News
By the staff of The Lutheran, ELCA News Service and Religion News Service
Call for climate action
Thousands of Lutherans were among nearly 1.8 million people to sign peti- tions urging political leaders who attended the December 2015 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris to “take decisive action to curb global warming and deliver a strong, fair deal that helps poor countries adapt to their changing climate.” A few days prior, the petitions were presented to Christiana Figueres, executive secre- tary for the U.N. Framework Conven- tion on Climate Change, at the Faith in Climate Justice event in Paris. The event was organized by four interna- tional faith-based networks, includ- ing ACT Alliance, of which the ELCA is a member.
Eaton on refugees
Responding to the terrorism in the world and people displaced from their homes and seeking refuge, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton issued a statement Nov. 18 urg- ing members to “call upon our elected officials to be leaders in speaking up for refugees already persecuted and traumatized and ensuring that our country continues to reflect the prin- ciples and values of a nation commit- ted to freedom.” Eaton emphasized the long history of Lutherans in this country settling refugees: “We draw on both biblical witness as well as the best of our nation’s traditions as a refuge and haven for the persecuted and destitute.” (Read the statement at
www.elca.org/en/Resources/ Presiding-Bishop-Messages.)
Lutherans in Rose Parade
IOWA DONOR NETWORK
An ELCA family from Iowa and their late son will be honored in this year’s Rose Parade Jan. 1. Mary and John Jorgensen’s son, Jesse, died in an accident while at Waldorf College, formerly an ELCA-affiliated school in Forest City, Iowa. This floragraph (or portrait) of Jesse will appear on the Donate Life float. More than 80 people suffering from a variety of medical problems were helped by their donation. The Jorgensens attend New Life Lutheran Church in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.
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Together, we must say no to hatred, to revenge and to
violence, particularly that violence which is perpetrated in the name of a religion or of God himself. God is peace, salaam.
Pope on Lutherans
Pope Francis, using the Arabic word for peace, during a recent visit to the Central African Republic where he warned that religious conflicts are spawning civil war in Africa.
” Loan commissions
As faith-based agencies that resettle refugees in the U.S. occupy a growing stage in the public square, their debt collection practices are coming under increased scrutiny. The agencies’ little-known debt collection opera- tions bring in upward of $5 million a year in commissions as resettled refu- gees repay loans for their travel costs. All nine resettlement agencies charge the same going rate as private-sector debt collectors: 25 percent of all they recoup for the government.
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www.thelutheran.org
At a Nov. 15 prayer service at a Lutheran church in Rome, a Lutheran who is married to a Roman Catholic asked Pope Francis what she could do to attain communion in the Catho- lic Church. After joking that he was “afraid” to respond on such a topic, the pope pondered aloud whether the eucharist should be thought of as an end point to ecumenism or as an aid on the journey together toward full denominational communion. While he noted it wasn’t his place to give permission, he said that “life is greater than explanations and inter- pretations.” A crucial condition for Protestants to receive communion is that they genuinely believe in the “real presence” of Christ in the eucha- rist. That is a point that Lutheran and Catholic leaders agree on, said Denis J. Madden, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
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