News

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America authorized 1998 spending to total $79.6 million when it met here April 17-20. The council also approved a 1998 World Hunger spending authorization of $11.9 million, and the use of $1.5 million for new ELCA ministries. "We...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Recent ecumenical decisions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have underlined differences between the 5.2-million member church and the 2.5-million member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS). There are about 8.6 million Lutherans in North America. The ELCA's 1997 Churchwide Assembly approved a relationship of "full communion"...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Action by Churches Together (ACT) moved quickly to aid victims of violent storms in on India's northeast coastal areas of Orissa and West Bengal. ACT-related agencies initiated immediate relief operations in the areas affected by the cyclone, providing food other relief assistance from nearby contingency stores. Cyclones...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will respond to tornadoes that left fatalities across Alabama and Georgia last week, said the Rev. Leon A. Phillips, director for the ELCA's Domestic Disaster Response. "Many areas devastated by the tornadoes are closed to relief efforts because of dangerous debris...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Adrienne Lumpkin, Portsmouth, Va., received the first Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Church/State Award given by the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), Washington, D.C. It was presented March 30 in Washington during the Lutheran Dinner -- an annual tradition of the Interfaith Public Policy Briefing....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Churchwide, synod and congregational leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and other religious leaders in the United States are being asked to sign a statement urging the U.S. Senate to approve the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) before August. The Lutheran Office for Governmental...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Action by Churches Together (ACT) is providing relief assistance to an estimated 30,000 people that have fled areas of Kosovo in Yugoslavia that have experienced civil unrest and violence. An ACT-related agency operating out of Pristina distributed emergency food, hygiene and medical assistance in the Srbica and...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) appears more culturally diverse in the pages of its publication than is revealed in actual ELCA membership, according to the Rev. Edgar R. Trexler, editor of "The Lutheran." In his report to The Lutheran's advisory committee Trexler said, "The Lutheran...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The commitment of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to adopt the historic episcopate is affirmed in the draft of "Called to Common Mission," a revised proposal for full communion between the ELCA and The Episcopal Church. In 1997 the ELCA narrowly defeated the "Concordat of Agreement,"...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "The tornado was not the act of God," said the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, on a pastoral visit to St. Peter, Minn., after tornadoes tore a 68-mile long path of devastation across a five-county area in southern Minnesota...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The commitment of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to adopt the historic episcopate is affirmed in the draft of "Called to Common Mission," a revised proposal for full communion between the ELCA and The Episcopal Church. In 1997 the ELCA narrowly defeated the "Concordat of Agreement,"...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Elayne B. Lipp, Messiah Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, was recognized March 24 for being a strong advocate of cross-cultural mission. Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, presented her with its Race, Church and Change Award. Lipp was honored...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "We oppose any weakening of the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban. Such action could place many innocent lives in danger," the Rev. Russell O. Siler, director of the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA) in Washington, D.C., wrote March 17 to members of the U.S. House of...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "A society's health can be measured by how it treats those in its midst who are most impoverished," the Rev. Russell O. Siler, director of the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs in Washington, D.C., wrote March 19 to members of the U.S. Senate and House Agriculture Committees....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America should express concern for human rights violations in Nigeria, according to an action taken by the church's Division for Global Mission board at its meeting here March 20-22. The board pointed to the Nigerian military government's execution of political...

WAUKESHA, WIS. (ELCA) -- Caring relationships, joyful worship, prayer and outreach with a gospel mandate can be a successful recipe for church growth. More than 50 pastors, lay leaders and associates in ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met here March 26-28 for the "Teaching Congregations" seminar...

ELCA APRIL 1998 CALENDAR 1-5 Commission for Multicultural Ministries, Spring Conference Alaska Native Ministries, Our Savior Lutheran Church, Nome, Alaska 3 Region 3, Steering Committee, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. 3 The Lutheran, Advisory Committee, Lutheran Center, Chicago 6-8 Department for Ecumenical Affairs, Lutheran-Episcopal Advisory and Drafting Team, Lutheran Center,...

The Rev. Laird Duran Our Saviour Lutheran Church 2926 Wood Street Jonesboro, AR 72404 Dear Pastor Duran: On behalf of the other 5.2 million members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as well as personally, I want to express our deepest concern and compassion to you, the people of...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The 1998 Easter message of the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA): "To say that Jesus has risen from the dead means that he is not where we left him. "Jesus has not been left back in Bible times....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Tornadoes that killed a child an injured 38 people in southern Minnesota March 29 severly damaged a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. "We have broken glass pretty much everywhere," said Axel D. Steuer, president of Gustavus Adolphus College...