wfn.org | Lutherans Remember the Hungry

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

January 23, 1997

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY: REMEMBER THE HUNGRY

January 26 is more than Super Bowl Sunday.  It?s Souper Bowl Sunday.
Hundreds of congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America will join an interfaith effort to remember ?those who are without
even a bowl of soup.?  The Rev. Brad Smith, Spring Valley Presbyterian
Church, Columbia, S.C., came up with the pun while leading prayers in
1988.  Since 1990 he?s challenged millions of Americans to donate a
dollar a piece after worship services on the weekend of the National
Football League championship.  Funds raised by each congregation go
directly to a local soup kitchen, food bank or other charity.  More than
600 ELCA congregations in 40 states participated in the 1996 Souper
Bowl.  More than 150 of those Lutheran congregations were in
Pennsylvania.   Arizona, Minnesota and South Carolina each had more
than 50 participating congregations.  Lutherans participated across the
country ... from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Brunswick, Maine, to
St. Mark?s in Anaheim, Calif. ... from Prince of Peace Lutheran in Largo,
Fla., to Bethel in Shoreline, Wash.