ELCA Department for Communication, News & Information 8765 West Higgins Rd, Chicago, IL 60631 800/638-3522 ext. 2963 HEADLINES FOR ELCA NEWS RELEASE ISSUE #01, January 25, 1996 -- UNDERSTANDING GENERATION X -- 1995 ELCA COLLEGE ENROLLMENT -- MORE THAN 60 MILLION LUTHERANS WORLDWIDE January 25, 1996 UNDERSTANDING GENERATION X 96-01-001-SP CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Under blue California skies, Lutheran students from across the country met Dec. 28-Jan. 1 in Costa Mesa for the Lutheran Student Movement-USA's annual national gathering for Lutheran university and college students. "'Generation Xers' must be harbingers and creators of new approaches to evangelism," said William Mahedy, a counselor from San Diego and co-author of "A Generation Alone." "They are the generational pioneers of the post-modern era." Mahedy said he disagrees with the negative views toward this generation, which he illustrated with statistics on high rates of divorce, suicide and violence among young people. A total of 339 students and Lutheran campus ministry staff met under the theme "Prophets of Hope: Understanding 'Generation X'." "Generation X" is a term coined by Douglas Coupland to define people born between the years 1961 and 1981. In his book, "Generation X," Coupland writes about a generation of alienated, hopeless and futureless people. The gathering program featured worship services, workshops and a series of speakers addressing different aspects of "Generation X" each day, including a panel discussion on "Who we say we are as 'Generation X'." Brian "Butch" Peterson, senior at the University of California-Berkeley, spoke of a "plug-in society" from greater population growth. "Government and community services aim at fulfilling the daily needs of a large population. This necessity of providing a growing populous with existing resources has created a 'get in and get out' approach," he said. Laurie Larson Caesar, an LSM alumna, spoke on who the Scriptures say "Generation X" is. Caesar told a story of an imaginary encounter of a witch with King Saul, reading from the witch's diary. "Each generation has its own calling," King Saul kept saying to the witch. Caesar told participants there are parallels between their generation and those from very long ago. "The Bible is a way of getting to know our grandparents of the faith," she said. Participants left the gathering with a sense of hope from the final day's topic - "Who does 'Generation X' hope and plan to become?" Sean McMillan, former Lutheran Youth Organization member, preached that "Generation X" is "the baby in labor" whose familiar "womb" is changing into a world where there is no more security. McMillan said, "The origin of a generation is not in the mother or father but in the mind of God." "I felt energized because everyone there wanted to make a difference and make a change," Heather Embree, a junior at California Lutheran University, said after the gathering. "It was refreshing to see that our generation isn't a bunch of duds." Following each speaker, students met in small groups where they discussed what the speakers said and their own views on the different aspects of the gathering's theme. "Many of the people in my discussion group felt they didn't fit the stereotypical descriptions of our generation," said Anne Schonauer, a sophomore at the University of California-Berkeley. The discussions were recorded and LSM hopes to compile them into a publication on "Generation X." "There's so much negative stuff written about us out there that we wanted to produce something positive about ourselves," said Kirsten Boyd, a member of the gathering's planning committee. Boyd, a senior at the University of Colorado-Boulder, was elected President of LSM-USA for 1996. She said LSM needs to be more intentional about telling the church who it is as a whole. "I think we need to look at issues surrounding poverty, because that's something we have not looked at before as LSM and as students," Boyd said. She also said she hopes to lead LSM in drafting a statement on abortion. LSM-USA is an independent and pan-Lutheran organization of Lutheran students at public, private and Lutheran colleges and universities across the United States. Next year's gathering will be held in San Antonio. This story was written by Stephen Hovick Padre, the staff intern in Chicago for the Lutheran Student Movement. ######### January 25, 1996 1995 ELCA COLLEGE ENROLLMENT 96-01-002-LC CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The 28 colleges and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America opened the 1995-96 academic year in September with total full-time enrollment at 44,036. The academic year opened with "mixed emotions," said Dr. James M. Unglaube, ELCA director for colleges and universities. "It marks the first year that Upsala College, East Orange, N.J., is missing from the scene since its founding in 1893." The college closed its doors at the end of the 1994-95 academic year. This academic year for the 28 ELCA colleges and universities has been a very good one measured in enrollment terms. The 44,036 total is just 28 students below the 1994-95 figure which included more than 700 students at Upsala College. The remaining 28 institutions saw their enrollments rise by 679 students or 1.5 percent. Part-time enrollment fell by 71 students or 0.8 percent, from 8,440 to 8,369. Full-time enrollment rose at eighteen of the 28 institutions. Part-time enrollments have fallen 11 percent since 1989. "In losing Upsala the church lost the institution which was serving communities of persons of color to the greatest extent," said Unglaube. Thus, the representation of persons of color among full-time students fell from 9.1 percent in 1994-95 to 8.3 percent. However, if Upsala is excluded for 1994-95, the remaining 28 institutions saw their full-time enrollment of persons of color rise by 162 students, from 3,513 to 3,675, an increase of 4.6 percent. This number rose at 20 institutions. International student enrollments have been declining for a number of years at ELCA institutions. The total of full-time international students is 1,304, or three percent. If the Upsala figures are excluded for 1994-95, the remaining institutions saw this number rise by nine students. "There is encouragement in the fact that 1995-96 marked the end of a decline in this figure going back to 1992. International students from developing world settings place a great burden on the limited financial aid resources available to them on campus. This has likely been at least partly responsible for the decline," said Unglaube. Thirteen of the 28 institutions experienced increases here. The enrollment of Lutheran students totaled 14,072, or 32 percent of the whole. This is a decline from last year's total of 14,291. ELCA COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minn. Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill. Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D. Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kan. California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks Capital University, Columbus, Ohio Carthage College, Kenosha, Wis. Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn. Dana College, Blair, Neb. Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pa. Grand View College, Des Moines, Iowa Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minn. Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, N.C. Luther College, Decorah, Iowa Midland Lutheran College, Fremont, Neb. Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa. Newberry College, Newberry, S.C. Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash. Roanoke College, Salem, Va. St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn. Suomi College, Hancock, Mich. Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa. Texas Lutheran College, Seguin, Texas Thiel College, Greenville, Pa. Wagner College, Staten Island, N.Y. Waldorf College, Forest City, Iowa Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio ########## January 25, 1995 MORE THAN 60 MILLION LUTHERANS WORLDWIDE 96-01-003-FI GENEVA (ELCA) -- The number of Lutherans worldwide was more than 60 million in 1995, according to information released here by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). The comparable figures for 1994 and 1993 were 59.7 million and 58.5 million respectively. The 122 member churches and 12 recognized congregations of the LWF totaled 56.5 million members in 1995, compared with just under 56.1 million in 1994 and 54.7 million in 1993. At the end of 1995, 3.6 million Lutherans worldwide did not belong to the LWF, a decrease of 22,400 from the previous year. The 7.6-million-member Church of Sweden remained the world#s largest Lutheran church, followed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with 5.2 million and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland with close to 4.6 million. Germany, where the Lutheran tradition has its origin, had the largest number of Lutherans in any one country, its Lutheran churches having a combined membership of 14.3 million, ahead of the United States with 8.3 million. The most significant change was an increase in the membership of the Lutheran church in Madagascar. The Malagasy Lutheran Church recorded an increase of 300,000 members compared with the previous year's figure. An increase in the membership of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, from 70,209 to 204,000, is due to a change in the way of counting. Previously only paying members were counted, whereas the latest figure refers to baptized members. The largest concentration of Lutheranism and the LWF is in Europe, with over 37.3 million members. North America has 8.6 million Lutherans, of whom 5.4 million belong to the LWF. Almost all of Africa's 7.9 million Lutherans are members of the federation. Asia has just under 4.9 million Lutherans, of whom over 4.7 million belong to the LWF. Of the nearly 1.4 million Lutherans in Latin America, over 1.1 million are members of the LWF. The membership statistics are based on information supplied to the LWF Office for Communication Services by the churches. Of the federation's 122 member churches, 72 have supplied information, as a result of which the membership figures for 39 churches have changed compared with the previous year's figures. Latest available figures are cited in the case of those churches whose reply were not received by the end of November 1995. Among the data received after the Nov. 30 deadline, the only major change is for the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), which last year registered an increase of over 234,000 compared with the previous year. The EECMY's membership in 1995 totaled 1,847,116. This increase has not been taken into consideration for the above article or the tables of statistics on the following pages. The Ethiopian church's membership has increased from more than 1 million in 1993 and more than 1.6 million in 1994. LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION 1995 MEMBERSHIP FIGURES SUMMARY The following figures give the membership of the 122 LWF member churches (M) including one associate member church (AM), and 12 recognized congregations (R), as well as other Lutheran churches or bodies (C) in infrequent contact with the Lutheran World Federation. General Summary 1995 122 LWF member churches and 12 recognized congregations 56,521,384 Lutherans outside LWF constituency 3,625,270 TOTAL 60,146,654 All Lutherans LWF Membership Other Contacts Africa 7,940,742 7,873,287 67,455 Asia 4,873,084 4,757,361 115,723 Europe 37,342,201 37,342,201 ----- Latin America 1,381,655 1,131,878 249,777 North America 8,608,972 5,416,657 3,192,315 TOTAL 60,146,654 56,521,384 3,625,270 Countries with more than 1/2 million Lutherans Germany 14,290,400 USA 8,319,591 Sweden 7,630,000 Finland 4,577,106 Denmark 4,539,773 Norway 3,800,000 Indonesia 2,367,539 Tanzania 2,200,000 Ethiopia 1,625,994 Madagascar 1,500,000 India 1,267,787 Brazil 1,184,597 Papua New Guinea 910,000 South Africa 829,483 Namibia 696,000 Lutheran Churches with more than 1/2 million members Church of Sweden 7,630,000 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 5,199,048 Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland 4,577,106 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark 4,539,773 Church of Norway 3,800,000 Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover (Germany) 3,291,000 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (Germany) 2,685,000 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (USA and Canada) 2,606,370 North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church (Germany) 2,512,000 Evangelical Church in Wurttemberg (Germany) 2,474,000 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania 2,200,000 Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (Ethiopia) 1,625,994 Protestant Christian Batak Church (Indonesia) 1,559,478 Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony (Germany) 1,154,000 Malagasy Lutheran Church (Madagascar) 1,500,000 Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil 1,000,000 Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea 815,000 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa 710,382 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia (Germany) 663,000