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PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- Voting members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's fifth biennial Churchwide Assembly meeting here Aug. 14-20 elected pastors and lay persons to serve on the Church Council and the boards of various church units. The Church Council sets policy for the 5.2 million member denomination between...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) There are 34 million women and children living in poverty in the United States today. The fifth biennial Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America meeting here Aug. 14-20 in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, was challenged to "end the systemic roots of poverty" by Tina Dabney,...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- After nearly a decade of budget cuts and belt-tightening, the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States and Caribbean appears to have achieved fiscal stability. Voting members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, meeting here Aug. 14-20 in the ELCA's fifth biennial Churchwide Assembly, were told...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- Because he loves the church, Dennis Roberts, a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod layman, has donated his time and $25,000 worth of materials for an unusual stained glass window. It's been assembled this week by more than 1,000 voting members and visitors to the biennial Churchwide Assembly of the...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- "We walk in the footsteps of giants," the secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America told voting members meeting in Churchwide Assembly here Aug. 14-20. Reporting to more than 1,000 fellow Lutherans, the Rev. Lowell G. Almen reflected the ELCA's biennial assembly theme, "Making Christ Known:...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- Building upon nearly 300 years of ministry and service in America's cities, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has declared a decade-long, $5-million effort to help urban congregations transform the lives of their members and their communities. "Christ calls the Church to be in the city for...

LUTHERAN ASSEMBLY TAKES STEP TO SEEK AGREEMENT WITH ROMAN CATHOLICS ON KEY REFORMATION DOCTRINE The Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America today voted 958-25 to approve a "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification," a statement resulting from years of Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogues aimed at healing a...

LUTHERANS REDEDICATE THEMSELVES TO SEEK FULL COMMUNION WITH THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- After rejecting a proposal to enter now into "full communion" with The Episcopal Church, the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has rededicated the church to work toward establishing that relationship in 1999....

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- Lutherans meeting here today agreed it was time to stop fighting with Roman Catholics about a key doctrine which split western Christianity and gave birth to the world's largest Reformation church 480 years ago. Voting members at the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- After rejecting a proposal to enter now into "full communion" with The Episcopal Church, the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has rededicated the church to work toward establishing that relationship in 1999. The assembly overwhelmingly adopted two resolutions on Tuesday, Aug. 19, outlining...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- Risking occasional negative fallout, Lutherans in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America continue to believe they should speak out on social issues. At the biennial Churchwide Assembly meeting here Aug. 14-20, voting members approved a revised set of guidelines for addressing social concerns. The new approach, which...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) A series of recommendations intended to recognize and support the ministry of lay people, or "ministry in daily life," has been adopted overwhelmingly and without debate by the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, meeting here through Wednesday. "Everything you do, everywhere you are, you...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- Economic problems in Germany have created conditions ripe for right-wing extremism and challenges for the church, a German Lutheran official told the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America here Aug 14-20. The Rev. Helmut Edelmann, ecumenical officer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany,...

LUTHERAN VOTE TO RECONSIDER CONCORDAT FAILS Voting members of the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have rejected an attempt to reconsider a vote it took on Aug. 18 that denied entering into full communion with The Episcopal Church. The vote to reconsider needed a simple majority...

LUTHERANS REDEDICATE THEMSELVES TO SEEK FULL COMMUNION WITH THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- After rejecting a proposal to enter now into "full communion" with The Episcopal Church, the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has rededicated the church to work toward establishing that relationship in 1999....

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America today approved a proposal declaring "full communion" with three churches of the Reformed tradition -- the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ. Voting members of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted 839-193 (81.3 percent...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- "You can talk about history, but it's a lot different to see it," John Gruber said as the tour bus made its way back to Philadelphia Sunday afternoon. A bit of history had, in fact, been seen that day. Gruber, from Milwaukee, is a voting member of...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- An ambitious new fund to help students in seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pay for theological education and guidelines for the continuing education of professional church workers were adopted today by the ELCA's biennial churchwide assembly meeting here through Wednesday. The voting members seemed...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- Participants at the biennial churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America marked the church's tenth year with a birthday party on Saturday evening. ELCA vice president Kathy J. Magnus of Denver, Colorado presided over a "Tenth Anniversary Banquet" with birthday cake, sparkling cider, an exhibit...

PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- "The church had better be ready to listen to us, because we have something to say!" exclaimed one participant at the Youth and Young Adult Convocation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Sixty Lutheran youth (ages 13-18) and 58 young adults (ages 19-30) responded to...