June 3, 2011

CHICAGO – The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) approved revisions to recommendations and implementing resolutions in a comprehensive report about the ELCA's structure and interrelationships, and possibilities for its future.

The council commended the report to the 2011 ELCA Churchwide Assembly and requested that it act to implement the recommendations of the report.

The council met by conference call May 23 to discuss the report and recommendations of the "Living into the Future Together: Renewing the Ecology of the ELCA" task force.

"As the work of the task force began, we wanted to start a conversation that would involve and engage people across the ELCA in the … process. We knew that our final recommendations would need to take seriously what we heard and learned in those conversations," said the Rev. Diane H. "Dee" Pederson, St. Cloud, Minn., task force chair, in an April report to the council. The task force also did considerable research, engaged members online and gathered feedback, and held numerous in-person consultations throughout the ELCA to fulfill its assignment.

The report with recommendations was presented to the council in April by the project's task force. The council received the report and commented on the proposed recommendations. It asked a writing team to revise some of the recommendations, develop implementing resolutions and present them to the council for consideration.

The council recommended that the assembly make "support for the work of congregations one of the highest priorities of this church." The recommendation requests congregations, in collaboration with synods, to begin, develop, review or redefine their unique mission plans by the end of 2012 "so that each congregation strengthens its capabilities and resources for witness and mission."

The recommendation supports and strengthens synods to become catalysts for mission planning. It requests the ELCA Conference of Bishops, in consultation with synod and churchwide leaders, prepare a follow-up report with recommendations for the council to consider in November 2012, and for 2013 Churchwide Assembly.

With the exception of the genetics social statement slated for action at the 2011 Churchwide Assembly, the recommendations request that no new social statements be presented to assemblies "until a review of the process for addressing social concerns based on a spirit of communal discernment is completed." The council asked for the review process at its April meeting.

The task force, which began meeting in January 2010, studied social and economic changes that have taken place since the church was formed in 1988 and evaluated the ELCA's structure and interrelationships. It prepared the report with recommendations to position the church for the future and "explore new possibilities for participating in God's mission," Pederson said.

The reports of the "Living into the Future Together" task force is at http://www.ELCA.org/lift/, on the ELCA website.

ELCA News Service