Tag Archives: fargo forum

Fargo-Moorhead Muslims want new mosque and community center

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Imam Sharip-Hashim Hassan leads prayer Monday in Fargo’s Islamic Center.

From a story in today’s Forum:

As passionate voices continue to wrangle over the planned mosque near the site where the World Trade Center towers fell, Muslims in Fargo-Moorhead are contemplating an expansion of their own in a more serene setting.

Friday gatherings at the Fargo mosque are already crowded, said Ahmer Qarni, who has twice served as president of the mosque. But the larger mosque and community center facilities they’d like to have will have to wait.

Read the full story: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/291894/

Hawley Lutheran Church to vote on leaving ELCA; it will be the congregation’s second vote on initiating the process; the first failed in May

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Hawley (Minn.) Lutheran Church, a congregation of more than 1,100 baptized members, could take the first step Sept. 19 toward breaking with its denomination.

The congregation has scheduled a “special meeting” that day to vote on whether to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Congregation President Clayton Lilleby confirmed the meeting via e-mail Tuesday.

To leave the ELCA, a congregation must pass two votes separated by at least 90 days.

Read more: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/290327/publisher_ID/1/

Talk about it: http://topics.areavoices.com/2010/09/07/hawley-church-schedules-vote-on-leaving-elca/

Francis Collins, human embryos, evolution, and the sanctity of human life – an intriguing guest column from ‘The Christian Post”

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Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D. - from www.ttf.org

R. Albert Mohler Jr. writes in “The Christian Post:”

Francis Collins stands at the very summit of the scientific community. He successfully led the massive effort to map the entire human genome, bringing the project to completion ahead of time and under budget. He now serves as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) …

“… Harvard’s Steven Pinker declared that Collins is “an advocate of profoundly anti-scientific beliefs.” Other leading scientists said far worse. Why?

“As The New Yorker reports this week, Dr. Collins is ‘a believing Christian.’ As writer Peter J. Boyer explains, ‘The objection to Collins was his faith-or, at least, the ardency of it. Collins is a believing Christian, which places him in the minority among his peers in the National Academy of Science. (Of its members, according to a study, only seven percent believe in God.)’

Read the full column: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100903/the-predicament-francis-collins-human-embryos-evolution-and-the-sanctity-of-human-life/index.html

Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod delegates vote to continue cooperative work with ELCA

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Delegates to the national convention of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) in Houston, Texas, voted overwhelmingly Jutoday to continue cooperative work with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) "with theological integrity," according to an ELCA press release.

Delegates also "asked that its leaders assess and report on the current state of cooperation in one year," the release states.

"Resolution 3-03, ‘Cooperation in Externals with Theological Integrity’ was adopted with minor amendments, 961-175, following a lengthy discussion by delegates," the release states.

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

Religion News Service: Mormon influence, imagery runs deep through 'Twilight'

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A Religion News Service story looks at Mormon influence and imagery in the "Twilight" movies and novels.

The story reads: "The ‘Twilight’ novels and film franchise have religious associations … most of them come from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons)."

Read the story here: tinyurl.com/2a64wbj

ELCA press release: Leaders to revise 2010 Churchwide budget and create restructuring plan; ELCA administrative executive cites 30-year trend, economy, response to human sexuality decisions

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Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will prepare a revised 2010 budget and spending plan for consideration in August, and they will create a plan to restructure the churchwide organization in 2011 in response to continuing declines in income, said the Rev. M. Wyvetta Bullock, ELCA executive for administration, in a June 21 e-mail to churchwide staff. 

Bullock explained that the reasons for income declines include a 30-year trend in declining revenues, the struggling U.S. economy and declines in congregational income due to the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly’s decisions on human sexuality.

Read the full ELCA press release: www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx

I'll be blogging live from the ELCA Northwestern Minnesota Synod Assembly Friday and Saturday

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I’ll be blogging right here Friday and Saturday live from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Northwestern Minnesota Synod Assembly. We’re also planning a preview story on the assembly in Thursday’s Forum. I’ll post a link here when it runs.

Please feel free to leave comments here or e-mail me at smercer@forumcomm.com if you have questions, comments, suggestions, etc. about ELCA coverage in particular or religion coverage in general.