Nicole Ridley has been appointed chief executive officer of the LCMS National Housing Support Corporation, which does business as Lutheran Housing Support (LHS). Her appointment by the corporation’s Board of Directors was effective May 1. Ridley previously served as project director…

LCMS First Vice-President Rev. Herbert C. Mueller Jr. received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree during the May 18 commencement at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind. Mueller also served as commencement speaker at the 6 p.m. ceremony in the seminary’s Kramer…

By Kim Plummer Krull It was around 1997 when yet another family told the Rev. John Schmidtke that the lack of decent, affordable housing was forcing them to leave their crumbling inner-city North St. Louis, Mo., neighborhood.  “Where was this family…

The Rev. Richard Boche was elected on the first ballot to his third term as president of the LCMS Wyoming District at the district’s May 10-12 convention in Casper, Wyo. Boche was unopposed. Also elected were: the Rev. John Hill, senior…

By Pamela Nielsen Nearly 1,000 Lutherans gathered May 1 on the campus of Concordia Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to celebrate and thank God for its 70 years of preparing pastors and other church workers. Participants included pastors and other…

By Kim Plummer Krull A tsunami wave triggered by a powerful earthquake hit Constitucion, Chile, especially hard in 2010, killing some 350 people in the coastal community alone and causing so much damage that survivors feared their town was all…

By Adriane Dorr LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison declared fellowship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia (ELCL) May 10. This declaration followed the Commission on Theology and Church Relations’ (CTCR) action on April 26 in which recognition…

(RNS) — United Methodists (UMC) concluded their General Conference May 4 without voting on gay clergy or same-sex marriage, a surprising end to a disappointing week for gay activists. On May 3, the nearly 1,000 delegates gathered in Tampa, Fla.,…

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — The name Jesus Christ doesn’t appear in The Voice, a new translation of the Bible. Nor do words such as angel or apostle. Instead, angel is rendered as “messenger” and apostle as “emissary.” Jesus Christ is “Jesus…

(RNS) — Despite emotional protests and fierce lobbying from gay-rights groups, United Methodists (UMC) voted May 2 to maintain their denomination’s stance that homosexual acts are “incompatible with Christian teaching.” Two “agree to disagree” proposals were soundly defeated during separate votes…

A total of 139 pastoral candidates were placed into their first calls during “call day” services May 1 at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and May 2 at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind. Those called included one student from Concordia…

The Synod’s two official periodicals — Reporter and The Lutheran Witness — received a total of seven awards from the Associated Church Press (ACP) for work done in 2011. The awards were presented at the ACP’s annual convention, April 30-May…