News from the ELCA

The last enemy to be destroyed is death. --1 Corinthians 15:26

For a brief time, while the crucified Jesus lay in a borrowed tomb, it seemed as if death had triumphed once again.  Threatened by a messenger of God's expansive, steadfast love, yet another human mob succumbed to death's seduction. They chose its brutal, silencing power and trusted its empty finality.  Death's murderous rebellion against the Creator of life seemed unstoppable.

Until that Sunday morning dawned.  Mary, Joanna, Mary and the other women arrived at Jesus' tomb prepared for a body emptied of life.  Instead they discovered the grave emptied of its power and death itself buried in resurrection life.  Jesus Christ, the first fruits from the dead, lives! (1 Corinthians 15:20)

Now Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God's compassionate love, is preparing your body for a resurrection life.  In that life death can no longer imprison you in a grave nor hold you captive to its violent imagination and destructive power.  Joined to Christ by baptism, your body is being brought into his resurrected life, into Christ's new creation, and into the ministry of reconciliation and peace.  In this new day your resurrected service of God's steadfast love endures forever.

This is the Lord's doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it. --Psalm 118:23-24

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

An update to this story can be found on the ELCA website [here].

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- For the first time since the earthquake, Lutherans were able to visit the Chilean town of Concepción, March 4-7. Karen Anderson likened the scene in Concepción to "a war zone."

Anderson, based in Santiago, Chile, is a staff member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Global Mission. She was part of an ecumenical team that traveled to Concepción to assess the needs of people there following the Feb. 27 earthquake in Chile. The earthquake struck central Chile about 70 miles northeast of Concepción and 200 miles south of Santiago, Chile's capital.  Concepción was hard hit.

Donations can be made directly to St. Matthew’s. Indicate the gift is for "Chile" and St. Matt’s will forward it directly to the ELCA. Financial contributions to support earthquake relief efforts in Chile can be made on the ELCA website [here].

In a March 8 email to ELCA churchwide organization staff, Anderson said it took the team about "12 hours to make the six-hour trip because of the damage to sections of the road and bridges."

When the team arrived in Concepción, there was an 18-hour curfew and military personnel were posted throughout the city, reported Anderson.

"As we drove through the city … at 7 p.m., it was like a ghost town with very few cars on the streets, and (there were) military check points," said Anderson. The team was on its way to visit Educación Popular en Salud (EPES or Popular Education in Health Foundation), an ELCA partner organization.  EPES works to improve health care services in local communities. Anderson works with EPES.

The team met with Dr. Lautaro Lopez, EPES director. Since the earthquake Lopez has been providing medical care to neighbors and organizing water distribution at EPES. More than 300 families (1,200 individuals) are receiving water every day from the water source on the EPES property, said Anderson.

Concepción's municipality "has been helping pump out the water with a generator," Anderson said. With funds from the ELCA, "we bought our own generator, which we took with us. Luckily the power was back on, and we were able to run the pump with electricity from our building," she said, adding that Lopez organized a neighborhood committee to distribute water.

Although the first few days were very tense, as people were panicking about the lack of water, food and other basic necessities, "things are running smoothly now," said Anderson.

The ELCA sent $10,000 to the Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en Chile (IELCH or Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile) for earthquake relief efforts. The ELCA also provided $10,000 to assist the efforts of EPES, and $20,000 for an ecumenical response through Action by Churches Together Alliance.

The Rev. Gloria Rojas, pastor-president of IELCH, and Kathryn Lawler, a regional ELCA Global Mission representative based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, traveled with Anderson to Concepción as part of the ecumenical assessment team. Other members of the team included a representative of Church World Service, New York, and the bishop of the Methodist Church in Chile.

[ELCA NEWS SERVICE -- March 8, 2010]

Updates to ELCA news stories can be found at the ELCA Newsfeed below [here]

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Focusing on immediate provision of shelter and non-food items as the rainy season approaches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) announced it has increased its financial commitment by $2.5 million toward earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.

The ELCA will provide an additional $1.5 million to the Lutheran World Federation's Department for World Service (LWF-DWS) and $1 million to the Lutheran Church in Haiti, said Megan Bradfield, associate director, International Development and Disaster Response, ELCA Global Mission.

Donations can be made directly to St. Matthew’s. Indicate the gift is for "Haiti Disaster Relief" and St. Matt’s will forward it directly to the ELCA. ELCA members can also contribute gifts online [here] or by calling 800-638-3522.

Through Feb. 24 the ELCA has received more than $5.8 million in gifts in response to the earthquake, including a matching gift of $320,000 from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Minneapolis, said Christina Jackson-Skelton, ELCA treasurer.

These funds from ELCA World Hunger and ELCA International Disaster Response have been funneled directly to church-related partner organizations working on the ground in Haiti.

The ELCA previously sent $450,000 to LWF-DWS for immediate shelter, water and sanitation needs of nearly 12,000 families, Bradfield said.  The LWF, Geneva, is a global communion of 140 churches, representing nearly 69 million Lutherans worldwide.  The ELCA is an LWF member.

Church World Service (CWS), New York, a U.S.-based ecumenical relief organization, has provided blankets, hygiene kits, non-perishable food, tents, shipping, and local transportation and distribution services in Haiti.  The ELCA has sent $300,000 to CWS.

The ELCA also has sent $150,000 to Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Baltimore, to help provide health kits, quilts, thousands of tarpaulins, plus storage and shipping services. LWR is an international development and relief organization, and is a ministry of the ELCA and Lutheran Church-Missouri ynod.

The ELCA is developing a long-term plan for funding ongoing relief efforts in Haiti, Bradfield said.

In a Feb. 19 e-mail message to the ELCA churchwide organization, the Rev. Joseph Livenson Lauvanus, president of the Lutheran Church in Haiti, wrote, "Port-au-Prince has now become a desolate place with no sign of activities. The buildings that are still standing are potential problems for both those who have their tents near them and the pedestrians. The government now is trying to smash down all the buildings that have cracks and cannot be used any more. The aftershocks are still prominent in Port-au-Prince."

Lauvanus wrote that church yards are "the best shelter place one can find," and are crowded with people. For those staying in Port-au-Prince there is a great need for food, he wrote.  Power outages, sanitation and children who are without parents or guardians provide significant challenges, he wrote.

"Everybody, Christians and non-Christians, have considered the church as their refuge," he wrote. "The Lutheran church in Carrefour for instance is the one among all our churches that has been badly damage(d) by the earthquake. People use the backyard to erect their tents."

"As we are reaching out to those who are living in distress, we request your prayers and continuing support to share God's love, grace and compassion to our brothers and sister(s) who are currently undergoing one of the worst times of their life," Lauvanus wrote.

[ELCA NEWS SERVICE -- February 24, 2010]

Updates to ELCA news stories can be found at the ELCA Newsfeed below [here]

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), responded to a variety of questions about the economy, ecumenism, evangelism, youth and young adult ministries, decisions of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly and more at a "Town Hall Forum" here March 7. This was the second in a series of online forums hosted by Hanson.

He responded to 18 questions from a studio audience and members of the church watching online. Carlos Peña, ELCA vice president, Galveston, Texas, introduced Hanson and posed questions from viewers.

ELCA Communication Services, which managed the forum along with ELCA Information Technology staff and others, reported the online video player for the forum was launched 2,296 times, fewer than the 3,148 launched for the forum Hanson hosted Dec. 6, 2009. Members were encouraged to watch in groups this time.

Hanson said he has been thinking about conversations across the ELCA regarding the decisions of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly. That assembly approved proposals that would create the possibility for Lutherans in committed, publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA clergy and professional lay leaders.

Hanson said some of the conversations are joyful over the decisions of the ELCA, while others are confused, "wondering what is going on and what did we do; and some conversations are hard, expressing opposition and wondering about future participation."

"I hope our conversations today -- about our identity as a church body, where God is calling us to be engaged in mission and what is called for from us -- will be in the context of that discussion and that central proclamation of faith that we are grounded in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for the life of the world," he said.

Story continues on the ELCA website [here].