News
By the staff of The Lutheran, ELCA News Service and Religion News Service
Advocate wins Templeton grant T
he John Templeton Foundation awarded a $209,000 grant to ELCA-affiliated Advocate Health Care for an 18-month research project on chaplains in palliative care settings.
Researchers will focus on three
Advocate hospitals in Illinois as well as its electronic program for the intensive care unit through which off-site physicians, nurses and telemetry data augment patient care.
“Statistics show that the major- ity of health-care costs happen in the last few months of life,” said Kathie Bender Schwich, Advo- cate senior vice president for mis- sion and spiritual care. “Pallia- tive health care is an area that is growing.”
Change in Norway Added project director Kevin
Massey, Advocate Lutheran Gen- eral Hospital vice president for mission and spiritual care: “The goal of palliative care is comfort, quality of life and dignity, rather than a cure.” Advocate’s grant will help cre- ate a taxonomy, or a way to catego- rize activities for chaplaincy activi- ties in palliative care.
“For example, prayer with a patient would be a high-level item [and] underneath would be more specific types of prayer, such as liturgical, free-form, silent or the Lord’s Prayer,” Massey said. “The benefit is having a common ter- minological set—something the world of chaplaincy doesn’t cur- rently possess.”
Norway amended its constitution May 21, granting the 3.9-million member (Lutheran) Church of Nor- way increased autonomy and chang- ing church laws that date to the 16th century. Lutheranism is no longer the official religion in Norway. Bishops are now appointed by the church’s board of the National Council instead of the king or the government. And the constitution now states that the country’s values are based on its Christian and humanist heritage. Not all ties were abolished. The govern- ment will still fund the Church of Norway, as well as other faith-based institutions. And all clergy remain civil servants (state employees).
First for Southern Baptists
Fred Luter was elected June 19 as the first African-American president of the predominantly white South- ern Baptist Convention. Luter, 55, a former street preacher who brought his mostly African-American New Orleans congregation back from near annihilation after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, will lead the nation’s largest Protestant denomination for at least a year. Most Southern Baptist presi- dents traditionally serve two one- year terms. Many said it was long time for such a move for a denomi- nation that was born in 1845 in a defense of slavery.
Hiker’s remains identified In mid-June the Eagle County cor- oner’s office confirmed that the
Roll out the rain barrels The Green Team at St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Monona, Wis., pulled out all
the stops (even a toilet) to launch its Earth Day “Roll Out the Rain Barrel” event. The team sold 30 rain barrels, charging between $5 and $55 for those without modifications to those with all the “bells and whistles.” Each collects 55 gallons, for a total of 1,650 gallons of water saved—enough to run 82.5 dishwasher cycles. The toilet (with a water-displacing jug inserted into the tank) reminded worshipers to conserve water during the city’s “Year of the Water” emphasis.
8 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org Quote
We hope that they can handle it in a P.C. way, and that means “prayerfully collaborative.”
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops, speaking about a dispute between the Vatican and American nuns.
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