Pressure Points with Dr. Bruce Hartung

Q: We are stuck. Let me explain. Several of us who are members of our Board of Elders want to add to the staff of our congregation by bringing on a director of Christian education. We are in an area…

Items available (May)

Note:  Reporter cannot accept notices about items offered for sale or that people wish to purchase.  Items described as “Available” are sought or may be obtained for shipping costs only. Available Lutheran Worship hymnals, 250 copies; and eight large-print and…

Letters to the Editor (May)

Close(d) Communion An April Reporter story stated that the Southern Illinois District convention passed a resolution “asking the district president or his representative to visit Southern Illinois congregations to work toward uniformity in line with ‘our Synod’s doctrine of closed…

Commentary: Hymns, liturgy express `rhythms` of Christian life

A layman reflects as Synod anticipates Lutheran Service Book By James D. Lowitzer Ever since the 1998 Synod convention encouraged work to begin on a new hymnal for our church body, Lutheran Service Book has been in careful and loving…

Communications board appoints Strand to top post

David L. Strand in April accepted the LCMS Board for Communication Services’ (BCS) appointment as its full-time executive director. Vicki Biggs and Joe Isenhower Jr. also accepted the board’s appointments as manager of Public Affairs/Media Relations and managing editor-Reporter, respectively…

LFL sets 2006 conference to attract more families

Lutherans For Life’s (LFL) annual national conference moves from fall to summer this year — July 14-16 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa — to make it easier for whole families to attend. Registration is open now, by mail or online (click here), where…

Thrivent now taking applications for grants

Lutheran congregations, schools, and organizations have until Sept. 15 to apply for a total of $5.5 million that the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation will give in its Charitable Gifting Initiative grant program for 2006. The initiative is a “a…

Lutherans, Catholics discuss death, judgment, resurrection

As Lutherans and Roman Catholics continued to dialogue around the theme of “The Hope of Eternal Life,” LCMS participants described the meetings as thorough and careful ways to listen to one another. “It’s invaluable because we talk to one another,…

Mailings detail 'Lutheran Service Book,' companions

The Synod’s Commission on Worship and Concordia Publishing House (CPH) in late April mailed a comprehensive 40-page booklet about Lutheran Service Book and its companion editions to all LCMS and Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) congregations and others. This is the first…

Pastors visit Lutheran AIDS orphanage in Kenya

By Kim Krull In a country with nearly one million AIDS orphans, the opening of a new Lutheran orphanage for 24 Kenyan boys may sound small. But it was a big day for these youngsters who once lived in a…

Grants help ease suffering after Mid-South tornadoes

By Joe Isenhower Jr. Rev. Carlos Hernandez, director of Districts and Congregations with LCMS World Relief/Human Care, says he often first learns about “the steady stream of disasters that have been occurring in recent months” from TV news coverage while at…

LCMS, ELCA reps discuss military chaplaincy

Military chaplaincies received attention from leaders of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), meeting as the Committee on Lutheran Cooperation (CLC) on April 6 at the ELCA offices in Chicago. Reporting on behalf of both…

Kieschnick among those supporting marriage-protection measure

LCMS President Gerald B. Kieschnick is among 43 U.S. religious leaders who have signed an open letter calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Declaring support for the…

Dr. Alfred Fremder, sem professor, dies

Dr. Alfred L. Fremder, professor emeritus at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, died April 19.  He was 86. A funeral service was held April 25 at Tree of Life Lutheran Church in Garland, Texas. Fremder served as professor emeritus at the seminary from…

Mission board issues 28 calls, appointments for missionaries

By Paula Schlueter Ross Dr. Robert Roegner, executive director of LCMS World Mission, still remembers how bad he felt in December 2002, when 28 overseas missionary “unit,” or family, positions were eliminated because of dwindling funds. Roegner called the missionaries individually to…

New DVD offers information about the LCMS

What’s a “synod”?  Are Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod congregations only in the state of Missouri?  What do Missouri Synod Lutherans believe? Those questions — and lots of others — are answered in “Some Things Never Change,” a new 12-minute DVD from…