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The Postal Service of the United States has apparently violated the federal law by allowing employees to work for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and their work was even funded by the union, a Fox News report states. The OSC determined that the USPS “engaged in systemic violations” of the Hatch Act, a federal law that limits some political activities of the federal employees. While they are allowed to do some political work while on leave, the report said the Postal Service showed a “bias” favouring the union’s 2016 campaign operation. The investigation was initiated several months ago, after Ron Johnson, who...

This almost seems TOO good to be true! Reports are circling, and they are saying that the Republican National Committee is to consider a resolution drafted for the impeachment of President Barack Obama, AND it’s to include 48 criminal charges!?! The resolution, which seems to have been drafted by the North American Law Center, is to be weighed up at a January 13th meeting of the RNC, reports Brandon Hall of West Michigan Politics blog. The document is titled, "Articles of Impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama,"it begins, "Resolved, That Barack Hussein Obama, acting President of the United States, is impeached...

The following sermon was preached by Bishop John Bradosky of the NALC at the funeral service given for Kevin Michael Chavez, the son of NALC General Secretary Mark Chavez. Mark served many years as founding director of Lutheran CORE. Kevin died on April 8, 2013, on his way home from college. Lutheran CORE extends its prayers of condolence to the Chavez family. Read below or download a copy here. April 13, 2013 First Lesson: Isa 40:28-31 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will...

Our hearts are broken as we ask for your prayers for our friend and colleague, Mark Chavez, on the tragic loss of his youngest son, Kevin, on Monday, April 8, 2013 [in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania]. This message from Bishop Bradosky of the NALC will share what we know about the situation at this time: Dear Friends, It is with tremendous sadness and grief that I write to inform you of the tragic death of Kevin Chavez, the youngest son of Pastor Mark Chavez and Jocelyn. Kevin was 19 years old and was on his way home from a college course....

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - The ELCA vote of 2009 divided Lutherans forever. The decision to allow gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships to be ordained into ministry caused a ripple effect of defections. On Tuesday many of those ripples gathered for a Lutheran conference at Calvary Lutheran Church in Golden Valley. Some of them reflecting on who they have become as a faith community since then. "The positive part about it is its helped people to I think discern who they are and what they believe and what is important in life and ministry," Pastor Steve Dornbusch of Calvary...

Or how about 12 steps for ELCA dissenters? (With some apologies to my friends who are in recovery, knowing they will not take offense.) 1. We admitted that we were powerless over ELCA Assemblies and our churches had become unmanageable. 2. We came to believe that a power outside the ELCA could restore us to orthodoxy. 3. We made a decision to turn our lives over to the care of this power as we understood it, whether it be NALC or LCMC. 4. We made a searching and fearless inventory of our constitutions, looking for escape clauses. 5. We admitted...

The Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) are vying for ecumenical partners as each jockeys for recognition by the wider Christian community. TEC recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Episcopal-Lutheran Concordat wherein the Episcopal Church USA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) entered into full Communion. While this was initially met with much enthusiasm and idealism in the hope that the two denominations would usher in a new era of inter-denominational cooperation, the occasion went mostly unnoticed. In February of this year, the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in...

The new bishop of a breakaway Lutheran denomination says there will be "no compromise" on the issue of gay pastors with its liberal counterpart, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.Bishop John Bradosky, 59, a native of Greensburg, said while he is open to dialogue between the North American Lutheran Church and the ELCA, there is a limit to what can be agreed to. Closing the breach between the two would "require some really major changes" on the part of the ELCA, Bradosky said. "I'm not sure there is an openness to those kinds of changes," he added. "We're certainly open...

The Rev. John F. Bradosky of Centerville, Ohio, was elected Bishop of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) Thursday, Aug. 11. Bishop Bradosky, who has served as the General Secretary of the NALC since January, was elected by the NALC Convocation, the church body’s annual meeting, which met Aug. 11-12 in suburban Columbus, Ohio. Eight hundred Lutherans from throughout North America gathered at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church at Mill Run in Hilliard, Ohio, to elect leaders and to set direction for the newly-formed church body. Bishop Bradosky, 59, was formally installed as bishop at the closing worship service of the...

A Message from the Board and Staff of WordAlone Times of difficulty and crisis are ones that often call us to hard decisions. For people of faith, this makes it even more critical that we seek to live in trust and obedience. Such is the case facing WordAlone as an organization at this time. As servants of Christ, we are called by our Lord to be faithful managers and stewards of all that he has entrusted to us - not only in terms of our material resources, but even more importantly, in his Word as "stewards of the mysteries of...

MENOMONIE - Each Sunday, the cafeteria at River Heights School is transformed into New Life Lutheran Church. Folding chairs are set up and lunch tables are pulled down to provide seating for the congregation and space for coffee, cookies and other goodies for post-service fellowship. Another table is set up in front of the folding chairs to serve as an altar, complete with a wooden cross made by parishioner and woodworker Art Alf, a banner with the church name is hung on the wall, and a piano is wheeled in to accompany songs during Sunday services. The church - a...

April 12, 2011 Bishop David Zellmer South Dakota Synod ELCA Augustana College Sioux Falls, SD 57197 Bishop Dave: Thank you for the action of the South Dakota Synod Council in releasing Immanuel Lutheran Church of Whitewood from its affiliation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Immanuel’s affiliation with the North American Lutheran Church better reflects the Biblical and theological commitments of the congregation. I believe that both God and the congregation have called me to serve Immanuel as its pastor and to continue to do so. I believe that God has called me to serve within the North American...

A long, long time ago, I can still remember how the ELCA made my smile. And I thought; well, now this’ll do, A church united, good and true, And maybe we’ll be faithful for a while. But Minneapolis made me shudder, With every word the bishop uttered, Bad news from the floor vote, We couldn’t find one more vote. I can’t remember what I said As the storm was raging overhead, But something touched me deep inside The day our confession died. So bye, bye, to the ELCA. I wrote a letter to the bishop saying I just can’t stay....

Doctrinal discord divides Lutherans Mary Garrigan Journal staff Rapid City Journal | Posted: Sunday, February 13, 2011 7:00 am Unlike the creation story in the Book of Genesis from which it takes its name, Genesis Lutheran Church had a more secular beginning. It was birthed by a small group of people who left Piedmont Valley Lutheran Church over their growing disaffection with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s policies on homosexuality. Genesis is the first Rapid City-based church to be affiliated with the newest Lutheran denomination, the North American Lutheran Church. It began meeting in members’ homes on Dec. 5...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The North American Lutheran Church (NALC) has received a $1 million gift that will expand the new church body’s work in carrying out its mission and in training and educating its pastors, the NALC announced Thursday, Feb. 10. The NALC will use the gift to launch two designated funds that will be significant for the church body’s future. One fund will support theological education — the training and continuing education of NALC pastors. The other fund will be used to provide “Great Commission Grants” to fund special mission projects, including new congregation starts, missionaries, and other initiatives...

Members of a Devils Lake church voted unanimously to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

I finally have applied to become a member of the clergy roll of the North American Lutheran Church, which means leaving the clergy roster of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Here is the NALC’s site.) About time, too, inasmuch as the NALC made me a dean back in early September. I am a sort of acting proto-bishop for NALC parishes in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Pretty easy job in the moment; the NALC has but one congregation in the entire four-state region. There are others pending. The one NALC congregation. however, is not the one I serve as pastor. In...

Three Lutheran congregations in East Central Illinois have left their denomination over the issue of progressive ministry changes, and two more have taken the first of two required votes to leave the same denomination: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The churches that left ELCA – American Lutheran, Rantoul; Immanuel Lutheran, Flatville; and St. John's Lutheran, Royal – all decided to affiliate with the North American Lutheran Church, a denomination formed in August in Ohio. Area congregations that have taken their first votes to leave the ELCA – Zion Lutheran, Philo; and Prince of Peace Lutheran, St. Joseph – will...

What Question Do You Have for the ELCA Presiding Bishop? 10-282-MRC CHICAGO (ELCA) -- If you could ask the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) a question, what would it be? The Rev. Mark S. Hanson is ready to receive questions live during the online ELCA Town Hall Forum Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. EST. The forum is an hour-long event designed to inform ELCA members about the life-changing mission and ministries of the ELCA. According to Eric Peterson, congregations should not think of the forum as "a show to be watched. Congregations should prepare and...

South Dakota pastor Julius Badigo has long known that Christian discipleship is costly. For him, that cost is increasingly measured in dollars — to the tune of thousands per month. Badigo lost his $2,200 monthly salary earlier this year when his church cut ties with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), in protest of new denominational policies to allow non-celibate gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions. Badigo's seminary coursework ended abruptly, too, when the ELCA stopped funding his tuition. Married with two children, he still leads Falls Community Church in Sioux Falls, but his only income is...