The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is seeking to market its "brand" in a new advertising campaign.

Amid falling membership numbers, the ELCA launched television ads on Monday to spread awareness about the denomination and the hope and care it's offering to the world.

With the tag line "God's work, our hands," the television spots are being aired on national cable channels, including the Fox News channel, and other selected television markets. more >>

Three members of a task force in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have released a statement, expressing their dissent against recommendations the panel made regarding homosexuality.

"Because we firmly believe the current polices of the ELCA, when enforced, are consistent with the biblical witness, Christian moral tradition, and the view of the vast majority of Christians in the world, we refused to sign off on both the social statement and the recommendations and are submitting our dissent," the Revs. Dr. Scott Suskovic, Corinne Johnson, and Carol S. Hendrix stated, according to their post in the Lutheran Forum.

The three described themselves as the "minority voice" among the other 27 members and advisors of the ELCA Task Force on Human Sexuality. Last month, the task force released a long-awaited report acknowledging that there is neither a consensus nor an emerging one in the denomination on homosexuality while at the same time recommending that individual congregations be allowed to choose whether to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to be ordained. more >>

The nation's largest Lutheran denomination will consider allowing individual congregations to choose whether to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, an attempt to avoid the sort of infighting that has threatened to tear other churches apart.

A task force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America recommended that course Thursday in a long-awaited report on ministry standards. The panel, however, said the church needs to clarify a number of questions before overhauling its gay clergy policy.

The report, issued at the same time as a broader church social statement on human sexuality, seeks balance on an issue dividing many Protestant churches. Both documents will be considered in August in Minneapolis at the biannual convention of the 4.7-million member denomination. more >>

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has opened conversations between the church and academia on feminist theologies, hoping to develop insight on how the Church can live out its commitment to combat sexism in the church and society and to advocate justice for women.

Although Lutheran feminist theologians have been writing and working in Lutheran and non-Lutheran institutions for a long time, the church and academia have rarely come together to discuss their work, says Dr. Mary Streufert, director of the Justice for Women program, part of the denomination's Church in Society arm.

Until now, the discussion on feminist theologies has been mainly confined to some ELCA universities and seminaries, said Streufert. more >>

The head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and The Episcopal Church (TEC) have asked Israel to explain why it denied two of their bishops entry into Gaza while allowing others in a church delegation to cross the border.

In a letter to Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, ELCA presiding bishop the Rev. Mark S. Hanson and TEC presiding bishop the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori asked why only the two Palestinian bishops were kept from entering Gaza, especially since they said they had already obtained permits from Israeli officials to enter Gaza.

"The purpose of their visit was pastoral – to visit churches, humanitarian projects of the Middle East Council of Churches and the Al Ahli Hospital, an institution of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem," the two U.S. presiding bishops wrote in the Feb. 5 letter. more >>

Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America recently agreed to all be tested for HIV/AIDS at their upcoming Conference of Bishops in a denominational effort to raise awareness about the pandemic.

The 65 synod bishops, presiding bishop and secretary that make up the advisory board of ELCA’s Conference of Bishops will be tested for the virus during their March 2009 meeting in Itasca, Ill.

ELCA’s Ministry Among People in Poverty (MAPP) Committee had first introduced the idea at the October 2008 Conference meeting. The Conference of Bishops meet twice a year. more >>