Rejoicing Spirits grows in Souderton

TheReporterOnline.com
Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Souderton, with the lay leadership of Jay Grimes of Franconia, has started a service that allows developmentally delayed members of the community to worship in a ministry that is tailored just for them.

“We’re all part of the same community is what it comes down to,” Grimes said.

Grimes is the ministry coordinator for the Rejoicing Spirits service at Emmanuel Lutheran Church

This monthly service has been providing a Christian outlet for developmentally delayed individuals, their families and their care givers for the last 2½ years.

reporteremmanuelrejoicing

Little church with big heart celebrates 100th

TheReporterOnline.com
A small Ambler Borough church with a rich history will kick off its centennial with a community celebration Sunday.

St. John’s Lutheran Church of Ambler was chartered April 26, 1908. It was founded by a young pastor from Upper Dublin Lutheran Church, Samuel F. Tholan, who began leading services in the heart of Ambler in 1907.

For five years services were held in the Ambler Opera House, at the corner of Butler Avenue and Maple Street. In 1913 the congregation moved to a new church building on the corner of North Ridge Avenue and Race Street, where it still stands.

“I think what’s interesting in anything that lasts,” the Rev. Sandra Ellis-Killian said, “it’s what changes and what stays the same through all the ups and downs.”

reporterambler100th

Oregon pact models Methodist, Lutheran communion

When a United Methodist congregation and a Lutheran congregation in McMinnville, Ore., formed a cooperative ministry two years ago, the decision emerged out of a desire to share a common mission, not out of desperation.

Neither the McMinnville United Methodist Church nor Trinity Lutheran Church, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was in danger of closing, according to the Rev. Stephan Ross, the United Methodist pastor.

“Both of our churches could survive quite well on their own,” he explained. But the congregations liked the idea of being “a model of and a testimony to the unity of the church, which transcends denominational distinctions.” (United Methodist News Service)

wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 178-Oregon pact models Methodist, Lutheran communion

State Senate ID bill would harm the needy

Making its way through the Senate since last spring, S.B. 9 requires the submission of government-issued ID as a condition of receiving a wide variety of public benefits.

In a state where 1.4 million people live in poverty, there is a $4.6 billion shortfall in adequate funding for K-12 public education and nearly 800,000 people dont have health care insurance. So why is a bill that would accomplish little or nothing a top priority?

State Senate ID bill would harm the needy –  themorningcall.com

ELCA ad campaign shows results

Denver motorists saw billboards in September 2007 that displayed tools in the shape of a cross and conveyed a fact — “8,400 homes repaired after Hurricane Katrina” — and a message — “God’s Work. Our Hands.” The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Rocky Mountain Synod took the lead in a pilot advertising campaign about the ELCA and what Lutherans are about in the world.

Read in Church Executive Magazine

Facing South: Religious groups join opposition to nuclear “Bombplex”

Facing South: Religious groups join opposition to nuclear “Bombplex”

Sixteen national religious organizations filed formal comments [PDF] yesterday opposing the Bush administration’s $150 billion plan to update the nation’s nuclear arsenal, calling the proposed Nuclear Weapons Complex Transformation project wasteful, unneeded and dangerous. The plan, dubbed “Bombplex” by its foes, would streamline the nation’s current atomic arsenal of some 10,000 warheads and build new nuclear weapons at various sites, including several in the South.

wfn.org | Lutheran Disaster Response Nearly Completes $27.7 Million Expenditure

wfn.org | Lutheran Disaster Response Nearly Completes $27.7 Million Expenditure

Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) has nearly completed the expenditure of more than $27.7 million collected to support recovery work along the U.S. Gulf Coast in response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and other hurricanes from the 2005 season. And in an effort to continue rebuilding the Gulf Coast in the long-term, LDR — a collaborative ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) — is asking for more funds.

William Lazareth, Former ELCA Synod Bishop, Author, Professor, Dies

wfn.org | William Lazareth, Former ELCA Synod Bishop, Author, Professor, Dies
The Rev. William H. Lazareth, former bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) died of cancer Feb. 23 in Bar Harbor, Maine. Lazareth, 79, had a distinguished career as a college and seminary professor, author and leader with the ELCA, the former Lutheran Church in America (LCA) and the World Council of Churches (WCC), Geneva.

Colleges offer programs in church finance | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/18/2008

Colleges offer programs in church finance | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/18/2008
Many U.S. churches have been victims of embezzlement over the years, reflecting not just moral weakness on the part of the wrongdoers, but lax financial controls. Often, church budgets are overseen by volunteers or employees with little guidance or professional training.

Now, some colleges are hoping to prevent such abuses by offering programs devoted specifically to managing church finances and personnel.

Two Sides of the Street

Two Sides of the Street | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/24/2008
Center City’s street population - 85 percent of whom are mentally ill or addicted or both - is the highest in 10 years, according to the city’s homeless outreach center. But that’s only the most visible part of the homeless situation. Shelters, which cater more to families, are running at capacity with 20 percent more beds than five years ago, city statistics show.