wfn.org | Lutheran Services in America Moving Office to Baltimore

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 10, 2001

LUTHERAN SERVICES IN AMERICA MOVING OFFICE TO BALTIMORE
01-250-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutheran Services in America (LSA) will move its
national offices from St. Paul, Minn., to Baltimore in December.  LSA is
an alliance of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), The
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and their 280 social ministry
organizations, providing $6.9 billion in services for more than 3
million people in 3,000 communities each year.
     LSA's national office has been in St. Paul since LSA was
established in 1997.  LSA is one of the nation's largest organizations
of housing, counseling, child care, adoption, refugee resettlement,
disaster response, health care, nursing home, hospice and AIDS
ministries.
     "LSA's national office will be moving to the Lutheran Center at
Baltimore's Inner Harbor," said Jill Schumann, LSA president and CEO.
She said LSA will continue to have staff in the Minneapolis-St. Paul
area, as well as in Chicago, Richmond, Va., St. Louis and Washington,
D.C.
     LSA will fill two director and one administrative positions in
Baltimore.  Current staff members are developing a staffing plan to
"assure that every LSA member organization has at least one LSA staff
member who is well-acquainted with its particular industries and related
issues and opportunities," said Schumann.
     Baltimore's six-story Lutheran Center is already home to offices
of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), Lutheran World
Relief (LWR), the ELCA Delaware-Maryland Synod and Diakon Lutheran
Social Ministries, which is based in Topton, Pa.
     "Baltimore offers proximity to national media markets, other
national associations, the nation's capital and Lutheran partners," said
Schumann.  "It also offers opportunities to create partnerships for
services and programs and to increase LSA's convening and hosting role."
     "By the new year, LSA will be fully staffed, housed in new offices
and even more actively engaged in implementing its immediate priority
initiatives," she added.
     The Lutheran Center is next door to Christ Lutheran Church,
Baltimore, a congregation of the ELCA Delaware-Maryland Synod.  The ELCA
includes 10,816 congregations organized into 65 synods across the United
States and Caribbean.
     LIRS is a joint ministry of the ELCA, LCMS and Latvian Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America.  It was established by Lutheran churches in
the United States to carry out the churches' ministry with immigrants
and refugees around the world.
     LWR is the overseas relief and development ministry of the ELCA
and the LCMS.  In addition to supporting development projects worldwide,
LWR is a member of Action by Churches Together, an international
alliance of churches and relief agencies assisting thousands of people
recovering from emergencies in more than 50 countries.
     Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries offers a range of services to
help children, youth, families, older individuals, refugees,
congregations and groups.  It serves about 50,000 people each year in
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.  It is an LSA member affiliated
with the ELCA.
-- -- --
     The Lutheran Center at Christ Church, Baltimore, was formally
dedicated Oct. 24, 1999.  Photos of the dedication are available at
http://www.elca.org/co/news/images.baltimore.html on the ELCA Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html