Christain and Jewish Scholars Study Suffering
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will host pastors, rabbis, religious educators, youth leaders and lay people for a seminar March 30 on the presence and absence of God in the midst of suffering. Christian and Jewish scholars will examine Job -- a...
ELCA Pension Board to Expand Birth Control Coverage
MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) --Trustees of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Board of Pensions unanimously recommended that coverage of prescribed birth control devices or drugs be included in the ELCA Medical and Dental Benefits Plan. To date the ELCA health plan has not considered birth control as a "medically necessary" treatment...
Lutherans Invited to Study Gambling
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) now have some help thinking about how their Christian faith addresses the growing availability of gambling in the United States. The ELCA Division for Church in Society has produced a 29-page study guide, "Gambling: A Study for Congregations,"...
Iowa Pastor Appeals ELCA Discipline Ruling
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Steven P. Sabin, Ames, Iowa, has appealed a determination of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that he be removed the church's clergy roster, effective April 15. Sabin is gay and lives with a partner. On Feb. 3 an ELCA discipline hearing committee ruled...
Lutheran Aid Headed to North Korea
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Action by Churches Together (ACT) will provide 1,000 metric tons of barley seed to North Korea this month, in time for the barley planting season. According to ACT, given favorable weather, these seeds could yield more than 10,000 metric tons of barley. Another shipment of barley is...
ELCA Launches Anti-Racism Training
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is gearing up for a major push this fall to train its national leaders and staff to be more aware of racism and equip them to fight it. Describing racism as "the misuse of God's gift of diversity," the Rev. Frederick...
Future Lutheran Leaders Will Be Sensitive
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Future Lutheran leaders will be sensitive to the will of God and to the needs of the people they serve, and they would recognize the people's abilities to lead as well. All will rely on local congregations to nurture their faith. More than 150 members of the...
Lutheran Theologian Martin Heinecken Died
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Martin J. Heinecken, 95, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and retired professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, died Feb. 24 at his home in Middlebury, Vt. His advice and counsel were sought by church leaders...
Women Give $1 Million for ELCA Ministries
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) received a $1 million gift for its ministries around the world from Women of the ELCA. The women's organization of the ELCA has given more than $10 million to the ELCA in the past 10 years. "This is God's grace...
Action by Churches Together Helps China Earthquake Victims
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Action by Churches Together (ACT) has provided emergency assistance to victims of a January earthquake in China. Working through the Amity Foundation, ACT distributed tents and blankets, noodles, wheat flour and bread in the hardest hit areas. Parts of Hebei Province were hit by an earthquake Jan....
Lutheran, Episcopal Writers Work on Full Communion Proposal
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Lutheran and Episcopal teams charged with drafting a revised proposal for full communion between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and The Episcopal Church worked together here Feb. 17-18. Their goal is to have a new document ready in time for the ELCA Church Council's...
Lutherans Write Book on Human Genetic Testing
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A small group of Lutheran ethicists, theologians, doctors, business people, and genetic researchers and counselors are writing a book about human genetic testing and screening and the Christian faith. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) Division for Church in Society assembled nine writers and an editor...
Lutherans Respond to Florida Tornadoes
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is responding to a series of powerful tornadoes in northern and central Florida that left at least 39 people dead, hundreds injured and thousands homeless. "Some of the tornadoes may have had wind speeds as high as 210 miles per hour,"...
Ramos-Horta Focus of Lutheran Peace Prize Forum
MOORHEAD, Minn. (ELCA) -- For 23 years Jose Ramos-Horta has fought a bloodless battle to free East Timor from the "occupying forces of Indonesia." Speaking to more than 1,300 Lutheran students at Concordia College's Peace Prize Forum here Feb. 13-14, the 1996 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize said, "No...
Lutheran Numbers Worldwide Show Growth in Africa
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- There are 61,421,782 Lutherans in the world, according to figures compiled by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) at the end of 1997. The LWF is a communion of 57,804,693 of those Lutherans in 124 member churches in 69 countries. The total number of Lutherans in the world...
ELCA Presiding Bishop Tells Clinton to Build Peace'
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Pledging to pray for the President Clinton, U.S. church leaders counseled him, "Pursue diplomacy. Urge Iraqi compliance. Resist the military option. Offer aid and healing. Build peace." The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Feb. 17 joined other Christian...
Chicago's Lutheran Bishop Invited to Vatican
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Kenneth R. Olsen, bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), will be one of the invited guests when Pope John Paul II elevates the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago to the College of Cardinals. Cardinal-designate Francis E. George...
ELCA Church Leaders Learn About "Smart Living"
LISLE, ILL. (ELCA) -- "'Smart living' for Christians is both listening to and following Jesus Christ," said Betty Lee Nyhus, ELCA director for stewardship and mission giving. About 200 stewardship leaders gathered here Feb. 5-8 for the 1998 Stewardship Leadership Conference, sponsored by the ELCA's Division for Congregational Ministries (DCM)....
ELCA Jazz Pastor, John Garcia Gensel Died
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- One of the most =22off-beat=22 ministries in = American Christianity ended Feb. 6 with the death of the Rev. John Garcia Gensel. = A pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Gensel was named minister to the jazz community of New York in 1965 by...
Iowa Pastor Removed From ELCA Roster
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A Discipline Hearing Committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) ruled Feb. 3 to remove the Rev. Steven P. Sabin, Ames, Iowa, from the church's clergy roster, effective April 15. Sabin, pastor of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Ames, is gay and lives with...
