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A megachurch in Glendale, Ariz., unanimously voted Sunday to cut ties with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and will be joining the smaller Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ. At a congregational meeting following worship, Community Church of Joy voted 129-0 to terminate its affiliation with ELCA as the church’s vision, values and mission are no longer aligned with the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination, according to the Rev. Walter P. Kallestad, senior pastor of the congregation. "There is such a different direction that the ELCA has chosen, a path they're traveling on, and we really believe that it just...

The presiding bishop of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination warned Wednesday that withholding financial support to protest a recent gay clergy vote would be "devastating" to the church. Bishop Mark Hanson laid out his concerns in a letter to leaders of the 4.7 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is based in Chicago. The ELCA churchwide assembly voted last month to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, dropping a requirement that gay clergy remain celibate. The Rev. Mark Chavez, director of Lutheran CORE, said the gay clergy vote was the devastating event — "a...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In the cornerstone of St. Timothy Lutheran Church, two dates are engraved. In 1948, members broke ground on Ohio Street in South Charleston. In 2004, they held their first service at a new church built on a hilltop off Corridor G. Now, the congregation - and other Lutheran churches around the country - have reached another point in their history. Earlier this month, leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met in Minneapolis and voted to allow gays and lesbians in lifelong, monogamous relationships to serve as clergy.

Many members of the clergy must be using the Bible like the old Sears catalogue – for toilet paper – because they obviously don't read it. Last week, another once-great church succumbed to the relentless, media-savvy campaign of determined homosexuality. "Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America voted to lift the ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers," reported the Associated Press. In July, the Episcopal House of Bishops and laity approved liturgies for same-sex couples and endorsed the right to elect gay bishops. Lutherans and Episcopalians join other denominational giants, Unitarians and...

As one whose profession it has been for many years to observe the plight of Christianity, I am always grateful for signs that our God is truly a Jewish God - one with a hilarious sense of irony. This happened again during the ELCA's national assembly, which will go down in history as a singularly boneheaded display of unfaithfulness. Just as delegates worked themselves up to their decision to allow homosexuals in committed relationships to serve as pastors, a highly selective tornado knocked the cross off the roof of Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, where some of their shameful meetings...

Leaders of the nation's biggest Lutheran denomination voted Friday to allow gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy in the church -- making it one of the largest Christian denominations in the country to significantly open the pulpit to gays. Previously, only celibate gays were permitted to serve as clergy in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a denomination of 4.8 million members. But delegates to a church assembly voted 559-451 to allow gays in "life-long, monogamous" relationships to serve as clergy and professional lay leaders in the church. The vote is the culmination of a years-long process in...

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Leaders of the country's largest Lutheran denomination have moved toward a more welcoming view of homosexuality. Delegates of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, meeting in Minneapolis, approved a "social statement on human sexuality" that acknowledges differing views on homosexuality. It says the ELCA is strong enough to accommodate such differences. -snip- Wednesday's vote was a prelude to votes scheduled Friday on whether to let people in same-sex relationships serve as Lutheran ministers.

FRIDLEY, Minn. - The Rev. Dave Glesne stood before the members of Redeemer Lutheran Church a few weeks ago and told them there might be some painful decisions in the near future. Glesne is against letting people in same-sex relationships serve as pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and he says his congregation is behind him. They're worried this suburban Minneapolis church could find itself on the losing side as leaders of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination vote on whether to take that step at their biennial national convention, which starts Monday in Minneapolis. "Of course the question...

WITTENBERG, Germany -- Martin Luther, a renegade monk, triggered the Reformation here five centuries ago . . . Today, fewer than one in five people identify themselves as Christian . . . " . . . east Germany is perhaps the most atheistic region in the world" . . . The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States, has bought a building next to the old Town Church, where Luther used to preach . . . plans to start a congregation . . . "In east Germany, you actually have to go up to people and...

A Christian group in Missouri will be allowed to freely distribute religious literature at “gay pride” event this weekend after a federal judge ruled in their favor. Another Christian group in Michigan, however, was not so fortunate in its quest for free distribution at a recent Arab festival but is still hopeful for a favorable conclusion. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds denied a motion from Calif.-based ministry Arabic Christian Perspective (ACP) for a temporary restraining order that would have prohibited the city of Dearborn, Mich., from restricting the group from handing out literature during the Arab International Festival,...

News of Dr. George Tiller's death was only hours old last week when bloggers began asking the question: What kind of church accepts a doctor who performs abortions into its membership? "I wonder what kind, if any, preaching against sin this church did since Tiller felt welcomed there," opined Blue Collar Todd, who declares on his blog that "liberalism, or sometimes called progressivism, is a false religion that stands in total antithesis to biblical Christianity." Todd has already made up his mind, and so have others who called or e-mailed me this week to criticize a column I wrote describing...

"What if church wasn't just a building, but thousands of doors?" asks a new website launched by the United Methodist Church. "Each of them opening up to a different concept or experience of church. . . . Would you come?" After watching its membership drop nearly 25 percent in recent decades, the United Methodist Church, which is still the nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination, thinks it knows the answer. So it's pouring $20 million into a new marketing campaign, including the website, television advertisements, even street teams in some cities, to rebrand the church from stale destination to "24-7 experience."...

Kansas Abortionist George Tiller was shot today as he was going to Church.

utheran Seminarians Support Task Force Recommendation 09-107-MRC 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 ELCA Studies on Sexuality released a report and recommendation for a process to consider changes to ministry policies that could make it possible for Lutherans who are in "publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gendered relationships" to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, deaconesses, diaconal...

The California Supreme Court is letting stand a lower court ruling that allowed a private religious school to expel two girls for an alleged lesbian relationship. The state's highest court this week declined a request from the girls' attorney to review the case. The 4th District Court of Appeal in Riverside in January had upheld California Lutheran High School's right as a private, religious organization to exclude students based on their sexual orientation. The teens initially sued the Riverside County school in 2005 based on a state anti-discrimination law. Advocates for religious freedom called it the right decision but the...

The long-awaited position on ordaining gay clergy in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America isn't a clear yes or no. An ELCA task force admitted Thursday that it could not reach a consensus on the issue that has polarized its members for years. But with the matter expected to dominate this summer's national convention in Minneapolis, its position paper offers this suggested solution: The ELCA will allow the ordination of gay pastors but will leave it up to individual congregations and synods whether to ordain or appoint pastors. The term used to describe this compromise is "structured flexibility." While acknowledging...

Lutherans weigh making gay clergy a local decision ERIC GORSKI Feb. 19, 2009. The nation's largest Lutheran denomination will consider allowing individual congregations to choose whether to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, an attempt to avoid the sort of infighting that has threatened to tear other churches apart. A task force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America recommended that course Thursday in a long-awaited report on ministry standards. The panel, however, said the church needs to clarify a number of questions before overhauling its gay clergy policy. The report, issued at the same...

Lutherans join ''March for Life'' in Washington, D.C. March for Life logoLutherans from throughout the country will join the thousands who are expected to gather in the nation's capital Jan. 22 for the 36th annual "March for Life." LCMS World Relief and Human Care (WR-HC) also will be in Washington, D.C., providing information, insights and updated web coverage throughout the day from marching Lutherans as they affirm the blessing of God's gift of life. This year's march participants include a coalition of Lutherans, including: Synod President Gerald B. Kieschnick; members of the LCMS Sanctity of Human Life Committee (under the...

This past year, we have seen a flurry of activity around states either permitting gay and lesbian couples to marry or defining marriage as a union only between a man and a woman. The conflict in our culture is often misconstrued as a standoff between religious persons and nonreligious persons. This does not ring true for me or for many of the Christians I know. My own church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has been engaged in a long, cautious process of investigating whether the unexamined conventional wisdom we have received from our ancestors in the faith rings true:...

A few weeks ago, in the historic Castle Church of Wittenberg in Saxony, Lutherans from all over the world opened the “Luther Decade,” celebrations that coincide with Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) arrival in Wittenberg 500 years ago in 1508 and commemorate the achievement and global significance of the German reformer. Nine years later, on 31 October 1517, Luther not only castigated the abuses of indulgence sellers with his “95 theses” but also offered a new understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. Ushering in the modern age, Luther held that the individual, not the institutional church, stood at the...

Officials of the declining 4.9 million Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have revealed what God’s priorities are in the U.S. presidential campaign. And remarkably, the divine priorities was very akin to the Democratic Party’s priorities, if not further to the left. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, with three other ELCA officials generously wrote both presidential candidates a public letter with the divine guidance. Although famed Protestant Reformer Martin Luther championed the Bible as God’s exclusive revelation, modern ELCA activists have located more useful counsel in the secular welfare state and environmental agenda. “The Scriptures are clear about God's concern for...

STATEMENT ON THE ANTICHRIST Introduction to the StatementAs Martin Luther grew in his appreciation of the gospel, he also grew in his recognition that the Papacy is the Antichrist. A 1954 WELS pamphlet entitled Antichrist put it this way: “It was because Luther cherished the Gospel so dearly that his faith instinctively recoiled and protested in unmistakable terms when the Pope put himself in the place of Christ and declared His work insufficient and in vain. That is the use to which Luther’s faith put the prophecy of Scripture. For him the tenet that the Pope is the Antichrist was...

ELCA Presiding Bishop, Other Religious Leaders, Meet with Obama 08-087-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was among more than 30 national Christian leaders who met here June 10 with U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. Hanson was invited by Obama's staff to meet privately with the Senator in a meeting in which Darfur, the Iraq war, gay rights, abortion and faith issues were discussed, the Associated Press reported. Hanson said the meeting's purpose seemed to be an effort by Obama "to begin...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Rumors that the Vatican is set to rehabilitate Martin Luther, the 16th-century leader of the Protestant Reformation, are groundless, said the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi. News reports in early March alleged that Pope Benedict XVI was dedicating a planned September symposium with former doctoral students to re-evaluating Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy. The story "does not have any foundation, insofar as no rehabilitation of Luther is foreseen," Father Lombardi told the Italian news agency ANSA March 8. Vatican officials said the topic of the pope's annual summer gathering of former students...

Tom Kauffman thought that once a storm blew over people could go home, clean up a few things and return back to normal, everyday life. But two mission trips to Biloxi, Miss., changed his thinking. People are still recovering from the impact of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. "A storm doesn't just blow over and people don't go back to their homes the next day," said Kauffman, 69, of Manchester Township. "There's a lot of pain and suffering and a lot of waiting. I opened my eyes up." Kauffman plans to return to Biloxi a third...

Stockholm (dpa) - Marriage and same-sex unions were ``equal forms of living together,'' the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran church, said Wednesday. The central board of the church said it would accept pending changes of marriage laws that would offer same-sex unions the same legal status as traditional marriage. However the term ``marriage'' should be reserved for the union between man and woman, the board - elected by the Church Assembly, the highest decision-making body in the church - said. The church was one of many bodies asked to comment on proposals to change current legislation presented earlier this year....

In spring 2005, the Rev. Carol Solovitz, pastor of Zumbro Lutheran, had the honor of preaching the English service for two weeks in Wittenberg, Germany, in Martin Luther's church: the Stadtkirche (city church). Inspired by her visit, members of Zumbro met in April 2006 with the prospect of forming a tour to Germany. By September 2006 -- a year in advance -- the trip was sold out. On Sept. 10, 2007, a full bus left the church parking lot on its way to the Minneapolis airport, flying Iceland Air to Frankfurt. On our first day, we toured the Wartburg, where...

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Two state officials have been added to the list of defendants in a lawsuit filed by the nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics. The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation says that referrals to the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, which serves troubled children, are funded by taxpayer money and that staff at the ranch facilities in Minot, Fargo and Bismarck indoctrinate children with religion. The Boys and Girls Ranch, which is affiliated with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and state officials dispute the foundation's claims. The group initially...

ELCA and Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) leaders signed an agreement committing the churches to information exchange and care for German-speaking congregations in the U.S. and English-speaking congregations in Germany during a Sept. 24 worship service at the Lutheran Center in Chicago. The agreement—which provides for exchange of clergy, EKD deacons and diaconal ministers, and Christian education teachers—renews a 1991 agreement between the two churches, said ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson. Bishop Wolfgang Huber, chair of the EKD Council, told the ELCA News Service that the agreement will help the churches work together to prepare for the 500th anniversary...

Berlin - Germany's top Lutheran leader, Wolfgang Huber, questioned Monday why Muslims in the country were mounting "a large- scale mosque-building campaign.""It's a fair question as to how far this meets legitimate religious needs or whether ambitions over and beyond that are involved," said Huber, who is the Lutheran bishop of Berlin. Speaking at the launch of a book compilation of his newspaper articles, he said more mosques were under construction than all of those currently in existence in Germany. Huber is chairman of the German Evangelical Church, a federation of Protestant churches. A Muslim think tank, the Islamic Archive,...

(AP) A national assembly of Evangelical Lutherans urged its bishops Saturday to refrain from defrocking gay and lesbian ministers who violate a celibacy rule, but rejected measures that would have permitted ordaining gays churchwide. Still, advocates for full inclusion of gays were encouraged, calling the resolution a powerful statement in support of clergy with same-gender partners. The conservative group Lutheran CORE, however, said bishops will now feel more secure in ignoring denomination policy. The 538-431 vote came on the final day of a weeklong meeting in Chicago _ and after emotional debate over how the denomination should interpret what the...

June 20 (UPI) -- Five local policemen were killed in a shootout with soldiers in the capital of Russia's war-ravaged southern republic of Chechnya, Interfax reported, citing an unidentified local military official. The policemen came under fire after they stopped a car with a soldier and got into a dispute with him, with both sides calling in reinforcements, the Moscow-based news agency reported. Russia invaded Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic in the north Caucasus, in 1999 to quell a separatist rebellion. Russia in 2003 gave Chechen security forces control over local law enforcement. Most of the new police are former...

Chicago - By an almost two-to-one margin, Midwest Lutherans voiced solid opposition to decapitation, suicide bombing, and chemical warfare in a new comprehensive survey of their social attitudes.The Pew Research survey, conducted May 13-19, queried nearly 2,500 randomly selected Lutherans at flea markets and convenience stores across the Midwest. Interviews were conducted in High Plains Twang, Great Lakes Nasal and Flat Ohio Valley Bland.“If there is one headline here, it’s how remarkably moderate the Lutheran community is,” said Pew director Andrew Kohut of the survey, which was co-sponsored by the Council on American-Yooper Relations. “It really paints a picture of...

"Homosexuals will be able to marry in church if the Swedish government follows the suggestion of a report due to be presented next year. The report will suggest ditching the civil partnership law and allowing church weddings for gay people, according to Swedish public service broadcaster SVT. One in ten priests in the Church of Sweden has signed a protest against allowing homosexuals to marry in church. Many others in the former state church have said they are in favour."

Four youths, each of a separate religion, bond over outdoor get-togethers and character-building activities in a Mission Viejo troop. Religious distinctions can be the source of a lot of strife in the world today, but for four Eagle Scouts friendship is more important. Meet Amyn Shidi Jr., Daryl Davis, Geoff Leach and Tyler Barron – Eagle Scouts with four different faiths. Shidi is Muslim, Davis is Jewish, Leach is a Lutheran and Barron is Catholic.

MOSCOW. Dec 27 (Interfax) - The Moscow Patriarchate has suspended relations with the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Sweden after it decided to establish an official ceremony on blessing homosexual couples. "We have received with great disappointment and grief the news that not only does the Lutheran Church of Sweden not oppose so-called homosexual marriages, but has even ruled to establish an official blessing ceremony," Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church said in a statement at a session in Moscow on Tuesday. The members of the Synod believe that the Church of Sweden's decision contradicts the Biblical concept of family and...

Lutheran leader calls for an ecumenical council to address growing biblical fundamentalism Contributed by Religion News Service Thursday, 11 August 2005 The leader of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination has called for a global Christian council to address an "identity crisis" on how churches interpret and understand the Bible.

Church won't ease rules on gays - Lutherans nix clergy change ORLANDO, Fla. - A national meeting of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America rejected a proposal Friday that would have allowed gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy under certain conditions. The measure would have affirmed the church ban on ordaining sexually active gays and lesbians, but would have allowed bishops and church districts called synods to seek an exception for a particular candidate - if that person was in a long-term relationship and met other restrictions. Delegates voted against the measure 503 to 490. Even if it...

ORLANDO, FLA. -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Churchwide Assembly today morning overwhelmingly approved watered-down language addressing the endorsement of same-sex unions but rejected accepting non-celibate gays and lesbians from being ordained. The moves came amid a minor commotion by gay and lesbian activists.Before the apparent softening of the language on same-sex unions, the proposal had said that the ELCA "would entrust pastors and congregations to discern ways to provide faithful pastoral care to same-sex couples." The adopted amendment struck "same-sex couples" and replaced those words with "all to whom they minister."The revised proposal passed on a...

ORLANDO, Fla. — A national meeting of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (search) rejected a proposal Friday that would have allowed gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy under certain conditions. The measure would have affirmed the church ban on ordaining sexually active gays and lesbians, but would have allowed bishops and church districts called synods to seek an exception for a particular candidate — if that person was in a long-term relationship and met other restrictions. Delegates voted against the measure 503-490. Even if it had won a simple majority of votes, that wouldn't have been enough;...

Bishop: We're united amid differences MILWAUKEE, WI (AP) - The Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has passed a resolution recommending the Churchwide Assembly permit gays and lesbians in committed relationships to be ordained. Bishop Paul Stumme-Diers said it was important to maintain unity within the church. "We are committed to remaining united even amid our differences, recognizing our center is not on our opinions but rather it is in Christ," he said. The recommendation was passed at its annual meeting Saturday. It is one of up to 65 that are expected to be delivered to...

Here’s a story that will throw you for a loop: a "chaplain” at the U.S. Air Force Academy is complaining that the school’s administration has a "systemic and pervasive” problem of promoting religious religious values with a Christian bent. The chaplain, Capt. Melinda Morton, a "Lutheran minister” spoke out publicly on Tuesday as an Air Force task force arrived at the academy to investigate charges that officers and staff members pushed their religious beliefs on cadets. And she claimed that a tolerance program developed at the academy, called Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People (R.S.V.P.), was watered down after...

Drivers passing by Advocate Lutheran General (Park Ridge, IL) on the second Saturday of every month are often surprised to see dozens of pro-lifer's holding graphic abortion photographs. They are even more shocked when they learn that a hospital with the cross of our Savior on its roof: * performs second trimester abortions (up to 23 weeks); * performs multiple gestation abortions (e.g. twins reduced to one child); * aborts babies by induced labor, also known as a "live birth abortion"; and * allows a minor to abort her unborn child without parental knowledge or consent (source: Advocate Health Care...

Swathed in a white robe with a rope cinched about his waist, Jay Wiesner stood in silence Sunday afternoon as parishioners clustered around, laying their hands on his shoulders while scores more stretched out their hands in his direction.

<p>CHANDLER - Holy Trinity Lutheran Church quietly has shared its sanctuary with Muslims for more than a year. Saturday it will be the site of a Ramadan dinner to raise money for construction of a mosque.</p> <p>"We are thankful for them," Muslim Arif Kazmi said of the Lutherans. "They are very nice people; we are knowing more about each other."</p>

Dear Editor: The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service issued the following news release. President Bush signed the fiscal year 2004 presidential determination on refugee admissions October 21, setting the target for admissions of refugees at 70,000, of which 50,000 are allocated to specific geographic regions as follows: Africa-25,000; East Asia-6,500; Europe and Central Asia-13,000; Latin America/Caribbean-3,500; Near East/South Asia-2,000. "A refugee admissions level of 70,000 for FY2004 is good news!" said Ralston H. Deffenbaugh Jr, president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS). "Fortunately, low refugee arrival numbers in FY2003 did not change future US commitment to the refugee resettlement...

August 17, 2003 ELCA Assembly Considers "Listening Posts" for Gay, Lesbian People 03-CWA-51-MR MILWAUKEE (ELCA) -- The 2003 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) considered a motion designed to encourage the 5 million-member church to organize "listening posts" for the purpose of hearing the experiences of Lutherans who are gay and lesbian. The assembly voted to refer the motion to the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality as "information." The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 11-17 at the Midwest Airlines Center. There are about 2,100 people...

LutheransForLife Welcome Friends To The 2002 Lutherans For Life National Convention! 2003LifeSunday MAIN MENU & NEWSPUBLICATIONSCALENDAR ABOUT LFLISSUESLINKS PROJECTSCHAPTERSSUPPORT US Volume 12, Number 1SPRING 1999God Loves Life SPECIALFEATURESKate Michelman'sBenedictionby Dr. David Reardon& Amy R. Sobie Beyond Symptoms ToFundamental Principlesby Rev. Edward Fehskens Look At The People!by Dr. Jean Garton 25 Years Laterby Linda D. Bartlett It's A Good Lifeby Mary Senander& Julie Grimstad A Man Named Donaldby Jane Almquist Too Many Kidsby Charles Colson REGULARFEATURESLIVING Today:Let Me Not Be AshamedOf My Hopeby Linda Bartlett Light For LIVING:God Loves Life!by Jon Jenkins 12-Week Family Devotions:God Loves Life!by Jon Jenkins The...

I have made fun of Lutherans for years--who wouldn't if you lived in Minnesota? But I have also sung with Lutherans and that is one of the main joys of life, along with hot baths and fresh sweet corn. We make fun of Lutherans for their blandness, their excessive calm, their fear of giving offense, their constant guilt that burns like a pilot light, their lack of speed and also for their secret fondness for macaroni and cheese. But nobody sings like them. If you ask an audience in New York City, a relatively "Lutheranless" place, to sing along on...