CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A progress report on the ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with women and children living in poverty was placed on the agenda of the ELCA's 1999 Churchwide Assembly. The ELCA Church Council voted to "receive and transmit" the report.
The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The council met here April 9-12. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is August 16-22 in Denver.
The 1993 Churchwide Assembly accepted a wide range of recommendations in a strategy document, "A Plan to Listen and Act," on the church's ministry with women and children living in poverty. That assembly asked the ELCA Division for Church in Society to bring progress reports annually to the Church Council and biennially to the Churchwide Assembly.
This assembly report deals specifically with "new and emerging systematic changes represented in welfare reform." It said "many women = and children living in poverty may eventually escape poverty's hardships and limitations while others will be pushed to the limit of survival."
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act "changed welfare from an entitlement program for eligible families to a block grant program with a lifetime limit of assistance to poor families funded by a fixed amount of support," said the report. The act "cut $54 billion over six years from anti-poverty programs," it said, including $27 billion from the Federal Food Stamp Program and more than $20 billion from Assistance to Legal Immigrants.
The ELCA's progress report is based largely on a June 1998 consultation exploring the consequences of budget cuts and other actions meant to move people off the U.S. welfare roles and into the workforce. "While we recognize the need for welfare reform, we have considerable concerns about the direction of current policy," it said.
The report includes eight recommendations, each with specific action steps. The report asks the ELCA to "advocate for changes in welfare to work that recognize and respond to the need for education and job training for women, children and families" and to "seek the advice of immigrants = and refugees to develop humane and compassionate policies to replace the current anti-immigrant provisions of welfare reform."
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html
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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.8 million members in more than 8,500 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands.," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.
For information contact:
Candice Hill Buchbinder
Public Relations Manager
Candice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org
