ELCA Council Approves Funds for Special Projects

CHICAGO (ELCA) The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) established a designated fund of $3 million and authorized the ELCA presiding bishop to allocate the funds for global and domestic mission, including pilot programs intended to benefit poor people in urban and rural areas.
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 $3 million primarily for the poor was authorized as part of a series of additional one-time expenditures. The funds were made available because the churchwide organization has spent less than it received for several years, enhancing its reserves significantly, said Sandra G. Gustavson, ELCA council member, Athens, Ga. Gustavson chairs the council's budget and finance Committee.
"Our intent is to recognize that we've been blessed over the years and been able to build our reserves," she said.
The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, said the council's decision to allocate $3 million primarily for the poor is a "tithe," a 10 percent commitment of the church's reserves. Pilot programs developed by ELCA synods will be considered for funding, the council's action said.
In addition, the council authorized spending for a variety of support ministries that it said need special attention:
-- $600,000 was designated as an endowment for "In the City for Good," an ELCA effort aimed at revitalizing ministries in urban areas of the United States and Caribbean;
-- $500,000 was designated as an endowment for the Special Needs Retirement Fund, a fund that provides financial help to retired pastors and their spouses whose pensions are inadequate to meet living expenses;
-- $500,000 was designated for leadership development in the ELCA, with emphasis on ethnic leadership;
-- $300,000 was designated for anti-racism projects with the ELCA's ecumenical partners. The council agreed that preference should be given to the full communion partners of the ELCA, including the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., Reformed Church in America and the United Church of Christ.
-- $100,000 was designated for the ELCA World Hunger Appeal, the fundraising arm of the ELCA's World Hunger Program. The funds are intended to revitalize the appeal during 1999, its 25th anniversary year.
-- $2 million was designated for the ELCA's Identity Project, a public media campaign aimed at raising awareness of the Lutheran church and providing positive reinforcement to ELCA members. Up to $500,000 of that is intended for development of print and broadcast materials in Spanish and the remainder is for national advertising. Previously, the council and Aid Association for Lutherans, a fraternal benefits organization based in Appleton, Wis., allocated funds for grants to synods and congregations to use the materials.
Spending for many of the projects is expected to take place over a three to five year period.
The council also designated $5 million to reduce the mortgage on The Lutheran Center, the central offices of the ELCA here. Reducing the mortgage will "provide additional resources for our own ministry," Anderson said.
"I am excited about the possibility we have to strengthen our mission," said the Rev. Callon W. Holloway, Jr., bishop of the ELCA Southern Ohio Synod, Columbus, an advisory bishop to the council.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
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