ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 22, 2008  

ELCA Deaconess Community Presents Annual Grants, Tithe
08-147-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Deaconess Community of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Canada (ELCIC) awarded $250,000 in grants to 13
domestic and international nonprofit programs in an effort to
expand the church's outreach to those in need.  It also presented
the ELCA with a portion of the community's annual tithe.
     The grants were awarded to programs that are committed to
"risk taking and innovative service on the frontiers of the
church's outreach," according to the community's invitation for
grant applications.  Programs were chosen for inviting
participation, bridging divisions and accompanying others in
mission "that affirms the individual gifts of all people."
     Grants ranged in size from $10,000 to $32,500.  Domestic
programs in Alaska, California, District of Columbia, Indiana,
New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and international programs
in Kenya, Mongolia, Nigeria and South Africa received the grants.
Recipient programs serve people who are uninsured, disabled,
homeless, politically disenfranchised, elderly, at-risk youth and
immigrants.

Deaconess Community Presents Annual Tithe to Churches
     Sister Anne Keffer, the community's directing deaconess, and
Sister Carolyn Hellerich, Hallettsville, Texas, chair of the
community's board, presented the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA
presiding bishop, with a check for $23,620 on Aug. 7.
     The community gives a tithe, or 10 percent of the increase
of its assets since the previous year, to the ELCA and ELCIC.
The ELCIC will receive a check for $5,905.
     The community's unrestricted benevolence gift is a way of
saying "thank you" to the ELCA and ELCIC, Keffer said.  "We give
thanks that Christ has called the Church into being and that we,
as a community, are part of this church," she said.
     The Deaconess Community consists of 76 women consecrated by
the church to a ministry of Word and service.  Deaconesses are
theologically trained and professionally prepared for their
careers in such settings as health care, Christian education and
social services.  They are called to ministry by congregations
and synods of the ELCA and ELCIC.
-- -- --
     A complete list of the Deaconess Community's 2008 grant
recipients is in a PDF file at http://tinyurl.com/677y5s on the
Web.  Information about the community is at
http://www.ELCA.org/deaconess on the ELCA Web site.

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