LWF evacuate staff from Juba A Lutheran World Federation (LWF) staff member speaks to children as they line up before class at a school in the Ajuong Thok refugee camp in South Sudan. Rising levels of violence in July forced the LWF to evacuate staff from Juba, the capital. Staff were sent home, to safe locations or to Nairobi. At presstime, a July 11 cease-fire between the two
conflicting parties remained in place.
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United Methodist election draws concern In July, Karen Oliveto, a pastor of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church (UMC) in San Francisco, was elected bishop by the Western Jurisdictional Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. Bishop Bruce R. Ough, head of the UMC Council of Bishops, said the election of the denomination’s first openly lesbian bishop “raises significant concerns and questions of church polity and unity.” Currently, the denomination bans the ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.” In May, at the Council of Bishops’ recommendation, the denomination agreed to create a commission to discuss the conflict over sexuality that could lead to a special session of the global conference in 2018 or 2019.
Catechism quandary? There’s an app for that! Augsburg Fortress and ELCA Reformation 500 released a free mobile app, “Luther’s Small Catechism,” in recognition of the 2017 Reformation anniversary. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism is available in English and Spanish. The app can be found in the Apple iOS App Store and on Google Play. Content from the Study Edition is also available as an in-app purchase.
Panel to study ordaining women deacons Following through on a pledge he made to a group of nuns last May, Pope Francis established a special commission to study whether the Roman Catholic Church should take the historic step of ordaining women as deacons. In August the pope appointed seven men and six women to the panel, a move that reignited the simmering debate about the role of women in the church. Phyllis Zagano, an acclaimed Catholic scholar who teaches at Hofstra University on Long Island and has championed the cause of women’s ordination as deacons, will serve on the panel.
Next phase of ‘Called Forward’ underway The second phase of “Called Forward Together in Christ,” an initiative that asks members to consider the kind of church God is calling the ELCA to become, is underway. Released on July 26 via
elca.org/future, a new paper shares key messages discovered through conversations across the ELCA during the first phase. Member feedback on that paper is requested by Sept. 9. Following phase two, the ELCA Church Council will consider a statement of future directions and priorities at its November 2016 meeting. The goal is to launch the statement in 2017 as part of the ELCA’s observance of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
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Your patronage supports our mission for seafarers and immigrants. A Mission of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
10 SEPTEMBER 2016
Publishing house has new name Augsburg Fortress, the ELCA publishing house, has adopted a new name: 1517 Media. Beth A. Lewis, president and CEO of 1517 Media, said the new “doing business as” identity “expresses our rootedness in the Lutheran reforming movement—ignited by events in the year 1517—and the gifts this tradition continues to offer to the whole church, society and the individual” (the Protestant Reformation sparked by Martin Luther began in 1517). Its three publishing units are Augsburg Fortress, Fortress Press and Sparkhouse. For more information, see
1517.media.
Photo: ACT/Paul Jeffrey
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