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- Carrie has served in rural, suburban and urban congregations in the Chicago area. She and Robert Smith are parents of two teenage sons.
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- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land is called to serve all who are in need regardless of race, gender or political affiliation. The church empowers children, youth, women and men, encouraging all the baptized to be the people of God in service and witness.
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- While in Illinois, Carrie was active with a local interfaith consortium and was on the Global Mission Committee of the ELCA Northern Illinois Synod. In addition to being pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Carrie will be special assistant to Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.
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- Carrie is the recipient of the 2013 Brave Preacher Award from the Beatitudes Society for her sermon on gun violence, written after the 2012 shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
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- The bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, Munib Younan, standing directly behind Carrie, is also president of The Lutheran World Federation. Carrie’s husband, Robert Smith (right), is also a pastor and is special advisor to Bishop Younan in the bishop’s capacity as president of The Lutheran World Federation.
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- The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer is a diverse congregation. People with a variety of backgrounds and nationalities gather in community.
Carrie Ballenger Smith, an ELCA pastor, was installed in September 2014 as pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem, an English-speaking congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. Prior to Redeemer, Carrie served as pastor at Living Waters Lutheran Church, an ELCA congregation in Crystal Lake, Ill. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land has been a member of The Lutheran World Federation since 1974. The denomination maintains a companion relationship with the ELCA. The Lutheran World Federation is a global communion of 144 member churches representing more than 72 million Christians. The ELCA is the communion’s only member church from the United States.
