In the last decades of the twentieth century, American Lutherans embarked on a journey fraught with peril and filled with promise: the formation of a new church intended to unite Lutherans throughout the country in a shared vision of ministry, service, and fellowship. Congregations, leaders, institutions, publications, programs--the whole ministerial infrastructure of three of the country's Lutheran church bodies--were reborn with the ringing in of the New Year in 1988. Yet, the birth of this new church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), was not universally celebrated.

From his ""front-row seat"" as the ELCA's first secretary, Lowell G. Almen tells the story of the ELCA's birth, life, and growing pains as it sought to promote and embody Christian unity. A Dream Eclipsed is a memoir of the ELCA's first three and a half decades told from the wealth of Almen's personal and professional experience. It offers a unique view into the triumphs, tribulations, and ongoing work of the ELCA's founding era as the church looks forward to what lies ahead. In facing that future, Almen writes, ""The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the whole church always must be on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), taught by the resurrected Christ, informed by the words of Scripture, and renewed in faith through the breaking of the bread.""