News


By the staff of The Lutheran, ELCA News Service and Religion News Service


Portico lawsuit settled P


ortico Benefit Services (formerly the ELCA Board of Pensions) reported in mid-October that an agreement was reached in a lawsuit four ELCA pastors filed in Decem- ber 2010. The clergy claimed that Portico’s decision to reduce annuity pay- ments to retirees beginning in 2010 was improper and sought to recover losses for all annuitants. Portico said it reduced payments after mar- ket losses during the 2008-09 eco- nomic downturn caused a funding shortage in its ELCA Participating Annuity Investment Fund. Class action was denied when a U.S. District Court judge found that the Board of Pensions’ move had improved the ability of the annuity fund to provide payments, and that the majority of annuitants “were helped, not harmed, by [the Board of Pensions’] challenged actions.” Through mediation, the plain-


tiffs and Portico reached an agree- ment that Portico’s insurance com- pany would pay up to $60,000 of the plantiffs’ administrative costs. Portico President and CEO Jeff Thiemann said the fund is now fully


God dropped from oath


funded, which allowed annuity pay- ment increases in 2013 and 2014. The increase for 2014 is 3 percent— the highest since 2002.


Portico serves more than 50,000


ELCA clergy, laity, retirees and their family members.


Another lawsuit settled In April 2013, Augsburg Fortress, Publishers, the separately incor- porated publishing ministry of the ELCA, agreed to a $4.5 million set- tlement for nearly 500 employees and retirees. Four former employ- ees and retirees had sued the pub- lisher over the 2009 termination of its underfunded defined benefit pension plan. That plan, at its termination, had less than $9 million to pay $24 mil- lion in pension obligations. A fed- eral judge ruled in 2011 that it was a “church plan” and therefore exempt from claims that the company had violated federal labor law under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Augsburg Fortress now has a 403(b) defined contribution plan for employees.


ELCJHL/DANAE HUDSON


Gather at the river On Epiphany (Jan. 6), the Evangelical Lutheran


Church in Jordan and the Holy Land will celebrate Jesus’ baptism and the dedication of the first Lutheran church on a holy site: the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan. The site, mentioned in John 1:28, contains a sanctuary, parsonage and multipurpose hall. Guests will be invited for retreats. The Hashem- ite Kingdom of Jordan donated the land to the ELCJHL and six other Christian churches. To help support the site, send checks (payable to ELCA, with “ELCJHL Baptismal Site” on the memo line) to ELCA Global Mission, Attn: Finance, 10th Floor, 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago, IL 60631.


8 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org


Air Force Academy cadets will no longer be required to include the words “so help me God” when tak- ing their annual honor oath. Offi- cials at the Colorado Springs, Colo., campus announced its 4,000 current cadets would be allowed to opt out of the final phrase of their honor code, which reads: “We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us any- one who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and to live honor- ably, so help me God.” The decision has exposed a rift among academy alumni, their families and others associated with the military.


Online communion studied United Methodist Church leaders are debating whether to condone online communion. Some 30 leaders met after Central United Methodist Church in Concord, N.C., announced plans to launch an online campus that poten- tially would offer online communion. The leaders urged bishops to call for a moratorium on the practice and do further study of online ministries. The debate raises fundamental questions at the heart of the church experience: the definition of community, individual participation, the role of tradition and basic theological understandings of the meaning of communion.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52