News Releases

ELCA NEWS SERVICE
August 11, 2007

ELCA Assembly Elects David Swartling Secretary of the ELCA
07-CWA-041-CA 

       CHICAGO (ELCA) - David D. Swartling, a trial lawyer from Seattle, was elected Aug. 11 to a six-year term as secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) at the church body’s 2007 Churchwide Assembly here.
       Swartling, 60, was elected to the position after a series of five ballots. On the final ballot, he received 611 votes, with the Rev. Paul A. Schreck, currently an assistant to the ELCA secretary, receiving 366 votes.
       The secretary is responsible for ELCA rosters, interpretation of governing documents such as the church’s constitution, the ELCA archives and handles other concerns for the 4.8 million-member church body. The post is a staff position here at the ELCA churchwide office.
       Swartling, the first lay person to hold the post of ELCA secretary, said his goal would be to "assist and facilitate mission and ministry in this wonderful church." As caretaker and interpreter of the governing documents of the church, the newly elected secretary said he would "have the ear of the Presiding Bishop (Mark) Hanson, to offer the wisdom of a lay person and help keep the machinery well oiled so that the bishop can focus on his ministry."
       In speeches to the assembly prior to his election, Swartling spoke of his own prayer and spiritual life and his love for the church. "I understand and appreciate in my brain and my heart," he said "the polity of the ELCA, the elegant concept of interdependence" of the various parts of the church.
       As a lawyer, Swartling said he has long had a "passion for the process by which justice is played out" and has been involved in justice-related issues in the legal profession. Speaking to reporters after his election, Swartling asked for members of the ELCA to pray for him as his new work begins. "Maybe you would find it hard to pray for a lawyer," he quipped, "but I hope you can pray for a secretary."
       Swartling will succeed the Rev. Lowell G. Almen, who has held the post of secretary since the ELCA was formed in 1987 by a merger of three Lutheran denominations. Almen will leave office Oct. 31.
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     Information about the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be found at http://www.ELCA.org/assembly/ on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news