Contact: John R. Brooks of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 773-380-2958, john.brooks@elca.org

CHICAGO, July 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will present a Global Mission Event (GME) July 27-30 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Co-sponsored by the Episcopal Church and endorsed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the event will draw more than 1,000 participants from the United States and around the world. The theme for this year's event is "Sent! by God's grace for the sake of the world."

Details about the GME are available at http://www.elca.org/gme/ on the Web.

The event will feature more than 50 "Global University" sessions, music and worship, general sessions and three-part Global University tracks. Each plenary session will feature a keynote speaker. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA and president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), and the Rev. Frank Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church will be presenters July 27 during the opening celebration. The LWF, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a global communion representing 62.3 million of the world's nearly 65.4 million Lutherans.

A general session July 28 will feature He Qi, a renowned contemporary Chinese Christian artist. He Qi is a professor at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, China, and a tutor for master candidate students in the Philosophy Department of Nanjing University. The Al-Raja (Hope) Folkloric Dance Troupe, whose members are Palestinian Christian and Muslim students from the Lutheran School of Hope, Ramallah, will perform July 28. The school is a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.

On July 29 the Rev. Lisandro Orlov, Latin American regional coordinator of the LWF HIV/AIDS campaign, United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina, will participate in a panel discussion on ministry, faith and challenge in the Latin American context. That same day participants will attend a celebration of culture at a global "fair" where they can sample flavors, sounds, sights and smells from around the world. There will be a presentation of global music and dance, and celebration of the service and commitment of current and former ELCA missionaries attending the GME.

Wahu Kaara, Millennium Development Goals campaign program coordinator, the All Africa Council of Churches, Nairobi, Kenya, will preach July 30. She is a 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee.