News

YOUTH GATHERING REGISTERS 35,000 Registration for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Youth Gathering opened and closed Nov. 4. The Gathering Advisory Committee closed registration when 39,000 forms were collected opening day. The maximum number of participants allowed to attend the gathering is 35,000. Registrants will be chosen by lottery...

CARL SEGERHAMMAR DIED The Rev. Carl W. Segerhammar, 89, a retired bishop of the former Lutheran Church in America and a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, died Oct. 22 of massive heart failure in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Segerhammar was bishop of the LCA's Pacific Southwest Synod from...

ELCA BACKS DISASTER RELIEF IN CUBA The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America supports an exemption request to send humanitarian aid to parts of Cuba devastated in October by Hurricane Lili. Much work remains to be done to provide relief there. "The development and relief arm of the National Council of...

LWF DESK FOR NORTH AMERICA Canadian and U.S. Lutherans support a plan to establish a North America desk for the Lutheran World Federation. LWF is a Geneva- based communion of 56 million Lutherans in 122 member church bodies in 68 countries. North America is the only region among the seven...

OUTDOOR MINISTRIES RESPOND TO AGING SOCIETY Leaders of Lutheran ministries outdoors took on issues of an aging America with "Celebrate Life: Outdoor Ministry in Our Aging Society," a conference at Beaver Creek, Colo. The event was developed out of a concern for an aging society, according to its sponsors, the...

SAN DIEGO (ELCA) -- "We, people of different cultures, make up the Lutheran church," said Jessica Mushala, Lanham, Md., originally from Tanzania. "Making Christ Known: Good News for the World" was the theme for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's eighth annual Multicultural Mission Institute held here Nov. 15-17. The...

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- Balanced and bond funds managed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Board of Pensions are "on track" for converting to market value Jan. 1, 1997, staff reported to the board's trustees at their quarterly meeting here Nov. 2-3. Market value is a price at which both...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- There will be 23 Lutherans in the 105th Congress of the United States -- one more than the number of Lutherans who were in the 104th Congress, according to the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs, Washington, D.C. Twelve are Democrats; 11 are Republicans. The five Lutherans in...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Donald M. Hallberg, 56, Itasca, Ill., was elected executive director of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Foundation by the executive committee of the ELCA Church Council, meeting here Nov. 7. He succeeds the Rev. Harvey A. Stegemoeller, who retired Aug. 31. The Rev. Melvin...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has developed an "African American Lutheran Outreach Strategy" with the blessing of the African American Lutheran Association (AALA). The board of the ELCA Division for Outreach met here Oct. 24-27 and asked for a report on ways to implement the 30-...

SAN DIEGO (ELCA) -- "When we die, will we leave obituaries telling people how important we were? Or, will we leave people whose lives were touched by what we said and did?" With those questions, Lutherans For Life (LFL) President Linda Bartlett challenged members of the pan-Lutheran pro-life organization to...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America expressed again its solidarity with the people and churches of Liberia through an action taken by the ELCA Church Council at its meeting here Nov. 8-11. The church's Division for Global Mission and two ELCA synods requested action on Liberia. The...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will vote in 1997 to enter into partnerships of "full communion" with the Episcopal Church and with three Reformed churches: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ. The ELCA Church Council, meeting here Nov. 7-11, placed...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Sexuality: Some Common Convictions" is a message the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted here Nov. 9 to summarize the "areas for which there appears to be consensus within this church" on issues related to human sexuality. The actual text of the message...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "By all indications a severe human catastrophe is now unfolding in the closed off parts of Eastern Zaire," according to Action by Churches Together (ACT). ACT describes the situation for 1.5 million people in Eastern Zaire as 'precarious.' ACT is a worldwide network of churches, including the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Since democratic elections in April 1994, South Africa has made significant strides in stabilizing its political and social life, but its economic life has suffered, said the Rev. Molefe Tsele, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Africa (ELCSA) and director of the Ecumenical Service...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The board of the Division for Global Mission, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, urged measures including sanctions to bring about peace and reconciliation in the Great Lakes region of East Africa. In the action taken at its meeting here Oct. 23-26 the board cited "the dire situation...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, should write a pastoral letter to all congregations of the church on the subject of the African American churches that burned this year, according to an action taken by the steering committee of...

LULL NAMED SEMINARY PRESIDENT The Rev. Timothy F. Lull, 53, will become the sixth president of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif., on Jan. 1, 1997. He succeeds the Rev. Jerry L. Schmalenberger, 62, who assumed the duties of a professor of pastoral ministry at the seminary on Sept. 1,...

RURAL EVANGELISM IS POSSIBLE Rural congregations can grow both spiritually and numerically, said the Rev. David Poling-Goldenne, director for education and evangelism in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. "Mission Possible," a one-day seminar, gathers rural congregation leaders to examine methods for effective outreach in rural and small town communities....