ELCA Department for Communication, News & Information
8765 West Higgins Rd, Chicago, IL 60631 800/638-3522 ext. 2963
HEADLINES FOR ELCA NEWS RELEASE ISSUE #12, April 27, 1995
-- LUTHERANS RESPOND TO OKLAHOMA BOMBING
-- VOLUNTEERS BOOST GLOBAL MISSION
-- SCIENCE AND FAITH MIX
April 27, 1995
LUTHERANS RESPOND TO OKLAHOMA BOMBING
95-12-038-LC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "We joined others standing in silence at the
barricades here in Oklahoma City. Beyond us was the federal building,
with the gaping wound that the whole nation has felt so deeply," said the
Rev. Leon A. Phillips Jr., director of the Inter-Lutheran Disaster Response
(ILDR). The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is responding to the
bombing April 19 in Oklahoma City through ILDR -- a co-operative effort
of the ELCA and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
"Around us were other buildings, one after another with the
windows blown out, some with tape surrounding them -- unsafe to
enter. Nearby was a large high-rise apartment building, also evacuated
and still standing empty. There were few words at this barricade, and,
with the others, we watched quietly as the dogs and their handlers
returned from their work in the rubble and as firefighters walked slowly
out as others walked in," said Phillips.
At an April 24 meeting with Lutheran pastors Phillips said he
began to learn how many people have been hurt by this tragedy.
"Pastors told us of visits to families of the dead, and of many ongoing
visits to the families of those still missing. They spoke of tears and
prayers at services ... all of them reporting members whose family
members, relatives, neighbors, close friends are among the dead and
missing."
Steve Williams, 42, an employee of the Social Security
Administration and a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Oklahoma City,
is missing and presumed dead.
The Rev. Herbert W. Chilstrom, bishop of the ELCA, arrived in
Oklahoma City the day after the bombing. "I have flown more than 2
million miles since becoming bishop of the ELCA, but my flight into
Oklahoma City was like nothing I have experienced before. As we
descended into the city, a hush came over the plane," said Chilstrom.
"We could clearly see the destruction to the federal building, and it
was an awesome feeling that we were coming into a moment of destiny
in the lives of these people. I felt the prayerful concern of all the
members of our church for the people of this city," he said. The ELCA's
11,000 congregations will offer prayers and receive donations for ELCA
disaster relief "so we can be present and help in every way possible."
"Lutheran Social Services continues to be heavily involved in
counseling. Volunteers from congregations and LSS therapists are
staffing a hotline for families, relatives, friends of victims," said Phillips.
"Counseling efforts will be increased in the weeks to come. Special
materials will be prepared to help children cope with the tragedy.
Support groups are being organized. Emergency grants are available
through LSS, some of which will be used for funeral expenses."
Phillips expects to spend most of his time counseling people who
have lost loved ones as well as the rescue workers who have been
living the tragedy every since the bombing. "Everybody talks about the
horror of pulling children out of the debris and not being able to reach
people," he said.
"For each person who is lost there are at least 10 relatives,"
Phillips added. "So you can imagine the huge number of worried people."
"Keep these people of Oklahoma City in your prayers, and
continue to remember the caregivers -- the pastors and fire fighters, the
social workers and nurses -- and all those who are pouring their whole
selves into this tragic, grueling task of response," said Phillips. "Pray that
they be renewed by the grace of God that sustains and upholds us all."
##########
April 27, 1995
VOLUNTEERS BOOST GLOBAL MISSION
95-12-039-AH
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Global volunteer service is soaring in the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The annual number of Lutheran
World Mission Volunteers has risen 550 percent -- from 19 in 1988 to
124 in 1994. According to the Rev. Jack F. Reents, the program's
director in the ELCA's Division for Global Mission (DGM), the current level
is the maximum that current staff can manage.
Women and men of all ages work in education, development,
medicine, evangelism and leadership development areas for three
months to three years, Reents told the DGM board in March. Volunteers
raise the financial support needed for the period of their service.
The highest number of volunteers are teachers -- 46 in 1994.
Reents said 20 served in congregational ministry, 15 as seminary
professors, 20 in health care capacities and 19 in development and
support capacities in 1993-1994.
The church carefully matches volunteers with invitations from
partner churches and agencies abroad. While teachers, pastors and
medical staff are often invited, the requests sometimes call for
specialized skills. Reents has searched for pharmacists willing to go to
India and a publishing expert for Papua New Guinea. "Currently the
program has more potential volunteers available than invitations for
shorter-term service of two to four months," Reents said.
In 1994 volunteers filled 53 positions in Africa, 42 in Asia and the
Pacific area, 19 in Europe and the Middle East, and seven in Latin
America. Reents said activity to date in 1995 "parallels last year's
experience."
Reents reported on 35 volunteers completing service this winter.
They included a librarian who worked in Malaysia, a nursing instructor in
Nepal, builders in Senegal and Cameroon, a seminary professor in
Namibia, a physician in India, a carpenter in Tanzania, a dentist in
Madagascar, and teachers in Ethiopia, Slovakia and Kenya.
While most invitations are for individual volunteers, Reents said
several groups have contacted him about service opportunities including
a medical team, construction teams and a youth service team.
Reents stressed the need for librarians who will serve in Hong
Kong, Indonesia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, South Africa or Taiwan. In
addition Lutheran World Mission Volunteers is currently seeking teachers
of English, journalism and economics, surgeons, secretaries, lawyers,
family practice and eye doctors, agriculturalists, computer technicians,
construction supervisors and carpenters.
"It is a blessing that the hearts of ELCA members are moved to
make them available for volunteer service, which we hope proves to be
a blessing to them and to the country and church in which they do their
service," Reents said.
##########
April 27, 1995
SCIENCE AND FAITH MIX
95-12-040-FI
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Churches are full of "closet scientists" who
are either afraid to discuss their vocations in religious settings or see no
practical relationship between science and their faith. That's what the
Rev. Philip Hefner, director of the Chicago Center for Religion and
Science, told the steering committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America's Work Group on Science and Technology. Hefner is a
professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at
Chicago.
The ELCA work group was formed in 1988 and now has about
350 members. Its steering committee met here April 20-23 as it hosted
the Ecumenical Roundtable on Science, Technology and the Church -- an
annual meeting of similar groups formed by other denominations.
Hefner told the roundtable that the church should not be afraid to
fail in any attempt to discuss faith and science. "This must be a time of
probing and experimentation in preaching, teaching, worship, spirituality,
etc., knowing as in any evolutionary system that most mutations are
lethal," he said.
"The `losers' in the natural selection process are as significant for
the process as the `winners,'" said Hefner. "If three of 10 things you
plan for the next six months work, you're a highly successful person."
"We've got to experiment on how to tell the story. We've got to
probe. We've got to have a thousand sermons that don't work, so that
maybe we can get four or five sermons that do work," he said. "We do
this for ourselves as Christians and for the whole world, just as Christ
did."
Dr. Per Anderson, assistant professor of religion, Concordia
College, Moorhead, Minn., chaired the ELCA steering committee.
"We don't have a point of view about how Christians should
relate science, technology, faith and ethics," said Anderson, "but we do
have a point of view that it is very important that we be in dialogue about
those issues. They are among the most consequential issues of our
time."
The work group has a "congregational life initiative" that explores
ways "to bring this discussion into the lives of actual Lutheran Christian
parishes," he said. The group has prepared a packet of resources on
faith and science to incorporate into the adult education programs of
congregations.
"The implications of faith and science and their roles in our public
life today are not recognized appropriately in the life of the church," said
Anderson. "We see our role as a consciousness-raising group -- a
movement in the church, like many movements that the church has
experienced in recent memory, of people who have organized around a
cause that they don't think the church is giving due attention."
The 1995 Ecumenical Roundtable included about 35 church and
science professionals from the ELCA, Anglican Church of Canada,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),
Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ and United
Methodist Church.
When the various groups met together the participants organized
the roundtable around four objectives: to increase the number of
denominations involved in the roundtable; to advance the presence of
religion in the scientific community; to sponsor and support development
of national, regional and local conferences; and to exchange membership
lists to encourage local networks.
The Presbyterian association will host the next Ecumenical
Roundtable on Science, Technology and the Church, April 11-14, 1996, in
Pittsburgh.
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