News

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Donald D. Parsons, 58, has announced his resignation as bishop of the Alaska Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) effective June 30. The synod council has appointed the Rev. Larry J. Jorgenson to serve as interim bishop effective Aug. 1. Jorgenson is...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. James R. Stuck, 50, King of Glory Lutheran Church, Carmel, Ind., was elected bishop of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America during the synod's assembly June 4-5 in Fort Wayne, Ind. Stuck received 411 of the 625 votes cast on the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Roger W. Fjeld, 64, president of Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, has announced his intention to retire as president and professor of church history at the end of 1998. Wartburg is one of eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Fjeld said...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lita Brusick Johnson, 45, has been named director for World Hunger and Disaster Appeals of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). She serves as executive assistant to Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson of the ELCA. Johnson will begin her new responsibilities July 1. "Most people are...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is responding to a tornado that left six people dead, 150 people injured and destroyed all of Spencer, S.D., including St. Matthew Lutheran Church on May 30. Spencer, a town of about 300 people, is located 45 miles west of Sioux...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Action by Churches Together (ACT) reports 3,500 casualties as a result of the May 30 earthquake in northeastern Afghanistan. The figure may rise as information becomes available from more remote villages. The quake completely destroyed several of the 41 villages in the Badakshan Province, ACT reports. Shelter,...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The number of Lutherans in the 105th Congress of the United States remains unchanged. One member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is completing the term of another ELCA member. Lois Capps, 60, won a special election to complete her husband's first term in the U.S....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Action by Churches Together (ACT) is expanding its current relief projects in parts of southern Sudan following calls from Sudanese church leaders to address the food needs of displaced people in the northern part of the Barh al Ghazal Province. Months of fighting has displaced about 348,000...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Southern Province of the Moravian Church in America approved a proposal for full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and set the stage for two more votes -- by the Northern Province of the Moravian Church, August 7-11 in Bethlehem, Pa., and by...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Two of the eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are planning commencement ceremonies in June for 1998 degree recipients: June 6 Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio Speaker: The Rev. Ronald F. Thiemann, dean and professor, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. Place: Mees Auditorium, Capital...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has sent $20,000 to an ecumenical effort to aid victims of February earthquakes in Afghanistan. According to Action by Churches Together (ACT), 32,000 people in 24 villages in the Rostaq district were affected by the quakes. ACT reports the earthquakes killed...

GLADWYNE, Pa. (ELCA) -- The Deaconess Community of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has voted to sell the Deaconess Community Center here in suburban Philadelphia and move to Chicago. "It is one of the more historic decisions that this community has made considering that in two years the roots...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Economic development among Africans and Blacks globally and advocacy for expanded immigration of Africans to the United States will be topics discussed when more than 300 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America meet June 4-7 in Tuskegee, Ala., under the theme "Africans and Blacks in...

LEVITTOWN, Puerto Rico (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have a new Spanish-language worship book designed to fulfill the needs of congregations in North, South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. The ELCA introduced "Libro de Liturgia y Cantico" (Book of Liturgy and Song) here...

MUNDELEIN, Ill. (ELCA) -- Good financial news and initial work on a new mission strategy occupied about 60 staff and 20 board members of the Division for Outreach of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America here May 5-8. The division's staff, including about 40 mission developers who oversee the establishment...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are learning to rely on one another for care and depend less on the pastor as the one-and-only care-giver, according to the Rev. Marta Poling-Goldenne, an ELCA director for evangelism. The idea of laity-led ministry will be shared in...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Marcus C. Lohrmann, 47, Olivet Lutheran Church, Sylvania, Ohio, was elected bishop of the Northwestern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He received 307 votes to 200 for the Rev. Paul F. Hegele, 49, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Toledo, Ohio, on the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Albert E. Anderson, 76, who retired in 1992 as president of Augsburg Fortress, publishing house of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Minneapolis, died at his home in Edina, Minn., May 16. From 1982 to 1986 Anderson served on the Commission for a New Lutheran Church,...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Marcus C. Lohrmann, 47, Olivet Lutheran Church, Sylvania, Ohio, was elected bishop of the Northwestern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He received 307 votes to 200 for the Rev. Paul F. Hegele, 49, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Toledo, Ohio, on the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- El Nino's strong winds and heavy rains caused a major mud slide at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif. One of eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, PLTS will need to raise $250,000 to repair the damage sustained on campus. The winter mud...