ELCA Church Council: "Significant Transitions"

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America experienced "significant transitions" in its business and in its relationships, the Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary, said after the council met here April 4-7. The council shifted several governance responsibilities to this summer's Churchwide Assembly; and Kathy J. Magnus, Denver, announced her resignation as ELCA vice president and council chair. Magnus will serve until the end of the council's next meeting in August.
The assembly in Philadelphia Aug. 14-20 will elect a new vice president and take up the council's recommendations on subjects ranging from urban ministry and theological education to ecumenical proposals and lay ministry. The churchwide assembly is the ELCA's chief legislative body. The ELCA Church Council acts on behalf of the assembly between its biennial meetings.
Treasurer Richard A. McAuliffe called giving to the ELCA in 1996 "very satisfactory." Income totaled $77,230,000 with "mission support" channeled through the ELCA's 65 synods up $645,000 over 1995 giving, McAuliffe reported. The ELCA's income was $2.4 million ahead of expenses at the end of fiscal 1996.
The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop, said 1996 was "another good year for the churchwide organization." He said, "The steady year-by-year strengthening of our financial position has enabled us to undertake some additional mission projects and has relieved the kinds of budget stresses faced earlier in the life of this church."
The Church Council authorized 1997 spending to total $76.9 million, up $300,000 from the spending level set in November. A report that income to the ELCA World Hunger Fund fell short of its 1997 goal led the council to set hunger program spending at $11.9 million instead of $12.2 million.
The Church Council adopted an amendment to the ELCA Medical and Dental Benefits Plan which excludes "coverage of late-term abortions except when the life of the mother is threatened or when the fetus has lethal abnormalities indicating death is imminent."
At its November meeting the council asked the ELCA Board of Pensions, which manages the plan, to develop such an amendment to bring the plan into accord with the ELCA's 1991 "Social Statement on Abortion." The statement supports human life and says that abortion "ought to be an option only of last resort, such as when the life a mother is threatened." It does not mention the church's medical plan.
As amended the plan calls for the Board of Pensions to ask at which point in the pregnancy the abortion was performed, whether the mother's life was at risk or whether the fetus had lethal abnormalities. Current medical practice defines late-term abortions as a termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks, according to John G. Kapanke, president of the Board of Pensions.
The council recommended that the 1997 assembly affirm a series of proposals on ministry in daily life and the spiritual formation of Lutherans who are not seeking a church occupation. "A Call to Action: Ministry in the Daily Lives of the Baptized" is a Division for Ministry report to the assembly. It calls for including "relevant and concrete suggestions for living the faith" in the ELCA's policies and printed resources and for making "theological education accessible to a broader spectrum of people."
The ELCA Division for Ministry will give the assembly progress reports on implementing a study of theological education. One resolution will outline the church's expectations of continuing education for its ordained and lay ministers. The assembly will receive "Equipping Leaders for Mission," a case statement for increased financial support for theological education; and it will consider establishing a churchwide scholarship for theological studies.
The council sent the churchwide assembly an initiative to revitalize ELCA ministry in urban areas, "In the City for Good." The assembly will be asked to implement a decade-long emphasis on urban ministry from 1998 to 2008. Another proposal will seek funding sources "to support and strengthen the ministry of the ELCA in urban settings."
The council transmitted "Recommitment to a Strategy for Proclamation of the Gospel" to the assembly. The Commission for Multicultural Ministries report describes the ELCA's failure to achieve a ten-year goal that ten percent of its membership will be people of color or people whose primary language is not English. That now describes about two percent of the ELCA's 5.2 million members. An accompanying assembly resolution would renew the church's commitment to be more multicultural.
The council also sent to the assembly a Commission for Multicultural Ministries report outlining the relationship Native American Lutherans envision with the ELCA over the next five years. "The American Indian and Alaska Native Strategic Plan" commends existing ELCA ministries with Native Americans and recommits the church to intensify those efforts.
The council approved a series of changes to ELCA governing documents outlining the church's relationship with affiliated social ministry organizations. In November 1996 the council gave its approval to the formation of Lutheran Services in America -- an alliance of about 300 Lutheran social ministry organizations across the United States and Caribbean with the ELCA and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The changes pave the way for the formal start of LSA in May.
Lutheran Campus Ministry will get a closer look at the council's November meeting. The council requested a plan to convene a "think tank" around the "purpose, structure and churchwide location of campus ministry" involving the ELCA's Division for Higher Education and Schools, where campus ministry is currently lodged, and others.
Concerns related to campus ministry surfaced in the course of a regular review of the division which included changing student populations, staffing models, training for campus pastors, programs, advocacy, partnership and funding questions.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html