Title: Lutheran Women's Third Triennial Convention
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
March 21, 1996
THOUSANDS OF LUTHERAN WOMEN TO "PROCLAIM PEACE" (56 lines)
96-06-017-LC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America will gather for its Third Triennial Convention July
11-14 in Minneapolis. Thousands of participants are expected to
come together under the theme "Proclaim God's Peace," for
worship, workshops, Bible study and business.
Speakers include Rigoberta Menchu, Guatemalan Nobel Peace
Prize laureate; Wilma Mankiller, founding director of the
Cherokee Development Plan and chief of the Cherokee Nation for 10
years; Kathryn Wolford, executive director, Lutheran World
Relief; and the Rev. Walter Wangerin, Jr., columnist for The
Lutheran magazine, author, and host of the ELCA's weekly radio
program "Lutheran Vespers."
The Rev. H. George Anderson, bishop of the ELCA, will lead
the opening worship service. The Rev. April Ulring Larson,
bishop of the ELCA's LaCrosse Area Synod, will preach. At
Sunday's closing worship the Rev. Andrea F. DeGroot-Nesdahl,
bishop of the South Dakota Synod, will preach.
The convention "is the largest gathering of adults in the
ELCA," said Dr. Charlotte E. Fiechter, Women of the ELCA
executive director. "It is an opportunity to meet, touch and
relate to the constituency in numbers and with an impact greater
than at any other time. It is a time to 'touch the grass
roots,'" she said.
Participants are encouraged to bring a gift of children's
books on a peace theme for donation to libraries, schools and
health centers in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Women are also asked
to bring "Pieces of Peace," a fabric cotton square decorated with
a vision for peace. Those squares will be used to create quilts
on site and donated to Lutheran World Relief and local shelters.
On three afternoons during the convention participants will
have the opportunity to travel outside the convention center to
learn from the community. Sites include Sobriety High, an
alternative high school; the State Capitol in St. Paul; Child
Watch, a program that helps at-risk children; Alliance of the
Streets, shelters and drop-in centers; and the Center for Global
Education, Augsburg College, Minneapolis.
Workshops have been grouped into seven tracks; each will
include more than 50 sessions. Tracks include topics on
advocacy, living in faith, leadership, peace, and women and
children living in poverty.
Optional pre-convention events include a multicultural
gathering, leadership training, and workshops on conflict
resolution, domestic violence and rural concerns.
The triennial convention is the chief legislative authority
of Women of the ELCA. At the convention about 500 delegates will
elect officers and board members, consider memorials from
congregational units and synodical women's organizations, and set
priorities for the triennium.
The 1993 convention brought more than 5,000 participants to
Washington, D.C., from across the United States and the
Caribbean.
For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2058; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia
Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956
