ELCA NEWS SERVICE
May 28, 2004
Lutheran Vespers To Air in Cleveland Beginning June 6
04-111-JB
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutheran Vespers, the radio ministry of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), will debut
June 6 on two stations in Cleveland, the nation's 25th-largest
media market, said Barbara J. Andrews, associate director for
marketing, ELCA Department for Communication.
WCCD 1000 AM and WHK 1220 AM -- both owned by Salem
Communications Corporation, Camarillo, Calif. -- will air
Lutheran Vespers at different times on Sundays. WCCD will carry
the 30-minute program at 9:30 a.m., and WHK will broadcast the
program at 5:30 p.m.
The speaker for Lutheran Vespers is the Rev. Walt Wangerin,
a faculty member at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Ind.
There he is writer-in-residence and Emile and Elfriede Jochum
University Professor. Wangerin has been the ministry's speaker
since 1994.
"We're very excited about being back on the air in Cleveland
after six years without a station there," said Susan V. Greeley,
Lutheran Vespers director/producer, ELCA Department for
Communication. "WCCD and WHK are great stations for us. We're
grateful that ELCA members in Ohio want to reach out to their
neighbors through this radio ministry." The Northeastern Ohio
Synod is one of 65 synods of the ELCA.
Supporters of the Lutheran Vespers ministry at Zion Lutheran
Church, Wooster, Ohio, were the catalyst for getting the program
on the air in Cleveland. Two members, Patricia Bruce and Cheryl
Oswald, have actively worked with the ministry.
In October 2003 Wangerin traveled to speak in Wooster, where
Lutheran Vespers airs on WKVX 960 AM, Bruce explained. Some 700
people attended, she said.
Proceeds from ticket sales for the event were used to fund
the start-up in nearby Cleveland, Oswald said. In fact, there
was enough money from Wangerin's appearance in Wooster to pay the
costs of airing the program in Cleveland for at least 13 weeks,
she said.
Bruce and Oswald have written to other area ELCA
congregations seeking funds to keep the ministry on the air in
Cleveland, Oswald said. "Our hope is that we can get other
congregations [involved]," she said.
"Lutheran Vespers is a wonderful evangelism tool for
outreach," Bruce said. "It is really important that we share
this ministry with other people."
"The thing that most motivates me is that Lutheran Vespers
reaches unchurched people on Sunday morning," Oswald said. "For
some this may be the only word of God they hear."
Lutheran Vespers airs on about 190 stations and reaches an
estimated 3 million to 4 million listeners a year in the United
States, Africa, Australia, Europe, Guam and Puerto Rico. ELCA
missionaries and ELCA chaplains also receive copies of the
programs.
Since March 2003 Lutheran Vespers has added stations in
three other large U.S. media markets. They are KSTP 1500 AM and
WFMP 107.1 FM, St. Paul/Minneapolis; KHOW 630 AM, Denver; and
WHO 1040 AM, Des Moines, Iowa.
-- -- --
Information about Lutheran Vespers is at
http://www.elca.org/lv/ on the ELCA Web site.
Information about WCCD is at http://www.wccdradio.com and
WHK is at http://www.whkradio.com/ on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
