Rimbo Elected Lutheran Bishop of Southeast Michigan
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Robert A. Rimbo, 47, was elected bishop of the Southeast Michigan Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on May 2. He received 199 votes to 188 for the Rev. John H.K. Schreiber, 36, on the fifth ballot during the synod's assembly in Novi,...
Re-Imagining Draws Women for Revival
ST. PAUL (ELCA) - Nearly 1,000 women and men gathered here for the Re-Imagining Revival, a four-day event marking the end of the World Council of Churches' "Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women." Close to 100 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America joined the celebration April...
Augsburg Fortress Will Look at its Business Practice
COLUMBIA, S.C. (ELCA) -- The Board of Trustees of Augsburg Fortress Publishers directed its president to standardize business practices, engage consultants' help as needed and consider bringing on a chief operating officer. The board acted in executive session at its meeting here April 23-25. Augsburg Fortress, based in Minneapolis, is...
Why Lutheran Service Agencies Do What They Do
CHANDLER, Ariz. (ELCA) -- They manage one of the largest organizations of housing, counseling, child care, foster care and adoption, refugee resettlement, employment services, disaster response, health care, nursing home and AIDS ministries in the United States and Caribbean. More than 300 of them heard that "why" they do what...
ELCA Presiding Bishop Responds to Assassinaton in Guatemala
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America expresses its profound shock and sorrow at the assassination of Monsignor Juan Jose Gerardi Conedera, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Guatemala," said the Rev. H. George Anderson, ELCA's presiding bishop, in a statement April 28. "To our brothers and sisters...
ELCA Council Moves Ecumenical Proposal Forward
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Called to Common Mission," a draft proposal for full communion with The Episcopal Church, came under the scrutiny of the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at the council's meeting here April 18-20. The proposal is being distributed to congregations and leaders of the...
ELCA Council Moves Ecumenical Proposal Forward (*Correction)
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Called to Common Mission," a draft proposal for full communion with The Episcopal Church, came under the scrutiny of the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at the council's meeting here April 18-20. The proposal is being distributed to congregations and leaders of the...
Church Council Authorizes ELCA to Spend $79.6 Million (*Correction)
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...
Ecumenism Underlines ELCA-LCMS Differences
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"...
ACT Moves to Aid India Cyclone Victims
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...
Lutherans Respond to Alabama and Georgia's Deadly Tornadoes
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...
Lumpkin Receives First ELCA Church/State Award
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....
Lutherans Are Rounding up Support for Test Ban Treaty
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...
Churches Are Helping in Kosovo
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...
ELCA Magazine Strives to Be Culturally Diverse
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...
ELCA Releases New Full Communion Proposal (UPDATE)
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,"...
ELCA Bishop Visits Tornado-Damaged Areas of Minnesota
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...
ELCA Releases New Full Communion Proposal
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,"...
Lipp Received Luther Seminary's Race, Church and Change Award
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...
Lutherans Oppose Changes to Gun Ban
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...
