October 13, 2009

CHICAGO – A spectrum of reactions followed decisions taken by voting members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly in August. Some church leaders have suggested withholding financial support from the denomination, while others have said this is the time to increase funding.

The assembly adopted a social statement on human sexuality, and it adopted proposals to change ELCA ministry policies, including a change to make it possible for Lutherans in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.

The Lutheran Coalition for Renewal (CORE) is an alliance of ELCA members and organizations opposed to the assembly actions. "We invite faithful Lutheran congregations and individuals to direct funding away from the national church body because of the 2009 churchwide assembly decisions," said the CORE Web site.

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, wrote in a Sept. 23 message to church leaders, "Although these actions are promoted as a way to signal opposition to churchwide assembly actions or even to punish the voting members who made them, the result will be wounds that we inflict on ourselves, our shared life, and our mission in Christ."

Augusta Victoria Hospital, a medical facility of the Lutheran World Federation on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, and a food pantry near Madison, Wis., were ministries "outside of our building" that inspired the 1,000-member St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Monona, Wis., to tithe money it is raising to fix the church roof, said its pastor, the Rev. Nicholas G. Utphall.

"Fixing our roof and paying our mortgage are certainly important details in the life of our congregation, and those necessities have come to serve as a reminder of the larger mission we are about here," he said. "The news of congregations withholding money makes it seem very appropriate."

Two senior pastors from St. Stephen – the Rev Jon S. Enslin and the Rev. Bruce H. Burnside – became bishops of the ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin. "Perhaps that keeps some of the work of the broader ELCA more apparent in front of us, but it is also important to recognize the vast extent of what our dollars do in this church," Utphall said.

"There is so much vital social and gospel work done by this church in this country and around the world that there is simply no way to know everything that we are doing as the ELCA. We regularly hear people say that they are proud to be a part of this church and its work," he said.

St. Timothy Lutheran Church, Geneseo, N.Y., is going through some lean years financially, but the 270-member congregation challenged itself to increase the portion of its budget set aside as benevolence to the ELCA Upstate New York Synod. "As a ‘family' of the church, we feel it is part of who we are as a church," said the Rev. Justin M. Johnson, pastor of St. Timothy.

"It is important because we are trying to model tithing and priorities," he said. "Not all of us agree about the churchwide assembly resolutions, but we recognize that we are united under Christ's cross and Christ's mission to the world," Johnson said. "There is no church politics in that."

ELCA News Service