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ELCA worried by shutdown of publisher pension plan: Augsburg Fortress employees suing

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America says it is “deeply concerned” about the welfare of employees who are suing the denomination’s publishing arm over the termination of their pension plan.

Augsburg Fortress, which publishes ELCA hymnals, Sunday school materials and theological texts, told approximately 500 current and former employees in January that their pension plan was underfunded and would be terminated.

African Lutherans press opposition to gay rites: Church leaders in Tanzania and Ethiopia

Three months before a major assembly of the Lutheran World Federation, church leaders in Tanzania and Ethiopia—who represent the two largest Lutheran constituencies in Africa—have expressed opposition to “same-sex marriages and those who support the legitimacy of such marriage.”

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America last year urged members to allow congregations that choose to do so “to recognize, support and hold publicly accountable lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships,” but delegates did not call them marriages—reserving that term for heterosexual couples.