grant from the Lutheran Brotherhood Foundation, Minneapolis. The money will help the church's Division for Outreach launch a 10-year emphasis, "In the City...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lynn Doto and her husband decided to send their 3-year-old son to Lutheran Church of the Cross Day School, St. Petersburg, Fla., a school of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), instead of a secular private school or a public school. Doto wants her son to...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Lutheran Disaster Response is responding to the needs of people affected by the flooding along the Rio Grande River in Texas and Mexico Aug. 24," said the Rev. Gilbert B. Furst, director for Lutheran Disaster Response, a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Myrna J. Sheie, 52, Anoka, Minn., has been named executive assistant to Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America effective Oct 1. "Myrna Sheie will bring a depth of experience and numerous gifts to this position," Anderson said. "I am confident that...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Continuous rains since March have caused extensive flooding in 20 provinces of central and southeast China. Action by Churches Together (ACT) has described these flood waters as "the worst in living memory." The flood has reached levels unseen since the 1954 floods which killed more than 30,000...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (ELCA) -- Partee Boliek traveled from Phoenix, Md., to Allentown, Pa., on a Saturday morning because he knew his ancestors seven generations back received Holy Communion from the hand of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. Two hundred and fifty years ago, in August 1748, Muhlenberg brought together representatives of 10...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Robert E. Wandersee, a missionary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), was killed in a robbery-related attack Aug. 7 on a highway outside Jos, Nigeria. Wandersee was struck by bullets when the car in which he and two Nigerian passengers were traveling came...

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) - Noting health care costs nationwide are rising rapidly, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Board of Pensions will raise contribution levels for the church's health plan in a range of 10 to 16 percent in 1999. The Trustees of the Board of Pensions met here Aug. 6-7....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The response to "Dial Bishop Anderson," recorded telephone messages from the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), "reached beyond our expectations with an overwhelming average of 4,000 calls each month," according to the Rev. Eric C. Shafer, director for...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Korean Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colo., this year became the first organized Korean congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). "Korean Lutheran Church began as a non-denominational fellowship called the Korean Church of Jesus Christ in 1991," said the Rev. Pongsak Limthongviratn, ELCA director for...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The synod of the Northern Province of the Moravian Church voted Aug. 9 to approve a proposal establishing full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the largest Lutheran group in the United States. The Rev. R. Burke Johnson, newly elected president of the Provincial...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Action by Churches Together (ACT) members in Nairobi are planning a coordinated response to the Aug. 7 bombing disaster there. ACT has issued an appeal for $150,200 to address immediate and long-term needs of primary and secondary victims of the bomb blast and alleviate lasting trauma-related psychological...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Grants from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and Lutheran World Relief (LWR) will help famine-stricken people in southern Sudan. War and drought have left hundreds of thousands displaced and now starving. According to Action by Churches Together (ACT), an estimated 150,000 people in Sudan face...

The Rev. Robert E. Wandersee, a missionary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), was killed in a robbery-related attack Aug. 7 on a highway outside Jos, Nigeria. Wandersee was struck by bullets when the car in which he and two Nigerian passengers were traveling came under attack. The...

The Rev. Robert E. Wandersee, a missionary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), was killed in a robbery-related attack Aug. 7 on a highway outside Jos, Nigeria. Wandersee was struck by bullets when the car in which he and two Nigerian passengers were traveling came under attack. The...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the women's organization of the ELCA, has awarded $125,600 in grants to projects and $35,700 in scholarships to women preparing for ordained ministry, academic leadership in higher education institutions and lay leadership development for the 1998-1999 school year. "Gifts...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- With a total of 5,185,055 baptized members in 10,889 congregations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) remained stable in membership for 1997, according to the Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary. That figure represented a slight decrease of 2,308 from 5,187,363 in 1996. That's a 0.04...

CHICAGO (ELCA)-- Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), announced July 22 an agreement of partnership with Bexley Hall (Episcopal) Seminary, Rochester, N.Y., to provide theological education to Lutherans, Episcopalians and seminarians of other denominations on Trinity's Columbus campus. "We will educate...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Bible has a number of things to say about health, healing, illness and suffering. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) may conduct a study of those things as part of the development of a social statement on health care in the United States. The ELCA...