Proposed Social Statement on Human Disability

ELCA Churchwide Assembly Action CA09.06.37

Passed by the 2009 Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Resolved
To thank the Alaska, Pacifica, Nebraska, Metropolitan Chicago, Greater Milwaukee, New Jersey, New England, and Southeastern Pennsylvania synods for their call for strengthened awareness within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the particular challenges faced by people living with disability as well as this church's responsibility to address issues of accessibility, accommodation, and welcome;

To acknowledge with gratitude the many resources available through the churchwide organization, synods, social ministry organizations, and congregations and urge their use throughout this church on its ongoing commitment to address both the challenges of stigmatization and discrimination within church and society and the issues of accessibility, accommodation, and welcome; and

To decline to authorize the development of a social statement on human disability, but to request the Church in Society unit to consider development of a message on human disability, as financial and staff resources permit, that would aid awareness, deliberation, and action within this church (e.g., physical, sensory, psychiatric, or intellectual) of the different types of disability.