April 2, 2009

CHICAGO – The presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) urged members to focus on signs of hope and prayer in the midst of economic difficulty and uncertainty, as the church prepares for its spring legislative assemblies, culminating in the ELCA Churchwide Assembly this summer.

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson made the comments in remarks to the ELCA Church Council. The council is the church's board of directors and legislative authority between churchwide assemblies. It met here March 27-30. The next assembly is Aug. 17-23 in Minneapolis.

Hanson called on church members and ecumenical and global partners to study Scripture over the 50-day period preceding the churchwide assembly, focusing on biblical texts to be used at the assembly.

He urged members to name their fears without becoming trapped by them. "Fear can easily turn us inward ... focusing our own survival," he said. If people of faith become preoccupied with themselves, Hanson said he worries they will become immobilized or "become our fears altogether."

Because Jesus Christ is the source of hope, Hanson said he looks forward to the next few months "in confident hope."

The ELCA has "matured in the past eight years" because members have discussed questions related to human sexuality, he said. He reminded the council of the 2005 Churchwide Assembly action that called for ELCA unity despite disagreements over policy issues. The gospel, the world and the ELCA deserve what the church becomes when members are "true to each other as sisters and brothers in the one Body of Christ," Hanson said.

The council also acted on a series of proposals and heard various reports:

• The council adopted an ELCA Strategy on HIV and AIDS. The goal is for the ELCA to become "an HIV and AIDS-competent church" and contribute to efforts of the wider global community by working to halt the spread of HIV through prevention, treatment and care; eliminate stigma and discrimination experienced by people who are HIV-positive; and reduce conditions of poverty and marginalization that contribute to the spread of HIV. The council requested the 2009 Churchwide Assembly approve a $10 million fundraising goal over a three-year period beginning in 2009 to support the strategy.

• The council approved continued development of a Lutheran Malaria Initiative (LMI) with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Lutheran World Relief and the United Nations Foundation. The council also asked that a report and recommendations for a possible churchwide LMI campaign be brought to the 2011 Churchwide Assembly.

• The council began a process to evaluate the ELCA's governance, organization and the church's "interrelationships" among the churchwide office, synods, congregations, partner agencies and institutions. A study group will be appointed to create an evaluation plan. A report and recommendations from the group is anticipated for the 2011 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. More than 20 years have passed since the ELCA came into existence, Hanson told the council. Despite restructuring efforts, the underlying "ecology" of the church and its partners has not changed materially, he said. The current economic recession has posed "pressures for each of the (church's) eco-systems and their viability," Hanson said.

• The council heard an update on the Book of Faith Initiative, a five-year effort to strengthen ELCA members' knowledge and understanding of Scripture. Dr. Diane L. Jacobson, the initiative's director, said nearly 700 of the ELCA's 10,448 congregations signed up as Book of Faith Congregations through the Web.

• David D. Swartling, ELCA secretary, said the ELCA recognized and received eight congregations in 2008. Twelve congregations withdrew. He reported that 1,044 voting members are expected at the churchwide assembly – 404 clergy, 640 laypeople.

• The ELCA has made only "modest gains" toward its multicultural ministry goals, said the Rev. Sherman G. Hicks, executive director, ELCA Multicultural Ministries. The proportion of the overall racial/ethnic membership in the ELCA remains steady at about 3 percent. The ELCA's constituting convention in 1987 called for 10 percent of its members to be people of color and/or whose primary language is other than English by 1997.

• The council received a summary of a feasibility study for the possibility of a "comprehensive churchwide fundraising initiative." Citing the economic recession and other reasons, the council deferred consideration of the initiative to 2011. The council requested a report with recommendations for a possible churchwide campaign be brought to its April 2011 meeting.

• The council elected the Rev. Philip R. Wold, Trinity Lutheran Church, Sheridan, Wyo., to fill a council vacancy. The Rev. David W. Peters resigned from the council to become director for evangelical mission in the ELCA Montana Synod. Wold's term on the council expires in 2013.

• The Rev. Susan C. Johnson, national bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), said the ELCIC has reduced its churchwide staff by 30 percent because giving to the national church has declined. The ELCIC council appointed a task force to study the church's structure, Johnson said, adding there will be fewer synods in the ELCIC and "different ways of operating the future."

ELCA News Service