wfn.org | ELCA Fund for Leaders in Mission Awards Sixteen Scholarships

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 10, 2003

ELCA Fund for Leaders in Mission Awards Sixteen Scholarships
03-182-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) awarded $126,254 in scholarships to provide full tuition
for 16 women and men attending ELCA seminaries.  The Rev. Mark S.
Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, presented the scholarships
here Sept. 25 from the church's Fund for Leaders in Mission.
     The 16 new scholarships brought the total to 39 full-tuition
scholarships and one partial scholarship in effect.  That
committed $308,000 from the Fund for the current academic year,
bringing the total since September 2000 to $747,000.
     The Fund for Leaders in Mission is an ELCA initiative to
build an endowed scholarship resource that provides tuition
assistance to qualified candidates studying at the church's eight
seminaries.  By Aug. 31 the Fund endowment balance reached $5.3
million said Cynthia Halverson, Fund director, ELCA Foundation.
     Scholarship recipients have demonstrated potential for
leadership in the church and financial need.  Potential for
leadership is determined by academic performance and by volunteer
experience in the congregation and community.
     Hanson noted the various life experiences and ministries of
those awarded scholarships, yet all were grounded in the life and
ministry of Jesus Christ.  He thanked the seminarians for their
demonstrated love for the church, and he thanked "the people and
parishes formative in your life."
     Hanson expressed gratitude to the Thrivent Financial for
Lutherans Foundation for infusing the Fund "not only with cash
but with energy."  The Thrivent Foundation has offered $1 million
to match with $1 for every $2 given to the Fund before Aug. 31,
2005.
     Halverson said the Fund received $389,588 during the first
seven months of the Thrivent challenge, with another $585,000
pledged to be given, and is well on its way to the $2 million
goal to meet the challenge.
     The purpose of the challenge is to "leverage and multiply
the gifts of Lutherans across the country," said John O. Gilbert,
chairman of the board, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
     The Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation is a private
foundation funded by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, based in
Minneapolis.  The Fund for Leaders in Mission is administered
through the ELCA Foundation, which encourages lifelong
stewardship in support of all ministries of the church.
     "We cannot afford to have pretty good ministers.  We need
excellence," the Rev. H. Frederick Reisz Jr., president of
Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C., told
those gathered for the Sept. 25 ceremony.
     Reisz admitted that tuition expenses saddle many seminary
graduates with a debt that matches their salaries as new pastors.
Yet, he said, his seminary could not afford to give raises in
2003.  So, the Fund for Leaders in Mission is important for the
seminarians, the seminaries and the congregations of the ELCA.
     The seminarians selected in 2003 to receive full tuition
scholarships from the Fund were:
 + Tracey L. Breashears, Faith Lutheran Church, Little Rock,
Ark., student at Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa
 + Kimberly S. Conway, Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church,
Manassas, Va., student at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus,
Ohio
 + Amanda M. Cormack, Trinity Lutheran Church, Lawrence, Kan.,
student at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS),
Berkeley, Calif.
 + Dirk van der Duim, Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Denver,
student at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC)
 + Andrew Jackson Evenson, Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church,
Gibbon, Minn., student at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Philadelphia (LTSP)
 + Timothy Graham, Trinity English Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne,
Ind., student at Wartburg
 + Kristin L. Hunsinger, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Defiance,
Ohio, student at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (LTSS)
 + Sarah Elizabeth Lang, Lutheran Church of the Nativity, Arden,
N.C., student at LTSP
 + Jason Matthew Lee, St. David Lutheran Church, West Columbia,
S.C., student at (LTSS)
 + Benjamin E. Leese, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, East
Berlin, Pa., student at Trinity
 + Jeanette D. Leisk, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Westborough,
Mass., student at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
(LTSG), Pa.
 + Janice K. Moody, Trinity Lutheran Church, Danville, Pa.,
student at LTSG
 + Thalisa (Lisa) Michelle Parker, Christ Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Chicago, student at LSTC
 + Karena (Kari) Heather Reiten, Gift of Grace Lutheran Church,
Seattle, student at PLTS
 + Megan Thorvilson, Mountain Lutheran Church, Adams, N.D.,
student at Luther
 + Rebecca Wold, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Roseville,
Minn., student at Luther
     The Fund's goal is to support full tuition for every
qualified student at an ELCA seminary who has a commitment to
ordained or lay ministry.  Lay ministries of the ELCA are
associates in ministry, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.
     To achieve its goal, the Fund will need to maintain an
endowment of $200 million while supporting current seminary
scholarships.
-- -- --
Information about the Fund for Leaders in Mission is at
http://www.elca.org/fo/FundforLeaders/ on the ELCA Web site.
Information about the ELCA's eight seminaries is at
http://www.elca.org/dm/te/seminaries.html

Information about the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
Foundation is at http://www.thrivent.com/fraternal/foundation on
the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news