Title: Lutherans Oppose Land Mines ELCA NEWS SERVICE - NEWSBRIEF June 2, 1997 LUTHERANS OPPOSE LAND MINES U.S. Lutherans called on President Bill Clinton to make good on a one-year-old promise to ban the manufacture, sale and use of antipersonnel land mines. The Rev. Theodore F. Schneider, bishop of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), delivered petitions with the signatures of 56,000 Lutherans to U.S. Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) on May 15 calling for an immediate ban. Leahy supports the ban and agreed to transmit a total of almost 111,000 signatures to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. "This sudden surge within just one denomination here in America demonstrates that sane people look at this craziness and have little trouble reaching a conclusion," said Schneider. The bishop called on President Clinton to make good on his promise and to do more than simply add his approval to an international agreement. The petition campaign in the ELCA and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod was led by Lutheran World Relief, which works overseas in relief and development on behalf of the two churches. The petitions were assembled again May 16 in Lafayette Park opposite the White House where Kathryn F. Wolford, LWR executive director, told more than 200 people gathered from around the world that the petition drive was only the start of a campaign to eliminate land mines. "Let us take this word back to our communities and join our voices with our brothers and sisters around the world who are not asking for much except for the respect of their human dignity and the right for their children to live without fear," she said. For information contact: Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html