ELCA hopes to recover seminarian's body in Haiti
Officials of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America hope to persuade the U.S. Embassy in Haiti to work at recovering the body of a seminarian presumed killed in the earthquake that destroyed much of Port-au-Prince.
ELCA spokesman John Brooks told the Duluth News Tribune that the church is working through the embassy to see if the U.S. Southern Command may be able to help retrieve the body of Ben Larson "so we can bring him home."
Larson's wife and a cousin were also Lutheran seminary students in the same Port-au-Prince building that collapsed. They managed to escape but were unable to help Larson and eventually returned to the United States.
Larson is son of the Rev. April Ulring Larson, former bishop of the La Crosse Area Synod, and the Rev. Judd Larson of Duluth.
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About 1,200 people attended a memorial service for Ben Larson on Friday at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.
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Information from: Duluth News Tribune, http://www.duluthsuperior.com
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)