March 14, 2011

ITASCA, Ill. – Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti are "people of the resurrection" of Jesus Christ, said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, in a March 5 report to the ELCA Conference of Bishops.

Hanson visited Haiti Feb. 21-22 and was hosted by the Rev. Joseph Livenson Lauvanus, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti.

The ELCA Conference of Bishops held its spring meeting here March 3-8. The conference consists of the church's 65 synod bishops, plus the ELCA presiding bishop and ELCA secretary.

While in Haiti, Hanson visited several ELCA-supported projects and discussed plans for the nation's future. ELCA members gave more than $12.6 million for relief and development work in Haiti following the devastating January 2010 earthquake. Information about the presiding bishop's visit to Haiti is at http://www.ELCA.org/News/Releases.asp?a=4720, on the ELCA website.

During the visit, Lauvanus told Hanson: "We will not be defined by rubble but by restoration, for we are a people of the resurrection."

"That defiant declaration, that gospel proclamation was repeated to me over and over again as we climbed the rubble," Hanson told the conference. He specifically mentioned several ELCA-funded projects underway in Haiti, such as formation of community health teams that stabilize people with cholera, transport them to hospitals and help sanitize their homes; the rebuilding of earthquake-damaged Redemption Lutheran Church, Carrefour, which Hanson said is now "a restored community of faith growing in worship"; a project to provide egg-laying hens to Haitians to help generate income; and a vocational training center to be built from the frame of an old sugar factory.

Hanson said the people of the ELCA are "a people of the resurrection" as they accompany members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti.

Turning to the 2011 Churchwide Assembly this August, the ELCA presiding bishop said the theme will be "Freed in Christ to Serve."

"‘Freed in Christ to Serve' is more than an assembly theme. It expresses the heart of our faith. Our freedom is God's work already accomplished through Christ's death and resurrection," he said.

ELCA members, Hanson said, are "‘Freed in Christ' to join one another through the waters of baptism, working to make visible our unity in Christ, together serving the very gospel truth through which that liberation comes, together serving our neighbors, together caring for God's creation."

Commenting on the recently released proposed social statement, Genetics, Faith and Responsibility, Hanson said that ELCA members "are called to live at those intersections where faith and life meet." Nearly half of the ELCA's 10,000 congregations are in rural area or in communities of less than 10,000 people, he said. Farmers live out their callings by feeding a hungry world, caring for God's creation, and providing for their own families and communities, Hanson said.

"We also know that the phenomenal growth in scientific knowledge, technology and machinery has dramatically changed farming. The collective efforts of genetic sciences and new technology have provided great benefit and promise, but we also know they hold great risk and ambiguity," Hanson told the bishops. "Isn't it wonderful that as people of faith, ‘Freed in Christ to Serve,' we can come together as a church, not to tell farmers how to farm, not to tell scientists how to do their research, but as innovative stewards called to dedicate ourselves to the flourishing of life, so we together can ask the searching moral questions?"

The bishops reviewed the social statement and will forward comments to the ELCA Church Council, which meets next month. The council will also review the proposed social statement and transmit it for action to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in August.

Hanson thanked the bishops for the way "they are keeping the gospel central," and thanked staff of the churchwide organization during a time of transition into a new churchwide structure.

The bishops also heard other reports from ELCA churchwide organization officers.

Christina Jackson-Skelton, ELCA treasurer, said preliminary, unaudited financial figures showed the churchwide organization had net operating revenue of $2.6 million for the fiscal year which ended Jan. 31. Current operating revenue was $66.8 million, with $64.2 million in expenses, she said. Most of that revenue comes from mission support funds sent by congregations through synods to the churchwide organization. Mission support for 2010 was $52.6 million, $1.6 million more than the revised budget, she said. Last fall, the ELCA Church Council reduced the mission support forecast and spending authorization based on projections.

Jackson-Skelton said members gave $17.7 million for ELCA World Hunger in 2010, compared to a budget of $18.7 million. While giving to World Hunger trailed much of the year, a strong fourth quarter helped the ELCA meet most of its commitments to partners that depend on World Hunger grant funds, she reported.

Acknowledging that the past two years have provided significant financial challenges, Jackson-Skelton said the churchwide organization "is in a very good position for 2011." Jackson-Skelton said she has confidence in the 2011 budget plan, adding that the churchwide organization does not expect to make reductions to the budget plan approved last November by the ELCA Church Council, or put in place an underspending plan.

David D. Swartling, ELCA secretary, reported that as of Feb. 1 this year, 374 congregations, about 3.7 percent of all ELCA congregations, have completed the constitutionally required process to leave the denomination since August of 2009. Those congregations represent about 196,000 baptized members.

From August 2009 to the present, the ELCA churchwide organization has also approved the start of 70 new congregations – of those approved, 61 have a mission developer and are growing their ministries, according to ELCA Congregational and Synodical Mission. More than half of the new starts serve African National, African American, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino and multicultural congregations.

About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)

The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with approximately 4.5 million members in more than 10,000 congregations across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer, Martin Luther.

ELCA News Service