wfn.org | ELCA's Spring 2005 Mosaic Television On New Testament

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 2, 2005

ELCA's Spring 2005 Mosaic Television On New Testament
05-033-JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Introducing the New Testament" is Mosaic
Television's March 1, 2005, release, a 30-minute program that focuses on
the origins of the New Testament and on its authors.  The program examines
the New Testament in three parts: the Gospels, letters and the book of
Revelation.
     Mosaic Television is a quarterly video program produced by the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Department for
Communication.	It is intended for educational use in a variety of
congregational settings including Sunday school classes, adult forums,
youth groups, women's and men's groups, new member classes, congregational
council, committee and other organizational meetings.
     The New Testament program features scholars from three ELCA higher
education institutions: the Rev. Kenneth S. Jones, assistant professor of
philosophy and religion, and the Rev. Mark C. Mattes, professor of
religion and philosophy, Grand View College, Des Moines, Iowa; the Rev.
Charles D. Gavin Jr., associate professor of religion, and the Rev. Joy E.
Heebink, associate professor of religion, Waldorf College, Forest City,
Iowa; and Dr. Judith A. Jones, assistant professor of religion, and the
Rev. Frederick M. Strickert, professor of religion and Slife Professor in
the Humanities, Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa.
     Tim Frakes, ELCA Department for Communication, produces Mosaic
Television.  Melissa Ramirez Cooper, associate director, ELCA News
Service, Department for Communication, hosts Mosaic Television.
     This issue is designed to help readers experience how engaging one
part of the Bible, the New Testament, can be for our lives and concerns,
Frakes said.  A user's guide that comes with the program includes
information that can be used with adult and new member classes, and in
Confirmation classes and junior high-level Sunday school classes, he said.
     "It is impossible to have a saving faith apart from Scripture,"
Kenneth Jones said in the program. "It is in Scripture that God has chosen
to reveal who Jesus is -- for you,  for me."
     "The whole point of the New Testament is a witness to the
resurrection of Jesus," Strickert said in the program. "The disciples
live, breath and die on that one doctrine -- that this Jesus, who was
dead, is alive."
     "The New Testament is the new covenant," Heebink said.  "It is, in a
sense, a sequel to the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible in which we learn
of God's covenant with the people of Israel."
     "My favorite is [the Gospel of] Luke. I see Luke as the most
sensitive to the marginalized people -- the most concerned about the
lost -- about women, about children. All the Gospels have this. I mean, it
is the same Jesus. But the sensitivity showed in Luke, the language, the
style, it is lovely Greek. And it reads nicely in English too," she
continued.
     "Introducing the New Testament" can be viewed for free on the Web.
It is also available in VHS and DVD formats. Some ELCA colleges and
universities carry Mosaic on local cable channels.
     Each issue includes a user's guide with a synopsis of each segment
and discussion questions. Annual subscriptions are available through the
ELCA Department for Communication.
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     Specific information about Mosaic Television subscriptions and the
content of each issue are available on the Web at
http://www.elca.org/mosaic/ or by contacting the ELCA Department for
Communication by phone at 1-800-638-3522, ext. 6009.

Editors: Digital photographs that accompany "Introducing the New
Testament" can be requested by e-mail at mosaic@elca.org or by phone
1-800-638-3522, ext. 6009.

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