November 17, 2004

CHICAGO (ELCA) - The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) "raised up" a September 2004 resolution of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) that calls for solidarity with survivors of violence in Darfur, Sudan. It also encouraged the 5 million members of the ELCA to pray for peace in Sudan.

The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The council met here Nov. 11-15. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is Aug. 8-14, 2005, in Orlando, Fla.

At its meeting in October, the board of the ELCA Division for Global Mission approved the LWF resolution and forwarded it to the Church Council. LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, serves as president of LWF, which now has 138 member churches in 77 countries representing nearly 65 million Lutherans.

Through the LWF resolution, the council endorsed the call for solidarity made by "Catholic bishops of Sudan" and their appeal for "help from the international community to prevent 'terror, rape, torture, murder and slavery' and 'annihilation of an entire ethnic group in Darfur.'"

The council also encouraged the ELCA Division for Church in Society in its advocacy efforts with the U.S. federal government to respond to the "genocide" in Sudan; to allocate additional funds for emergency relief; to exert pressure on the government of Sudan to stop "arming the militia and allow humanitarian assistance into the region"; and to provide "financial and other appropriate assistance to the African Union peace-keeping soldiers in Darfur, in concert with the United Nations."

The council asked members of the ELCA to continue to "give generously" to the church's International Disaster Response and the ELCA World Hunger Appeal, so "that the ELCA can intensify its response to this humanitarian crisis."

Through its International Disaster Response, members of the ELCA sent $145,000 this year to Action by Churches Together (ACT) in response to ACT's appeal for funds to address humanitarian needs.

ACT is a worldwide network of churches and related agencies that meets human needs through organized emergency response. It is based with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and LWF, both in Geneva, Switzerland. The ELCA is a member of WCC and LWF.

ELCA News Service