Donations—about $20,000 so far— have come from across the nation.


Sudan: Call for prayer, help Before a Jan. 9 referendum on south- ern Sudan’s autonomy, Martin Junge, Lutheran World Federation general secretary, issued a call for Lutherans worldwide to pray for Sudan’s peo- ple and churches. “Many people are fearful,” Junge said, adding that tens of thousands of southern Sudanese migrated from the north to the south in fear that a 2005 peace agreement might fail. Junge asked Lutherans to pray and help south Sudanese who live abroad in Canada, Egypt, the U.S. and other countries but are entitled to cast absentee ballots.


Health-care divide Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Olm- sted of Phoenix revoked the church affiliation of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center after it terminated the pregnancy of an ill woman in Novem- ber. The hospital can no longer call itself Roman Catholic, hold masses or keep consecrated wafers in its cha- pel. The Catholic Health Association has sided with the hospital, saying that “confronted with a heartbreak- ing situation” it “correctly applied” church guidelines. Steven Avella, a priest and professor at Marquette Uni- versity, Milwaukee, called health care “the fault line developing between the bishops and within wider society.”


Can’t eat candles After Bulgarian Orthodox Church clergy and lay employees founded a trade union, senior church official Vratsa Metropolitan Kipriyan called their action “absurd” and against canon law. But clergy in Vratsa said the church failed to pay them on time or contribute to their health and retirement insurance. Church income derives in part from a nearly $8 mil- lion candle-making venture intended


to cover clergy pay, but in small dio- ceses where too few candles were sold, some priests were paid in candles. “I cannot eat candles,” an unnamed priest said in the Dec. 9 edition of Trud, Bulgaria’s daily newspaper.


OK to wear religious clothing Oregon officials are trying to help school districts apply the state’s revised law on religious clothing. Oregon repealed a ban on teacher reli- gious dress originally enacted in 1923 to keep Roman Catholic nuns from teaching in public schools. The new law, effective July 1, allows district employees to wear religious clothing unless it hinders the district’s ability to “maintain neutrality” in the school environment.


Shrinking church thinks big The shrinking congregation of Geth- semane Lutheran debated for some time what to do with its brick com- plex in downtown Seattle. For years members had welcomed and fed the hungry and homeless. Last fall, Geth- semane held its last service before closing its sanctuary to begin a $20 million project to dismantle its offices and build a community-service cen- ter for homeless women and children and 50 units of low-income housing. The sanctuary will be closed for 15 months while the five-story project is completed, partly funded by $6 mil- lion from sale of the church parking lot. Meanwhile, members gather for worship across the street in a research


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PHOTO COURTESY OF KENT LARUS BJORNSSON


A boatload of LBWs Before Karen A. Busch left Duluth, Minn., for her sabbatical year in Reykjavik,


Iceland, she told Glen Peterson, the hymnal keeper at First Lutheran Church, “I might find a new home for our green hymnals in storage.” Indeed, she did. After a month of red tape, 100 hymnals were delivered to Hallgrimskirkja, the largest church in Iceland. After hearing “no way” from several U.S. companies, Busch found an Icelandic business willing to ship them for $500, paid for by friends, colleagues and family. The shipment included six banners and a stand, luminar- ies and a Christ candle—all arriving in time for Christmas Eve worship.


February 2011 9


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