News
ELCA stands with those affected by storms
Christ Lutheran Church, Cullman, Ala., is left in rubble after a tornado struck April 27. The church’s sanctuary roof now rests on top of the administration building.
LUKE NIILER O
ne block from their church’s ruins, about 45 members of Christ
Lutheran, Cullman, Ala., met for an informal candlelight worship service Sunday, May 1. Without electricity or hymnals, they spoke worship responses as best they could from memory, said Darrel Peterson, assistant to the bishop of the Southeastern Synod. “We sang a familiar hymn from their Easter Sunday’s service, and we closed with ‘Jesus Loves Me,’ ” said Peterson, who attended the service. Sandra M. Niiler, interim pastor of the congregation, told those gathered that ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson had called her Thursday eve- ning. He assured her that the people of Christ Lutheran were not alone. The mood at the service was hope- ful even though the April 27 tornado had reduced the church’s walls and beams to rubble, depositing the sanc- tuary roof on top of its administration building. During the service, members shared stories. Christ’s processional cross ended up in the yard of an Epis- copal family, who recognized it as belonging to a liturgical church and
10 The Lutheran •
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returned it to the grate- ful Lutherans. A young couple planning to be wed June 11 at Christ said they’d find another site. Somehow the tor- nado left the organist’s
glasses and her cup of mints undis- turbed near the organ bench.
Storms affect South, Midwest This spring, storms took the lives of more than 340 people in south- ern states, including at least 230 in Alabama. At presstime, no ELCA deaths had been reported. But in Harvest, Ala., Incarnation Lutheran Church saw its worship site, Ford’s Chapel United Methodist Church, destroyed by a tor- nado. In Ooltewah, Tenn., Resurrec- tion Lutheran Church assisted emer- gency personnel and provided shelter for displaced people. After the storms, the ELCA cared for people in need through ELCA Domestic Disaster Response and its local partners—often Lutheran social ministry organizations and congregations. The ELCA gave an initial $10,000
to Lutheran Services in Tennessee to support disaster recovery efforts throughout the Southeastern Synod. In the Midwest, where the Red River flooded and devastated rural areas of Minnesota and North Dakota, the ELCA provided $10,000 to
Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota for its response to overland flooding. To help, pray and send checks
(write “U.S. Severe Storms,” in the memo line) to ELCA Disaster Response, 39330 Treasury Cen- ter, Chicago, IL 60694-9300; give by credit card at 800-638-3522; or online at
www.ELCA.org/ disaster/storms. One hundred percent of your gift will be used in response to these disasters. For volunteer needs, visit www.
ELCA.org/disaster.
Elizabeth Hunter Hunter is an associate editor of The Lutheran. 9 Germans leave church in droves
The number of Germans leaving the Roman Catholic Church rose in 2010 as the church wrestled with reports of sexual abuse of minors and attempted cover-ups. About 180,000 Catholics officially ended their church affilia- tion in 2010, a rise of 50,000 (or 40 percent) from 2009, according to the weekly Die Zeit newspaper. The defections also have monetary impli- cations: people who formally leave a church in Germany are no longer required to pay a church tax. If vali- dated, it would represent the first time since World War II that more Roman Catholics than Protestants left their church in a single year.
Not free
For the first time, Egypt made a watchdog list of countries with severe violations of religious freedom. In an April 28 report, the independent U.S. Commission on International Reli- gious Freedom cited Egypt because of a dramatic increase in the last year in severe violations, “including murder, escalating against Coptic Christians and other religious minorities,” said
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