News

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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GROVER C. WRIGHT DIED A prominent African American Lutheran, Grover C. Wright, Philadelphia, passed away Feb. 3 at the age of 80. Wright is credited with recognizing the talents of and bolstering many of the people of color now serving as pastors and lay leaders in the Evangelical Lutheran Church...

in Washington, D.C. She presented him with a copy of "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread: Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood For All," a 117-page document being used in the ELCA's 11,000 congregations to facilitate a study on economic life this year. "I think he immediately sensed the significance of some...

HOWARD MILLER CENTER Thiel College, Greenville, Pa., has received a $650,000 grant to complete phase two of the renovation and expansion of the Howard Miller Center. The four-story, 100,000-square-foot center houses the college's dining facilities, student services and Livingston Hall, a women's residence hall. "The grant will be used to...

$80 MILLION FUND-RAISING CAMPAIGN FOR AUGUSTANA Augustana College officials announced Jan. 22 "Tradition and Promise: The Augustana Campaign," an $80 million fund-raising campaign expected to last through the end of the century. Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill., is one of 28 colleges and universities associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church...

ELCA CONGREGATIONS LEARN FROM EACH OTHER Over 100 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America gathered Jan. 23-25 in Las Vegas for "New Ideas for a New Day," an evangelism "teaching congregation" conference sponsored by the ELCA's Division for Congregational Ministries. Pastors, associates in ministry and other lay leaders...

VISION FOR MISSION More than 13,500 leaders from across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have responded to the Vision for Mission appeal with gifts totaling $1.2 million. The Vision for Mission Fund provides an opportunity for individual members of the ELCA to make gifts over and above congregational giving...

LUTHERAN AGENCIES MOVING TO BALTIMORE Lutheran World Relief (LWR) and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) will move their offices from New York to Baltimore. They currently share office space with the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). In late January and early February,...

LUTHERANS OPPOSE BALANCED BUDGET The Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), Washington, D.C., has added its support to an open letter opposing a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. LOGA, the federal public policy advocacy office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is one of 125 signers of...

LUTHERAN SEMINARY FACULTY ENDORSES FULL COMMUNION About 20 theologians on the faculty of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) unanimously adopted a statement endorsing a proposal for full communion between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Church, and a similar proposal for full communion between...

LUTHERAN, CATHOLIC CHURCH LEADERS MEET The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb will participate in a historic forum Feb. 20 to speak on "The Common Statement on Justification by Faith" as proposed by the Roman...

LUTHERAN MEN PLANNING EVENTS Lutheran Men in Mission, the men's organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is making plans for five regional gatherings this summer. The gatherings will focus on "men building relationships with family and other men," said Doug Haugen, LMM director. Meeting under the theme "Building...

ELCA PRESIDING BISHOP'S EASTER MESSAGE "The resurrection of Jesus opens the door to a larger world than the one we live in every day. We see friends die and they are gone, but God has shown us that it is possible for them to live in a new way. We...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Initial work on "a multi-authored volume on how Lutherans do ethics" was the center of attention for more than 30 Lutheran ethicists Jan. 9-10 at the Frairhurst Retreat Center in Cincinnati. The fourth annual Lutheran Ethics Gathering preceded the meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics (SCE)....

BLOUGH-WEIS LIBRARY RECEIVES $350,000 Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa., has received a $350,000 grant to help transform the Blough-Weis Library into a more powerful center of information access, technology support and teaching resources. ?The resources provided by this challenge grant will go a long way toward helping the university overcome the...