Registration opens Feb. 1 for an April 30-May 1 first-time conference in St. Louis that organizers say they hope will be the catalyst for a network of those involved in any type of prison ministry in the Synod and will…

Note: Reporter cannot accept notices about items offered for sale or that people wish to purchase.  Items described as “Wanted” or “Available” are sought or may be obtained for shipping costs only. Wanted The Lutheran Hymnal, 15 copies of large-print edition…

The Board of Regents of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, with the approval of the Board for Pastoral Education, herewith issues a call for the nomination of candidates for the presidency of Concordia Seminary.  Nominations must be filed with the undersigned…

MARK HOMP, Zumbrota, Minn., has applied for reinstatement to the Minister of Religion-Ordained roster of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. DAVID F. KANE, Pittsford, N.Y.; CLIFFORD F. MITCHELL, Manteo, N.C.; and BETHANN WRIGHT, Fort Wayne, Ind., have applied for reinstatement to…

The Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, chorus released in November a new compact disc of music for the Advent, Christmas and Epiphany seasons. Titled “Gentle Stranger,” the CD was recorded in the seminary’s Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus over the…

The online “Mission and Ministry Giving Catalog” at http://catalog.lcms.org launched in 2002 has been redesigned by the LCMS Foundation to make it easier to use. Through the Giving Catalog, visitors to the Synod’s Web site can make secure financial contributions to…

Dr. David C. Jacobson, provost at Concordia College, Bronxville, N.Y., since 2000, died Dec. 5 at a Valhalla, N.Y., hospital of complications from pancreatic cancer. A memorial service was held Dec. 11 at the college. Jacobson, 59 at the time of his…

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) in December received a check for $5.137 million from the “Matching Grant Program” funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement. The grant funds help refugees and those…

The Synod’s Commission on Ministerial Growth and Support (CMGS) is reissuing a call for nominations for an executive director. The executive director reports to the commission and to the Synod president, and is responsible for providing principal leadership in promoting the…

Rev. David P. Schmidt retires Jan. 3 after serving as senior vice president of Capital Funding Services (CFS), a Synod-based fund-raising organization that is part of the Lutheran Church Extension Fund. In 1992, Schmidt helped found CFS, which has worked with…

Thanks from Florida On behalf of Grace Lutheran Church, Pensacola, Fla., and Circuit 10 of the Southern District, I would like to thank all who have responded and will respond to the needs of fellow Lutherans in the Florida panhandle. For years,…

By Paula Schlueter Ross How are LCMS districts responding to the challenge of LCMS World Mission’s Ablaze! initiative, that is, to share the Gospel with 100 million people — “unreached for Christ or uncommitted to Christianity” — by 2017? Synod…

By Kim Plummer Krull This new year may hold new hope for people in the Dominican Republic, as a unique partnership strives to plant that country’s first LCMS congregation and also address the plight of people there with developmental disabilities. “This is…

“The Congregation’s Ministry and Mission: Who’s in Charge Here?” will be the theme for the Synod’s second “model theological conference,” set for Aug. 23-25 in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) at its Dec. 2-4 meeting in…

Along with providing resources for the Jan. 23 “Life Sunday” observance in the United States, LCMS Life Ministries Director Maggie Karner is laying the groundwork for what she hopes will be the Missouri Synod’s first Life Ministries/Human Care project abroad. Karner…

Guidelines should be in the mail by early January to help congregations implement a 2004 Synod convention resolution that permits women to hold any congregational office that does not involve the exercise of distinctive functions of the pastoral office. The guidelines,…