wfn.org | Women of the ELCA Proclamation Station

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 14, 1996

HANG A RIGHT ON JERICHO ROAD
96-WO-23-BC

     MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- The "Proclamation Station" offers chances
to go online, make a videotape, experience disabilities, tie quilts,
and be refreshed -- besides making loads of information and many
resources available.  The exhibit hall of the Third Triennial
Convention of the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
is open here July 11-14.
     The hall looks like most any other convention exhibit area --
booths and displays with flyers and pamphlets and even some computer
terminals.  Once a participant started visiting the booths -- by way
of aisles bearing names of biblical significance -- he or she would
find unique and meaningful opportunities and information.
* Wheat Ridge Ministries calls conventioneers to prayer with
bracelets.  Beads and string are provided for making them.  Each bead
represents a different problem, need or ministry, and is to
remind the maker to pray for each concern he or she put on the
bracelet.  Wheat Ridge Ministries is an independent pan-Lutheran
organization supplying money and grants for new ministries.
* MOSAIC, the ELCA's video magazine, gives participants an opportunity
to make a videotape that can be used to report on the convention.
Tapes are provided that already include greetings from ELCA Presiding
Bishop H. George Anderson and Women of the ELCA President Jan
Peterson.
* Participants who are eager to get online or are afraid of computers
-- either way -- can ease onto the Internet by visiting the LutherLink
site.  LutherLink is the Lutheran branch of Ecunet, a global computer
network of religious organizations.  The site includes six computers,
helpers, an explanation of the World Wide Web and an introduction to
LutherLink, an online site that is becoming a basic communication tool
for the church.
* With eight sewing machines, three quilting tables and thousands of
quilt squares, the Lutheran World Relief station is the place to tie
quilts.  Many of the participants are accustomed to this work in their
congregational Women of the ELCA unit, and those who aren't receive
instructions to "tie into it."  Fabric squares are also available to
take home and to tie into quilts that can be donated to LWR.
* Social justice is a major concern of this convention.  Participants
can write their congressional representatives, the President, Supreme
Court justices or governors at the display of the Lutheran Office for
Governmental Affairs.  Sample letters on topics from campaign finance
reform to welfare reform are provided.  They can be personalized on
the available computers.  The letter can be sent from the convention
by mail or e-mail.  A separate letter-writing opportunity is provided
at the Lutherans for Peace Fellowship booth.
* The Lutheran Special Education Ministries of Detroit exhibit helps
participants experience visual-motor problems -- copy a star while
looking through a mirror.  It also displays a scripture verse as a
dyslexic person would see it.
* At the Martin Luther Home Society booth, participants can earn a
stress ball by taking on one of several disabilities, such as putting
on huge gardening gloves to try to tie a shoelace bow.
* Augsburg Fortress, publishing house of the ELCA, has a "store" for a
variety of its products in the center of the Proclamation Station.
* Resource booklets and information displays are provided by ELCA
units, such as the Division for Congregational Ministries and Division
for Outreach, and the church's eight seminaries and 28 colleges and
universities.
* The ELCAdvantage Program offers a variety of products and services
as a collective, volume purchasing and stewardship effort of the
church.  Some of the products and services on display are cellular
telephones and paging services, communication consulting,
home-finding, vehicle purchasing or leasing and video conferencing
services.
* "Lutheran Vespers," the 30-minute weekly radio program of the ELCA,
featured tapes of its speaker -- the Rev. Walter Wangerin -- and
resources on how to get the program "on the air."  The display
includes antique radios supplied by the Northland Antique Radio Club.
* Southern African Network of the ELCA had a "village" painted on a
tarp that it used to teach about the difficulties of living with land
mines.
     Walking down Esther Lane to King's Highway and taking a right on
Jericho Road can tire the average convention-goer.  So a number of
booths provide rest, relaxation and refreshment.  The Lutheran
Deaconess Association is even washing feet.

     For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia
Christiansen, Asst. Dir.,(312) 380-2956