Materials designed to help LCMS schools celebrate “National Lutheran Schools Week” Jan. 27-Feb. 2 are available free online. The materials are based on the theme, “Baptized for This Moment,” from Acts 2:38-39, the same theme as the one chosen for the…

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) — In a sometimes harshly worded ruling, a federal appeals court Oct. 23 smacked down the Louisiana funeral board’s continued attempts to prevent a group of monks from St. Joseph Abbey from selling their hand-crafted caskets. “The great…

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — Eric and Ruth Brown believe nothing about daughter Pearl Joy’s life is a mistake. They say God gave Pearl her bright red hair and wide blue eyes, as well as the genetic disorder that created a cleft…

(RNS) — The Rev. Samuel Wynn admired Billy Graham and his evangelistic association for decades, joining its spiritual crusades and urging fellow Christians to do the same. But no more. “I will never again support anything by the Billy Graham Evangelistic…

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) — Future generations could be stripped of mutations like hereditary blindness or maternal diabetes, after a breakthrough study at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). But the new technique is also one short step from genetic design of…

Concordia College — New York in Bronxville, N.Y., announced Oct. 24 that its president for the past 13 years, Dr. Viji D. George, has agreed to continue in that post and that the college’s board of regents has terminated its…

By Paula Schlueter Ross Twenty years. That’s how long the Synod’s Concordia University System of 10 colleges and universities nationwide has been around. That’s also how many years Concordia University System (CUS) enrollment has grown — in other words, every fall, just…

SEATTLE (RNS) — In the headquarters of Washington United for Marriage, a large collage displays a list of the high-powered sponsors backing the ballot-measure campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in the state. They include such iconic businesses as Amazon, Google and…

(RNS) — The Diocese of South Carolina announced Oct. 17 that it has disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church, escalating a long-running skirmish and setting the stage to become the fifth diocese to secede from the denomination. South Carolina said the split…

(RNS) — A North Carolina judge has ruled the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) did not discriminate against a former black employee. Kimberly McCallum worked for the Charlotte, N.C.-based BGEA from 2003 to 2007 and filed suit in 2009. While working on…

(RNS) — The Knights of Columbus, a wealthy and influential Catholic charitable organization, is a leading funder in the push to make same-sex marriage illegal in four states that have ballot measures on the issue this fall, a coalition of…

The Synod’s KFUO Radio and the Radio Arts Foundation of St. Louis (RAF) are entering a cooperative arrangement that begins with KFUO sharing its extensive classical music library with RAF.  RAF plans to launch a new FM station serving the…

By Joe Isenhower Jr.  ST. LOUIS — Participants in the second LCMS prison- and jail-ministry conference here Sept. 29-30 say they are grateful for the opportunities it provided them for networking, gathering information and inspiration. From 25 LCMS districts, the 111 registrants’…

(RNS) — Leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Oct. 16 said recent decisions by two regional bodies to allow ordained female pastors were “serious mistakes,” and women who are ordained won’t be recognized — at least for now. “They directly challenge…

(RNS) — Eileen Guenther, the national president of the American Guild of Organists, reveals behind-the-scenes church struggles in her new book, Rivals or a Team?: Clergy-Musician Relationships in the Twenty-First Century. Guenther, an associate professor of church music at Washington’s Wesley…