October 18, 2004

CHICAGO - There are 20 chaplains of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving in combat zones in the Middle East and in Kosovo, said Chaplain Ivan G. Ives, assistant to the ELCA presiding bishop for federal chaplaincy ministries, Washington, D.C., in a report to the ELCA Conference of Bishops. Fifteen of the 20 were called up from the National Guard and military reserves, he said.

"The impact of this has been noticed because these are people coming out of your parishes," Ives told the conference.

The Conference of Bishops is an advisory body of the church, consisting of the church's 65 synod bishops, presiding bishop and secretary. It met here Sept. 30-Oct. 4.

Of the 771 ELCA chaplains serving in the U.S. armed forces, Veterans Administration, federal prisons and U.S. Department for Homeland Security, 362 are serving in the military. Typically, military chaplains are deployed for one year and then return to the United States for one year before another possible deployment, Ives said. National Guard and reserve chaplains are deployed for about 18 months. Different branches of the U.S. armed forces deploy for different lengths of time, he said.

When ELCA chaplains are called to active duty, Ives told the Conference of Bishops, his office assists the chaplains and their families in many ways. If the chaplain serves a congregation, he checks the pastor's status with his or her congregation, he said. In the case of a chaplain on leave from a call to a congregation or other ministry, Ives said he must request that a "letter of call" be issued by the ELCA Church Council for the period in which the chaplain is on active duty.

The ELCA federal chaplaincies office is in touch with families of ELCA chaplains to assist them with transition pay and benefits, and it maintains periodic contact with the chaplains and their families, he said.

Ives said the ELCA and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod work together in a "precious relationship" to provide Word and Sacrament ministry in military chaplaincy. "This is a necessary relationship," he said. "The job is too big to do ourselves."

This past summer the LCMS general convention agreed to a recommendation from top LCMS leaders that cooperative arrangements for military chaplaincy be continued with the ELCA.

"We need [more] chaplains," Ives said, noting that physical conditioning is an important factor for military chaplains.

Ives said he is concerned about the reentry of military chaplains into the parish. Support systems are needed for National Guard and reserve chaplains when they return, he added.

Bishops Review Candidacy Manual Updates, Structure and Governance Proposals

The Conference of Bishops engaged in discussion on several other topics:

. Members reviewed proposed revisions to the ELCA Candidacy Manual, a document that candidacy committees and others in the ELCA use as candidates prepare for their roles as professional church leaders. The revisions emphasize health and wellness and an improved screening process, including expanded background checks. The revisions were to be reviewed by the ELCA Division for Ministry board this fall and must be approved by the ELCA Church Council in November. The conference affirmed "the careful and consistent" use of the manual by those involved in the candidacy process.

. Members learned that a review of the process for calling professional leaders to congregations and other ministries is under way with funding for the review provided by Thrivent for Lutherans, a Minneapolis-based fraternal benefit organization.

. The Rev. James M. Childs Jr., director of the ELCA Studies on Sexuality, will move into an advisory role and return to teaching at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, early next year, said the Rev. Stanley N. Olson, executive director of the Division for Ministry. Childs leads a task force which is preparing a report and recommendations related to homosexuality for the 2005 Churchwide Assembly. The report and recommendations will become public January 13. Olson said the task force will continue on a new phase of its work, to produce a social statement on human sexuality for consideration by the 2007 Churchwide Assembly. The Rev. Kaari M. Reierson and Roger A. Willer, both with the ELCA Division for Church in Society, will provide staff support for the task force's work. The Rev. Margaret G. Payne, bishop of the ELCA New England Synod, Worcester, Mass., is task force chair.

. Members reviewed and discussed pending proposals for redesign and governance of the ELCA churchwide organization. Many other groups within the church are reviewing these proposals, which will be considered by the Church Council when it meets here Nov. 11-15, and eventually by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, meeting Aug. 8-14, 2005, in Orlando. Fla.

. The conference asked its Synodical-Churchwide Relations Committee to initiate a process to possibly bring together all of the professional leaders of the ELCA in one place for worship and to build collegial relationships. Members asked for a report at their March 2005 meeting in Dallas.

ELCA News Service