Lutherans help rebuild homes in New Orleans' Little Woods neighborhood
by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service More than 500 volunteers worked on rebuilding 12 homes in the Little Woods neighborhood of New Orleans in one month's time. Four years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast. About half of the homes in Little Woods remain untouched. In an...
ELCA's Oak Grove Lutheran School to Graduate Class of 2009
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Red River cradles the campus of Oak Grove Lutheran School in Fargo, N.D. Two months ago the waters washed over a dike meant to protect the grounds. Oak Grove students finish the semester May 29 at a nearby public school, where classes have met since the...
ELCA Bishops Join Middle East Meeting at Carter Center
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Two bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) were part of a diverse group of Christian leaders who pledged to President Barack Obama that they will "build constituencies that will advocate for a just political settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." The Christian leaders met privately...
Luther Seminary to host ELCA Book of Faith Jubilee in August
by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service Registration is open for the Book of Faith Jubilee, which will be held Aug. 14-16 at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. The jubilee will include several keynote addresses. Workshops and affinity groups will address such topics as teaching the Bible in congregations, opening the...
ELCA Wartburg College gets grant to celebrate 20 years without Berlin Wall
by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa, is one of more than 25 U.S. colleges and universities the German embassy awarded "Freedom Without Walls" grants to help pay for campus activities that celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Wartburg is planning activities...
Two ELCA seminary professors win research grants
by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service Two professors at seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will receive grants from the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) in partnership with the Lilly Endowment. Dr. Lois M. Farag, assistant professor of early church history at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.,...
ELCA Pastor Heads to Iraq in Friendship
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Brooks Anderson is traveling to Iraq May 16 to extend a hand of friendship to the people there. "It's timely and feels Spirit-led," said Anderson, 76, Duluth, Minn., a retired pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Anderson will spend six days in the...
Obama, Cuba and a Lutheran Theologian's Journey
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Hurricane season came faster than anyone expected in 1965. Violent waves shook and tossed the boat carrying 15-year-old Alicia Vargas. Terrified and seasick, she clutched a tiny cross in her hand and prepared to die. That's how Vargas emigrated from Cuba to Florida with her sister, mother,...
Lutheran Publications Win Honors from Associated Church Press
INDIANAPOLIS (ELCA) -- The Lutheran, the magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), took home four "Best of the Christian Press" awards from the Associated Church Press convention May 6-8 for work in 2008. Other ELCA magazines -- Lutheran Partners and Lutheran Woman Today -- each received two...
Lutherans Call for Immigration Reform Before End of 2009
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutherans are urging the Obama Administration to reform immigration enforcement actions, and for Congress and the president to enact "fair and humane" immigration reform before the end of 2009. In a May 12 statement, 16 synod bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and Lutheran...
ELCA Pastors, Family Tale, Lead to Motion Picture
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Felix "Uncle Bush" Breazeale sat in the front passenger seat of the hearse headed to his funeral. In back was the coffin he'd made himself from walnut. The 73-year-old recluse was a man of few words but not even close to death on that hot June day...
ELCA College Alumna Freed from Iranian Prison
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- News of a Lutheran college alumna's release from an Iranian prison on May 11 was met with cheers of joy and prayers of gratitude across the nation's largest Lutheran denomination. American journalist Roxana Saberi, 32, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison by...
Lutherans Provided Funds, Engaged in Recovery Work in 17 Countries
by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service In partnership with Lutheran churches and ecumenical agencies around the world, members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) engaged in relief and recovery work in 17 countries in 2008. Through the church's International Disaster Response, more than $1.5 million was distributed...
ELCA Book of Faith Initiative Embraces Online Social Network
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are reading and discussing the Bible as part of the church's Book of Faith initiative. That discussion is being propelled with Internet technology. An estimated 2,400 members have signed on to the Book of Faith social network --...
Women of the ELCA opens registration for cross-cultural immersion
by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is offering a cross-cultural immersion experience Sept. 9-13 with the Chippewa Cree Tribe at the Rocky Boy Reservation in the Bear Paw Mountains near Box Elder, Mont. The program is limited to 13 participants, and...
LDR 2008 annual report now available as an e-report
by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service To help tell the story of its work in 2008, Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) has made its annual report available online as an "e-report." LDR is a collaborative ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The e-report...
ELCA Provides Funds to Help Disinfect Schools in Mexico
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is providing $3,000 in an effort help clean public schools and assist low-income families purchase disinfectants to safeguard against influenza in Mexico. The ELCA sent the funds to Amextra, an ELCA companion ministry in Mexico. The funds will be used...
Lutheran Seminarians Support Task Force Recommendation
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In an open letter to the 65 synod bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Lutheran seminarians expressed their support for a recommendation that would allow Lutherans in committed same-gender relationships to be included on professional church rosters. On Feb. 19 the Task Force for...
Darrel Colson Named President of ELCA's Wartburg College
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Wartburg College's board of regents announced May 4 that Dr. Darrel D. Colson, provost and dean at Centenary College, Shreveport, La., will become the 17th president of the liberal arts school in Waverly, Iowa, on July 1. Wartburg is one of 28 colleges and universities of the...
ELCA Presiding Bishop Speaks to Antipoverty Activists
WASHINGTON (ELCA) - The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), spoke to more than 1,200 faith-based and antipoverty activists here at the Mobilization to End Poverty event, April 26-29. He called on participants to "hold each other accountable" for the work they...
