News

LUTHERANS OPPOSE BUDGET AMENDMENT The Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), Washington, D.C., and the Association of Lutheran Social Ministry Organizations (ALSMO), St. Paul, Minn., joined their voices in opposition to a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring a balanced budget. The measure failed March 4 to receive the...

LUTHERANS RESPOND TO DISASTERS The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is responding to tornados, heavy rains and floods in Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio through Lutheran Social Services (LSS) of Kansas-Oklahoma. Tornados in Arkansas have destroyed hundreds of homes and claimed more than 30 lives, reported the Rev. Leon...

ELCA CONGREGATIONS RECOVER FROM FIRE Two Nebraska congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America suffered heavy damage from fires in the middle of the night. An arson fire caused an estimated $850,000 in damage to the administrative section of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Omaha, Neb., Feb. 6. Police and...

ELCA RESPONDS TO WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has responded to the tragic winter storms in the upper Midwestern and Pacific Western states. ELCA Domestic Disaster Response provided about $20,000 in emergency assistance through social ministry organizations in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, northern California,...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The new Multicultural Mission Strategy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America calls for all members of the church "to make a renewed affirmation of and commitment to" a 10-percent membership goal of persons of color and/or primary language other than English. The ELCA still falls short...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Vatican have agreed on wording that could end four centuries of bickering between the two churches. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification brings global attention to a "fundamental consensus" the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Roman Catholic...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "If we're serious about making the church an inclusive place, we will have to begin to think differently about how we invite people of color into this church, how we prepare them for ministry and whether or not we, as a larger church, are willing to recognize...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Ten congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are getting some help constructing their first church buildings through the ELCA Division for Outreach. Mission Builders are coming from across the United States to help plan the projects and see them through. Twenty-one of the church's 22...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. A.C.(Chris) Stein resigned Feb. 26 from the position of Director of the Department for Human Resources and Management Services of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The resignation follows Stein's acknowlegement that he purchased a massage on two occasions while he was in Minneapolis on...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "The two most powerful words in the world are "Thank you,'" according to the Rev. Walter P. Kallestad, Community (Lutheran) Church of Joy, Glendale, Ariz. Kallestad spoke to about 200 stewardship leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America who gathered in Lisle, Ill., Feb. 6-9. The...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Fourteen "theological agreements" will be presented to members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and three Reformed churches before they vote on entering into "full communion." A Lutheran-Reformed Coordinating Committee decided the points of "fundamental doctrinal consensus" reached in 1983 will be in the introduction to...

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- Late-term abortions will not be covered under the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's medical plan, according to a proposed plan amendment the ELCA Board of Pensions trustees sent to the ELCA Church Council for adoption. The trustees took the action at meeting their Feb. 8-9 in Minneapolis...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A committee overseeing the coordination and planning for a system of theological education in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is preparing for the next step forward -- downsizing itself. When the ELCA's Theological Education Coordinating Committee met here Feb. 7-8 it had 15 members, including the...

(CHICAGO) ELCA -- "We need to find ways to overcome denial" of domestic violence, a woman from Portland, Ore., told 52 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America who gathered in Las Vegas Jan. 31-Feb. 2. "Stop the Violence: Heal Hurting Families" is a national training program organized by...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Church-state relations and religious freedom" have gone through several changes in the United States over the past 30 years. So, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has engaged in a study to "clarify, develop and deepen a Lutheran approach to this area for today's context." "We haven't,...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A cyclone that tore through southern Madagascar Jan. 20-26 killed more than 200 people, destroyed hundreds of buildings and damaged crops throughout the southern region. "In Vangaindrano 482 Lutheran churches were destroyed or heavily damaged, including all eight Lutheran schools," according to the Division for Global Mission,...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Listen up, people. We have a church to run. Contribute to it, please," Karris Golden told about 100 youth and their adult advisors who gathered here Feb. 7-9 for the Council of Synod Lutheran Youth Organization (LYO) Presidents' meeting. Golden is president of the LYO, the youth...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In the 25 years the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility has been operating, American corporations have changed their views of religious investors, and religious investors have "wised up" to what makes corporate America tick. That's what Timothy H. Smith, ICCR executive director, told the Evangelical Lutheran Church...

GENEVA (ELCA) -- The Rev. Eugene L. Brand leaned back in his chair and reflected on recent ecumenical breakthroughs in Europe. Agreements between Lutherans and Anglicans and between Lutherans and the Reformed have "re-drawn the Christian map," he said. "It's either a marvelously colored fabric or a sticky mess." Brand...

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