ELCA YOUTH ORGANIZATION READY FOR "TURN-AROUND"

     NEW ORLEANS (ELCA) -- Rebecca D. Lawrence, 17, Chicago, was elected president of the Lutheran Youth Organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  LYO delegates elected Lawrence at their fourth triennial convention here July 24-26.  The convention also voted to establish a Definitely Abled Advisory Committee, to develop a conference for gay, lesbian and bisexual youth, to oppose capital punishment and to support ecumenism.
     Lutheran youth should "be ready for a big turn-around, a lot of surprises, and just be happy that they have a leader that is on their side," said Lawrence in an interview.  Lutheran youth "are going to work together to have the best organization and the best Youth Gathering for the year 2000," she said.
     Lawrence is a member of Zion Lutheran Church, Chicago.  She served as LYO president of the ELCA's Metropolitan Chicago Synod, 1995-1996.  She graduated high school from Seton Academy, South Holland, Ill., and will attend the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in the fall.  She is a member of the Lutheran Campus Ministry and the Black Students Union there.
     LYO holds its triennial convention in conjunction with the ELCA Youth Gathering -- a gathering that brings together thousands of high-school-aged Lutherans from across the United States and Caribbean, as well as from other countries around the world.  About 500 delegates conduct the business of the ELCA's youth organization.  Up to eight voting delegates are selected by each of the ELCA's 65 synod LYOs.  LYO is housed in the ELCA's Division for Congregational Ministries.  About 30,000 young people attended the fourth triennial Youth Gathering here July 23-27 under the "River of Hope" theme.
     Delegates approved a resolution that establishes the Definitely Abled Advisory Committee (DAC) to the LYO.  The purpose of DAC is "to help the LYO strive to be more inclusive and to voice the concerns and needs of youth with disabilities."  Members of DAC will be elected to three-year terms by "its own constituency" at the Definitely Abled Youth Leadership Event (DAYLE) which meets in advance of the Youth Gathering.
     In a separate resolution, LYO participants voted asked the LYO board, "in conjunction with the 2000 Gathering Advisory Committee, the ELCA's Division for Congregational Ministries and other ELCA divisions, to investigate the possibility of planning and developing a pre-gathering conference for gay, lesbian and bisexual youth."  The conference "would provide a safe place for gay, lesbian and bisexual youth and offer workshops, keynote addresses and/or other programs that address the specific personal and faith issues facing gay, lesbian and bisexual youth."
     By the next LYO convention, participants voted to open the "lines of communication between the LYO board and action-oriented organizations such as Amnesty International" -- a human rights organization working for the release of prisoners of conscience and an end to torture and executions. The LYO board will urge its members to contact their government, public policy and advocacy offices to "act on the church's conviction against capital punishment."  The LYO will encourage its "constituency to engage in ... action of advocacy, witness, prayer and protest."
     LYO delegates voted to support three ecumenical proposals scheduled to be voted on at the 1997 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to be held Aug. 14-20 in Philadelphia. The proposals are for the ELCA to establish "full communion" with the Episcopal Church and with three Reformed churches -- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ -- and to declare certain 16th century condemnations of the Roman Catholic Church no longer apply.
     The LYO resolved that "this support for ecumenism be made known to the voting members of the Assembly, especially through the delivery of the LYO president's report at the Assembly."  The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, served as a "resource" when discussion on this resolution took place.
     "Listen to people you meet ... listen for important ideas and dream. Carry a piece of each person you talk to with you," said Karris Golden, 20, outgoing LYO president.  LYO delegates "make decisions that affect the church as a whole.  Lutheran youth also have a history of being the forefront of leadership and change in our society," she said.
     Golden, 20, is a member of Zion Lutheran Church, Waterloo, Iowa.  She served as LYO president since Vance Robbins' resignation July 10, 1996. She is a communication student at Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa.  She wrote an essay, "This is My Story," published in "God's Story is My Story: Essays on Hearing and Telling the Word," edited by the Rev. Walter M. Wangerin, Jr., Valparaiso, Ind.
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Ann Hafften, Director, News and Information
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