wfn.org | ELCA Women's Offering Garners $200,000

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 19, 1996

WOMEN'S OFFERING GARNERS $200,000 (80 lines)
96-17-052-LC

     MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- When worship closed the Third
Triennial Convention for Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA) here July 11-14, about 5,700 women had
stretched, received new leadership and garnered $194,571.98.
     Jonathan C. Kalkwarf, Women of the ELCA director for finance
and administration, says offerings were received throughout the
convention and will continue to be sent in to the churchwide
organization.  He expects that figure to grow beyond $200,000.
     Fifty percent of all money received in offerings, will be
used to support the ongoing ministries of the churchwide
organization.  The other 50 percent goes toward projects selected
by the convention.
     Each of the following were selected by the delegates and
will receive $10,000: Lutheran Social Services of Alaska,
Anchorage, Alaska, for emergency assistance to Native Alaskan
single mothers; Lutheran Social Ministry of the Southwest,
Phoenix, for advocacy for at-risk children; American Indian
Community Housing Organization, Duluth, Minn., for transitional
housing for American Indian women and children; Lutheran Family
and Children's Service, St. Louis, support for families and
children and risk ; Lutheran Social Services, Des Moines, Iowa,
help for young mothers; God's Pantry Food Bank, Lexington, Ky.,
food pantry; St. Peter's in the Bronx, N.Y., after-school
program; Wilkinsburg Community Ministry, Pittsburgh, child care
for low-income families; and Lutheran Ministries of Alabama,
Huntsville, Ala., job skills training.
     In addition, the Learning Center for Street Children, Cusco,
Peru, will receive $8,000.
     "If you desire to be more of a proclaimer of God's peace in
your home, to your community, and to the world, say `Amen,'" the
Rev. Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, bishop of the ELCA South Dakota
Synod, preached during the closing worship service.  "If you have
never before shouted `Amen!' during a Lutheran worship service,
say `Amen!'"
     DeGroot-Nesdahl talked about what it means to stretch.  She
recently returned from the Pine Ridge Reservation in Southwest
South Dakota where she worshiped in a Lutheran congregation, in
the Lakota language.  "I wanted to sing, to somehow join these
people, whom I did not know, but clearly shared the same faith as
me.  I wanted to stretch, to be bilingual," said DeGroot-Nesdahl.
     How wonderful it will be "when stretching to another's
culture and experience and language and heritage is a value we
lift up as individuals and congregations, not a foreign territory
we fear and avoid.
     "God's word, from our mouths, and through our actions, shall
not return empty.  We are stretching," she said.
     During the Sunday morning worship service new officers and
board members for Women of the ELCA were installed -- beginning
three-year terms.
     The convention elected four officers: Sharroll A. Bernahl,
Fort Morgan, Colo., president; Mary G. Seale, Roosevelt, N.Y.,
vice president; Donna L. Haack, Pomeroy, Iowa, secretary; and
Nancy A. Hoffman, Lancaster, Ohio, treasurer.
     Seventeen women were elected to Women of the ELCA#s
Executive Board:  Faith A. Aston, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Janet L.
Brewer, Anchorage, Alaska; Jackie K. Chattopadhyay, St. Anthony
Village, Minn.; Linda Chinnia, Baltimore; Cynthia E. Cowen, Iron
Mountain, Mich.; LaVaun Danielson, Franklin, Minn.; Sally C.
Frank, Beaver, Pa.; Merle Frieji, Mayville, N.D.; Vicki Hamilton,
Slidell, La; Carol F. Hines, Miller, S.D.; Irene E. Lee,
Brimfield, Mass.; Borgne L. McClelland, Grafton, Wis.; Dolores R.
Posey, Hollister, Calif.; Anna Purcella-Doll, Plano, Texas;
Georganne W. Roberts, Olympia, Wash.; Judy Wagner, St. Pierre,
Newport News, Va.; and Marilyn M. Sorenson-Bush, Cape Canaveral,
Fla.

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