Tag Archives: faith

Some express concern about agricultural implications of ELCA draft statement on genetics; Eastern ND bishop says ELCA is not against genetically modified seeds

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A North Dakota church recently left the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, expressing concern about the ELCA’s attitude toward biotech farming. There has been concern on the part of some that an ELCA statement on genetics, which is currently in the draft stage, condemns GMOs (genetically modified organisms).  But Bill Rindy of the ELCA says, “The draft does not condemn GMOs.”

Two recent stories in The Forum discuss the issue. Read them at: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/298142/ and http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/298285/

New pastor installed at Grace United Methodist in Moorhead

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The Rev. Roger Grafenstein is the new pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Moorhead. He most recently served as pastor of Hope United Methodist Church in Faribault, Minn., for 11 years.

During the past decade, Grafenstein has served as an adjunct philosophy instructor, chaired the River Valley District Committee on Ministry and served the Faribault Area Chaplains for Emergency Services program.

Grafenstein finished his undergraduate degree at Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1986 and earned his master of divinity degree from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio in 1989. 

Grafenstein and his wife, Chele, have two children, Amanda, 20, and Anthony, 15.

Evangelical Christian, disability advocate Joni Eareckson Tada talks about cancer diagnosis, suffering

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From www.religionnews.com

Relgion News Service offers this Q&A with Joni Eareckson Tada:

Disability advocate Joni Eareckson Tada, long known as an evangelical icon and a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic who paints with a brush between her teeth, has faced a range of challenges since a diving accident left her paralyzed in 1967.

Now she’s facing another: breast cancer.

Tada, who turns 61 on Oct. 15, is undergoing chemotherapy and recently completed a new book, “A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty.” Some answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: You have gone through a number of medical challenges—quadriplegia, chronic pain, and now breast cancer. What are some basic lessons you have learned about suffering?

A: It’s good not to simply resign yourself to it. It’s also good not to submit or yield to it with its overtones of `Oh, poor me. I give up. I give in” and not even coping or adjusting.

Read the full Q&A: http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/tenminutes/10_minutes_with_joni_eareckson_tada1/

Brett Favre’s wife, Florida pastor co-write book about living through difficult times

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Divinityandbeyond.com reports:

“A few weeks ago, Deanna Favre and Florida Pastor Shane Stanford (see video below) published a book about living through tough times.

“Her tough times, she says, included battling breast cancer, prescription drug addiction and difficulties in her marriage to Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback Brett Favre.”

Read more: http://www.divinityandbeyond.com/?p=2520

Regional radio personality Scott Hennen interviews Bristol Palin on Inforum.com webcast

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Scott Hennen and Bristol Palin

Bristol Palin said she’d like to see her mother run for the White House, calling controversial former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “awesome for this country.”

“I know she’s qualified to do the job,” Bristol Palin said in a 15-minute interview webcast live Thursday afternoon at Inforum.com.

She also talked about “Dancing with the Stars,” her work as an abstinence advocate, her son and more.

Palin, who travels to deliver a pro-life, pro-abstinence message, was in Fargo Thursday night as the featured speaker at a fundraiser for The Perry Center, a West Fargo home for unwed mothers.

Read the story and watch the full interview: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/293976/

Palin, who travels to deliver a pro-life, pro-abstinence message, was in Fargo Thursday night as the featured speaker at a fundraiser for The Perry Center, a West Fargo home for unwed mothers.

ELCA’s European American Lutheran Association to hold first biennial meeting this month; group’s purpose is to ‘dismantle racism, white privilege and white power by recognizing and confessing our individual and corporate sin and addressing institutional racism in the church’

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The European American Lutheran Association (EALA) will hold its first biennial meeting Oct. 28-30 at the Wyndham Milwaukee Hotel and Conference Center, Milwaukee. The EALA is the newest and one of six ethnic associations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

“The purpose of the EALA is to dismantle racism, white privilege and white power by recognizing and confessing our individual and corporate sin and addressing institutional racism in the church,” said Kathy B. Long, EALA president, Redmond, Wash. “We want to walk with our brothers and sisters of color together.”

Source: ELCA press release.

Read more: http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx?a=4650

A $4.2 million reduction in spending helps ELCA maintain income/outgo balance, but treasurer expresses concern about continuing declines in mission support

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A mid-year budget reduction of $4.2 million in current fund spending by the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has helped the churchwide organization maintain a balance of income and spending for 2010 through Aug. 31, said Christina Jackson-Skelton, ELCA treasurer.  However, in a report to ELCA leaders, she expressed concern about continuing declines in mission support income to the churchwide organization, down $5 million so far this year.

Source: ELCA press release.

Read the full release: http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx?a=4649

Ballet Magnificat! coming to Bethel Church in Fargo

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Ballet Magnificat! tells the story of the Israelites’ deliverance from bondage in Egypt through dance in their production of “Deliver Us!” It also offers a “glimpse of another deliverer: Jesus Christ.”

The performance is 7 p.m. Oct. 10 at Bethel Church, 2702 30th Ave. S. in Fargo. Tickets are $10. Children 5 and under are admitted free.

For more information, call (701) 232-4476.

Editor of ELCA magazine “The Lutheran” says magazine won’t give NALC “any special coverage just because of its heritage. This group, like Elvis, has left the building”

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Daniel J. Lehmann

In the current issue of “The Lutheran,” an ELCA publication, its editor Daniel Lehmann writes:

“Page 8 of this issue contains a 203-word article (“Another Lutheran body formed“) on the founding of another Lutheran denomination. No more, no less.

The North American Lutheran Church came about in response to the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly decisions on sexuality…

“What we have here is a classic case of schism — a formal division or separation in the Christian church …

“So now the NALC becomes, in the eyes of this magazine, one more Lutheran denomination. Just as the staff follows major events in the life of the LCMS, the same will be true with the NALC. The Lutheran won’t give it any special coverage just because of its heritage. This group, like Elvis, has left the building.”

Read the full editorial: http://www.thelutheran.com/article/article.cfm?article_id=9348

Bishop Samuel Aquila: ‘There can be no backing away in the public square from the call to proclaim the dignity of human life’

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In a talk presented at the Sept. 22 Gospel of Life Prayer Breakfast in St. Louis, Mo., Rev. Samuel Aquila, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Fargo, said, “There can be no backing away in the public square from the call to proclaim the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death.”

Bishop Aquila addressed “attacks against life” in society today, including legalized abortion, euthanasia, fertility treatments that disregard the dignity of human embryos, embryonic stem cell research, “unjust distribution of resources, rampant promiscuity that diminishes the truth and meaning of human sexual intimacy, human trafficking, drug trafficking” and terrorism. He also spoke of the tragedy of professed Catholics and Christians who say they are personally opposed to abortion yet publicly support the so-called “right” to abortion.

Read the full press release from the Fargo Diocese: http://www.fargodiocese.org/News/PressReleases/10-09-24GospelOfLifeTalk.pdf

Read the full text of Aquila’s talk: http://www.fargodiocese.org/Bishop/Homilies/GospelOfLifeInTheChurchAndWorld.pdf