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Home » What We Believe » Social Issues » Social Statements In Process » A Proposed Social Statement on Human Sexuality » Current Policy » Report and Recommendations

At its November 2004 meeting, the Church Council approved a “...process and time line for the "Report and Recommendations" of the Task Force for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Studies on Sexuality as this church prepares for the 2005 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly” (CC04.11.66). In January 2005, the task force’s Report and Recommendations were released and studied in congregations and synods. The Church Council, in accordance with the plan described in the November 2004 action, subsequently prepared “...a resolution for Churchwide Assembly action in regard to the report and recommendations from the task force for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality.” In the preparation of the three-part resolution, the following information was available for review by the Church Council:

1. Report and Recommendations from the Task Force for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality;
2. Message from the Conference of Bishops;
3. Report of straw polls by the Conference of Bishops and summary of advice on various options;
3. Reports from the boards of the Division for Church in Society and the Division for Ministry; and
4. Resolutions and reports from Synod Councils.

Members of the Program and Services Committee had been present for meetings of the Task Force for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality (December 2004), the Conference of Bishops (March 2005), and the boards of the Division for Church in Society and the Division for Ministry (March 2005). The working group included: Ms. Judy Biffle, the Rev. Jonathan G. Eilert, Ms. Norma J. Hirsch, the Rev. J. Paul Rajashekar, and the Rev. Dean W. Nelson, bishop of the Southwest California Synod. Following the April 2005 meeting of the Program and Services Committee, a draft report and recommendations were distributed to the Church Council for review, discussion, and action for transmission to the Churchwide Assembly.

The Church Council prepared legislative language to implement — if adopted by the Churchwide Assembly — the understood intent of the Report and Recommendations of the Task Force for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality. A great deal of study, thought, discussion, prayer, and discernment undergirded the formulation of the Church Council’s recommendations to the Churchwide Assembly.

Recommendation #1 passed (vote required simple majority)

Recommendation #2 passed with amendments (vote required simple majority)

Recommendation #3 was defeated (vote required 2/3 majority)

Download these recommendations and/or Recommendation #2 amendments.