Cash for call committees An American Baptist group, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Missouri, offered to pay interview, travel and other expenses of congrega- tional search committees that “include a woman candidate in the process [of seeking a senior pastor] … treat- ing her as a top candidate.” The fel- lowship’s associate coordinator, Jeff Langford, said it could help reluctant congregations to consider a female pastor and “discover a remarkable candidate along the way that changes their perspective.” Kathy Pickett, the fellowship’s moderator-elect, warned that congregations need to be honest about their intentions to avoid “hurt or damage” if they don’t see someone as a viable candidate.
Bishop writes Obama, Congress ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson on Nov. 1 sent letters to Pres- ident Barack Obama and Congress, urging them to take action on com- prehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act. Without reform, states have enacted “often short- sighted and misguided” immigra- tion laws, Hanson wrote. “The bibli- cal call to hospitality [has] inspired Lutheran congregations across the country to discuss transforming communities into centers of hospital- ity through relationship building and advocacy,” he added.
Hay lift continues Steve Hetzel, pastor of Emannuel and St. Paul Lutheran churches in Shen- andoah and Northboro, Iowa, was on hand when donated hay from the Western Iowa Synod (and northwest Missouri) reached drought-weary Texas in November (November, page 8). Hetzel arranged to have 78 round bales and 60 to 70 square bales deliv- ered to Hope Lutheran Church, Buck- holts, where Gary Kleypas, a college friend from Texas Lutheran Univer-
sity, Seguin, whom he hadn’t seen in 40 years, is pastor. Hetzel received an early Christmas gift from a member to help cover the cost of a plane ticket so he could greet the hay recipients.
Soul and wallet
Faith and Money: How Religion Contributes to Wealth and Poverty (Cambridge University Press, 2011) suggests that mainline Protestants,
10
COURTESY OF LUTHER SEMINARY
Reformation tree garden Arden Haug, ELCA regional representative for Europe and director of the ELCA
Wittenberg Center, and ELCA pastor Karen Bockelman pose near a tree in Wittenberg, Germany, planted on behalf of Luther Seminary (both are gradu- ates). Luther was one of eight U.S. sponsors to plant a Reformation Garden Tree in Wittenberg and an oak tree on its St. Paul, Minn., campus, honoring the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. To date, 102 of the 500 total tree pairs have been planted. When the project is complete, sponsors will have planted 1,000 trees. Learn more at
http://luthergarten.de/english.
December 2011 9
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