wfn.org | ELCA Women Receive Greetings from International Guests

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 11, 1999

ELCA WOMEN RECEIVE GREETINGS FROM INTERNATIONAL GUESTS
99-WO-24-LS

     ST. LOUIS (ELCA)   "With your commitment toward acting out your
faith, you have infused in people like me a load of strength and hope
and a renewed commitment," said Priscilla Singh, secretary for women in
church and society, Lutheran World Federation, Geneva Switzerland.  She
addressed 4,000 participants of Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA) at their Fourth Triennial convention.  Singh, from
India, was one of 13 international guests introduced at the convention.
     The Women of the ELCA convention met here July 8-11 at the
America's Center.  The organization's three-year theme, "Live God's
Justice," was unveiled at the convention amid Bible study, keynote
addresses, workshops, business sessions and elections.
     Anna Purcell-Doll, member of the Women of the ELCA executive
board, Suwonee, Ga., introduced international guests Magdelena Ya
Shalongo and Gladis Arbazia, Peru; Mwatumai Mwanjota, Ruth Mwalwega,
Frida Bagonza and Jessica Bocko, Tanzania; Heba Mosaad Gendi, Egypt;
Vilma Rodrigues Belloso, El Salvador; Hniar Ngam and Vung Do Pau, Burma;
Iara Mueller, Brazil; Tamara Mendis, Sri Lanka; and Singh.
     "The ELCA ... is a leading sister church which has shared its
wealth and its gifts of human resources.  It has meant a lot," Singh
said.  She thanked the Women of the ELCA for ways it has served the
international community.
     After Women of the ELCA celebrated the 20th anniversary of the
ordination of women in 1990, several women wrote letters to Lutheran
churches in India to encourage them to ordain women, said Singh.  In
1991, all 10 of the Lutheran churches in India decided, in principle, to
ordain women, she said.  Today there are 23 ordained women in the Indian
Lutheran church, Singh said.
     "I thank you, women of the ELCA, for making a difference in the
lives of these women," she said.
     Singh thanked Women of the ELCA for the organization's former
"Woman to Woman" exchange program. Through this program, women from the
ELCA went to many different parts of the world.
     The ELCA women "became friends, confidants, prayer partners,
ambassadors and transformers of the lives they had touched," Singh said.
     She said that in a country where dollar bills proclaim, "In God We
Trust," women must use money for just purposes.
     "I plead with you ... see to it that your country never uses this
witness on dollar bills to buy guns," she said. "Appease the thirst and
hunger of children in this country and others."
     "You and I are powerful women, called by God, redeemed by Jesus
and empowered by the Holy Spirit.  We can do all things through Christ
who strengthens us,"she said.

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