ELCA

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has forged a partnership with a major family genealogy website in which the denomination will have hundreds of reels of microfilm containing church records between 1793 to 1940 digitized.

Archives.com, a website boasting 2.1 billion historical records, announced the partnership on Tuesday. The site will be digitizing the microfilm donated by ELCA, which includes millions of records on baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and funerals. These records will later be made available at Archives.com for people to search.

Julie Hill, spokeswoman for Archives.com, told The Christian Post that the ELCA was the first religious denomination to make such a partnership with the family history site. more >>

An openly gay Atlanta pastor previously removed from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and later reinstated has now been voted in by an overwhelming majority to the role of senior pastor at the biggest Lutheran church in Saint Paul, Minn.

The Rev. Bradley Schmeling, who in 2007 admitted he was in a committed same-sex relationship with Pastor Darin Easler, a former minister at the United Redeemer Lutheran Church in Zumbrota, Minn., was removed from ELCA's official clergy roster that year. His St. John's Lutheran Church in Atlanta, however, decided to keep him on as pastor despite the ELCA's decision, and he has served there since 2000.

Schmeling and Easler were reinstated in 2009 when the ELCA voted to permit gay and lesbian ministers in monogamous relationships to be on the roster. The 559-451 vote created a split within the Lutheran church, as a fraction of member churches left to start the North American Lutheran Church, which rejects openly gay clergy. more >>

An Edmond, Okla., church voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to cut ties with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America over the denomination's liberal direction.

In a 110-5 vote, Peace Lutheran Church agreed to leave the ELCA – the largest Lutheran denomination in the country with around 4.5 million members. This was the second and final approval needed to leave. The congregation also determined in a separate vote to affiliate with the newly formed conservative body, the North American Lutheran Church.

Peace Lutheran joins hundreds of other congregations in withdrawing from the ELCA following the body's vote in 2009 to let non-celibate gays and lesbians serve as clergy. more >>

A retired military chaplain reminded hundreds of people at the 87th annual National Christmas Tree Lighting in Washington, D.C., on Thursday about the reason for the season.

The Rev. Darrell D. Morton, assistant for federal chaplaincy ministries to the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, delivered the invocation at the lighting in President’s Park. During the first half of the start-studded affair, he prayed, “This night as the Christmas tree is lighted, we are reminded of the light which has come into the world through your son.”

During his prayer, Morton also highlighted the plights of the homeless and the poor. more >>

Religious leaders are lending their voice to a newly launched video project, joining celebrities and political figures who assure young bullied gays and lesbians that "it gets better."

In a video message added Thursday, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America told victims of bullying that God loves them.

"I've listened with pain and shock to reports of young people taking their lives because they've been bullied and tormented for being different, for being gay or perceived to be gay, for being the people God created them to be," the Rev. Mark S. Hanson said. more >>

Three lesbian ministers were received Saturday on to the official clergy roster of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Anita Hill, Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart, who were ordained at least a decade earlier, beamed wide smiles after the "rite of reception" was complete.

The three are not newcomers to the church, noted the Rev. Peter Rogness, bishop of the St. Paul synod. They are long-distance runners who have been part of the ministry for years. Only now, the ELCA is opening the door more widely and "drawing the circles of welcome more broadly," he said before hundreds of people at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in St. Paul, Minn. more >>