ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 6, 2005

Lutherans Mark Wheat Ridge Centennial with Symposium Oct. 13-15
05-187-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Wheat Ridge Ministries, an independent
Lutheran charitable organization based in Itasca, Ill., is
celebrating "seeding new ministries of health and hope in the
name of the healing Christ for 100 years."  A key event in that
celebration will be "Living Well: A National Symposium on Health
and Hope" Oct. 13-15 at the Denver Marriott City Center.
     "Wheat Ridge has been blessed immensely during the past 100
years, and, more importantly, our history has positioned us to
have an even greater future," said the Rev. Richard W. Bimler,
president, Wheat Ridge Ministries.
     At the symposium about a thousand Lutheran leaders will
explore key health-related issues facing the church and the world
in the 21st century and beyond.  Wheat Ridge is an affiliated
social ministry organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA) and a recognized service organization of the
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
     "The early leaders' vision was to bring health and hope to
people with tuberculosis.  When TB was eradicated -- to a major
degree -- in the early '60s, the Wheat Ridge staff and board
broadened their vision," Bimler said.  "The rest is history -- in
process."
     "Wheat Ridge continues to be faithful to the original vision
of health and hope, but has reinvented itself to be more
responsive, celebrative and in close partnership with other
agencies and entities in today's world around health and hope
issues," Bimler said.
     "This 100th anniversary of health and hope celebrates our
past, affirms the present and focuses on the future.  The
symposium will be a microcosm of the preferred future for Wheat
Ridge -- relating to people, taking risks, equipping the saints,
being aware of 21st century health issues, bringing people within
ministry range of each other, sharing our faith in the healing
Christ and celebrating the presence of the Spirit among us," he
said.
     Bimler added, "I recently heard of an organization
celebrating 100 years.  A former staff person remarked about his
impression of the past, 'Our organization has 100 years of
tradition ... unmarred by progress.'  I would like to think that
Wheat Ridge is marked by '100 years of progress ... unmarred by
tradition.'"
     Three keynote speakers will present different facets of the
"Living Well" theme -- biblical foundations of health and
healing, congregations as centers of health and hope, and sharing
health and hope in local communities and throughout the world.
     The Rev. Martin E. Marty, ELCA pastor and retired Fairfax M.
Cone Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Modern
Christianity, Divinity School, University of Chicago; Dr. Ellen
L. Idler, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology,
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.; and the Rev. Leslie D.
Braxton, pastor, New Beginning Christian Fellowship, Renton,
Wash., will give the keynote addresses.
     Marty said he will focus on health and hope and how it
relates to "generosity of heart, mind and hand."  He said the
secular search for health and knowledge runs in tension with the
generosity that Christians have learned from God -- generosity
that Wheat Ridge has practiced for a century.
     The Rev. Mitri Raheb, Christmas Lutheran Church, Bethlehem,
a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the
Holy Land, will be the symposium's banquet speaker.  Raheb is
general director of The International Center of Bethlehem, which
promotes Palestinian art and music.
     Four "supersectional" speakers will set the tone for
sectional session: Dr. Gary Gunderson, director, Interfaith
Health Program, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory
University, Atlanta; Dr. James O. Hill, professor of pediatrics
and medicine, Health Sciences Center, University of Colorado,
Denver; Kristine M. Gebbie, Elizabeth Standish Gill associate
professor of nursing, director of the Center for Health Policy
and director of the Doctor of Nursing Science program, Columbia
University School of Nursing, New York; and Dr. David H. Olson,
professor emeritus, Family Social Science, University of
Minnesota, St. Paul.
     Gebbie will present "AIDS and HIV: The Church's Response."
She said, "Across the country, the church's response has been one
of care through health institutions, and Wheat Ridge has been
supportive.  It is less obvious that the church is willing to
tackle the underlying prejudices and injustices that have
fostered the continued spread of this epidemic worldwide, and
that will be my challenge."
     Other supersectional titles are "The Obesity Crisis in
America," "Deeply Woven Roots: Congregations as Agents in
Building Healthy Communities" and "Healthy Marriages and Families
Build Healthy Persons."
     Wheat Ridge was founded in 1905 as the Evangelical Lutheran
Sanatorium Association in Wheat Ridge, Colo.  A 20-acre tent city
at the foot of the Rocky Mountains provided the early 20th
century treatment for tuberculosis -- fresh air, bed rest and
nourishing food.
     The Sanatorium Association established the Wheat Ridge
Foundation in 1941 and initiated training programs for
institutional chaplains and social workers, provided devotional
literature for other tuberculosis sanatoria and funded pilot
projects for Lutheran social service agencies.
     By 1961 new outpatient treatment options became available to
TB patients.  The foundation moved to suburban Chicago, and the
proceeds from the sale of the Colorado property were used to
create an endowment for its "seeding" ministry.  Today more than
100 health ministries receive funding grants through Wheat Ridge.
     The foundation changed its name to Wheat Ridge Ministries
in 1991.
     Wheat Ridge has issued Christmas Seals for more than
90 years.
-- -- --
     The home page for Wheat Ridge Ministries is at
http://www.wheatridge.org/ on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news