News

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service Organizers of the 2009 Youth Gathering of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are enlisting the help of 800 young adults to be "servant companions" July 20-26, 2009. The gathering will attract 36,000 high school youth and adult leaders to New Orleans around...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Considered to be the first ecumenical youth gathering in Rwanda since the 1994 genocide there, more than 100 high-school-age and young adult Christians from six African countries and the United States gathered March 27-30 for the "Great Lakes Youth Conference: We are the Future of Africa!" in...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Dr. Diane L. Jacobson likes the analogy, but she doesn't take credit for it. She heard "Opening the Book of Faith: Lutheran Insights for Bible Study" described as the GPS (global positioning system) of the "Book of Faith" initiative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)....

by Melissa Ramirez Cooper, ELCA News Service Faithful Democracy has launched a nonpartisan Web site designed to educate and engage people of faith about their role in the 2008 electoral process. FaithfulDemocracy.org is a "safe and welcoming space" for people to discuss the role of faith in the public life...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The General Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) will consider a proposal for full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) when it meets April 23-May 2 in Fort Worth, Texas. The proposal, "Implementing Resolution for Full Communion between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) adopted a resolution on racism, asked for a formal proposal for full communion with the United Methodist Church, commended occasional services materials to the church, set the site and date of the 2011 ELCA Churchwide Assembly,...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) affirmed the work of the church in developing a proposed Lutheran malaria initiative. The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between assemblies. The council met...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Krister O. Stendahl, New Testament scholar, teacher, former dean of Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass., and Lutheran bishop of the Diocese of Stockholm (Sweden), died April 15. At the time of his death Stendahl, 86, was Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Divinity Emeritus, Harvard Divinity...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Donald J. McCoid, executive for Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations, will represent the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop and president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), at an ecumenical prayer service April 18 led by Pope Benedict XVI,...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Ecumenical and interfaith relationships are significant ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which maintains full communion agreements with five Protestant churches and the possibility of another in 17 months. With new leadership in its churchwide ecumenical and interfaith section, the ELCA -- often described...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Lutheran Student Movement at Virginia Tech is providing opportunities for growth while bracing for the media attention of the first anniversary of the worst campus shooting in U.S. history. On April 16, 2007, a lone gunman killed 32 faculty and students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and...

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service Disability Ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is taking applications through May 31, 2008, for its Annual Accessibility Awards. Two congregations -- one with more than 300 members and another with fewer than 300 members -- will be honored this summer...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. William E. (Bill) Rindy, First Lutheran Church, Fargo, N.D., was elected April 6 to a six-year term as bishop of the Eastern North Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). He received 372 votes to 177 votes for the Rev. Jeffery L....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- International Disaster Response of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) provided $50,000 to help meet the basic needs of people in Eritrea. Emerging from three decades of conflict and recurring drought conditions, the damage to Eritrea's economy is immense. The ELCA sent the funds to Action...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Peace Not Walls: Making a Difference in the Holy Land" is a new DVD that illustrates the ways members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are working for "peace with justice" in the Middle East. Made available April 7, the 28-minute video examines the ELCA's...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), commended the U.S. House of Representatives for its April 2 adoption of the bipartisan 2008 Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act....

CHANTILLY, Va. (ELCA) -- The Religion Communicators Council (RCC) presented the Rev. Martin E. Marty, Chicago, with a special Wilbur Award for promoting open, public discourse on religion. Marty, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was honored April 5 during a banquet closing the RCC's 79th annual...

CHANTILLY, Va. (ELCA) -- The Religion Communicators Council (RCC) honored several Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) communicators April 3 here at its annual DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards program. ELCA staff received three "Best in Class" awards for an advertising campaign, Internet communication and a multimedia presentation. "ELCA Brand Campaign-Denver" won...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In Jerusalem there's a shortage of affordable housing for Christian Palestinians. At the same time Christians in that city are now less than a third of their number in the 1940s, when about 31,000 Christians lived in Jerusalem, said the Rev. Mark M. Brown, regional representative, Lutheran...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Denver motorists saw billboards in September 2007 that displayed tools in the shape of a cross and conveyed a fact -- "8,400 homes repaired after Hurricane Katrina" -- and a message -- "God's Work. Our Hands." The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Rocky Mountain Synod took...