DENVER (ELCA) -- The 1999 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) declined Aug. 21 to tamper with the ELCA's social statement on abortion, which was adopted by the church's 1991 assembly.
This year's assembly turned back an effort to amend the 1991 statement by removing language that supports legal, publicly-funded abortion if the fetus has "lethal abnormalities incompatible with life" and that opposes abortion after viability of the fetus "except when the mother's life is threatened or when lethal abnormalities indicate the prospective newborn will die very soon."
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting Aug. 16-22 here at the Colorado Convention Center. There are more than 2,500 people participating, including 1,038 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ Known: Hope for a New Century."
A committee receiving resolutions from the ELCA's 65 synods recommended that the assembly decline a proposed resolution from the ELCA Southwestern Minnesota Synod that would have amended the social statement and encouraged membership in Lutherans For Life, a pan-Lutheran = pro-life organization. A move to substitute the synod's proposal for the committee's recommendation failed, 748 to 154.
Voting members approved the committee recommendation, which also encourages "continuing moral deliberation throughout this church on abortion." It declined "to recommend involvement in specific organizations."
Lisa Jennison, voting member, ELCA Southeastern Iowa Synod, who tried to make the failed substitution, asked what support for a woman's right to choose abortion says "about our church and its care for 'the least of these?'"
The Rev. Scott Cady, voting member, ELCA New England Synod, a part-time hospital chaplain, told the assembly that issues of life and death are best left in the hands of families and their physicians and clergy.
The Rev. Harvey L. Nelson, voting member, ELCA Southwestern Minnesota Synod -- the synod that originally had offered the proposed resolution -- told the assembly that voting members from his synod supported the committee recommendation and would bring the proposed changes to a future assembly "through proper channels." He said he was speaking on behalf of the Rev. Stanley N. Olson, bishop, who had been called away from the assembly.
In other business, the churchwide assembly voted 908 to 25 to adopt the committee's recommendations on 25 other issues that were presented as a package. These issues were considered non-controversial and were not debated.
Recommendations approved as a package included:
-- support for a "Decade for a Culture of Nonviolence" (2001-2010) and a "Year of Education for Nonviolence" (2000);
-- opposition to so-called "workfare" programs that "in effect coerce people to work under conditions that violate their dignity or freedom;"
-- commendation for those who have advocated for just immigration policies and have served recent immigrants and refugees; and
-- acknowledgment of a new ELCA resource, "Talking Together as Christians about Homosexuality: A Guide for Congregations."
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
