ELCA Bishops Adopt Pastoral Letter on Wealth and Poverty

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (ELCA) The Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) issued a call to the ELCA's 5.2 million members to become "repairers of the breach" and reach out to people living in poverty. The bishops' call to action was contained in "A Pastoral Letter on Wealth and Poverty," adopted without audible dissent March 7 during their spring meeting here.
The bishops based their pastoral letter on a text in Isaiah 58 in the Bible. They plan to distribute copies to all congregations with a request that it be read aloud, and they will request that it be printed in The Lutheran, the magazine of the ELCA.
"Although many enjoy unprecedented prosperity in this country, 34 million people in the United States -- 13 million of them children -- live in poverty," the bishops' letter noted. "This disparity haunts the good efforts of charity and mocks God's call for justice."
The ELCA Conference of Bishops is an advisory body of the church's 65 synod bishops, its presiding bishop and ELCA secretary.
The bishops' letter is part of a continuing emphasis in the ELCA on people living in poverty, a ministry highlighted by the Rev. H. George Anderson, ELCA presiding bishop, the churchwide assembly and the ELCA Church Council.
The letter notes the ELCA joined with other Christians to support Jubilee 2000, a worldwide effort to forgive economic debts of many of the world's developing countries. The bishops said the ELCA Church Council in 1999 designated $3 million in reserve funds for ministry with impoverished people. The pastoral letter acknowledged also the ELCA World Hunger Appeal's efforts "in alleviating death by starvation and the rampant disease accompanying poverty," the pastoral letter said.
"Thanks be to God," the ELCA bishops said. "This church has made a difference."
The bishops urged congregations "to study and act upon" the social statement on economic life, "Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All," adopted by the 1999 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
The bishops suggested a series of actions by congregational members or public policy-makers:
+Increase support of the church's response to domestic and world hunger causes and natural disasters;
+Affirm and support Lutheran institutions, church-based community organizations and other faith-based efforts to "stand with the hungry, homeless, oppressed and imprisoned;"
+Strengthen efforts which call forth the power of the working poor, such as collective bargaining, renter groups and projects for affordable housing and welfare organizations;
+Improve child care, schools and scholarship opportunities, including educational programs for women;
+Make health care accessible for those who cannot afford it; and
+Expand ministries of advocacy on behalf of "the voiceless and vulnerable in society."
"We are called to identify with those who live in poverty, welcome them into baptism's common water and to our Lord's table of fellowship, and seek the well-being of our shared communities," the pastoral letter said. Sisters and brothers in material poverty have much to teach about generosity, perseverance, dependence on God and each other, and the sustaining power of hope and faith, the letter said.
"We, as pastors of the whole church, yearn to see our church be a place where those in plenty and poverty can learn to walk and work together," the bishops' letter said.
As part of their work on the pastoral letter, the ELCA bishops visited six southeast Florida ELCA congregations March 4 to learn how members serve impoverished people.
The writing team assumed the pastoral letter should be only one page, so that it may be read in worship, said the Rev. David W. Olson, bishop of the ELCA Minneapolis Area Synod. Footnotes will accompany the statement and refer to "Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All," he added.
The bishops' statement emphasized action as well as heightened awareness of people living in poverty.
"The integrity of our concern for the poor needs to be lived not just in discussion, but experientially as well," said the Rev. Peter Rogness, bishop of the ELCA Greater Milwaukee Synod. Rogness chairs the five-member Committee on Ministry Among People Living in Poverty, created by the bishops in 1999.
Other committee members include the Rev. Stephen P. Bouman, bishop of the ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod; the Rev. Duane C. Danielson, bishop of the ELCA Western North Dakota Synod, Bismarck; the Rev. Ralph W. Dunkin, bishop of the ELCA West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod, Fairmont, W. Va.; and the Rev. Howard E. Wennes, bishop of the ELCA Grand Canyon Synod, Phoenix.
Others who helped draft the pastoral letter were Bishop Olson and the Rev. George P. Mocko, bishop of the ELCA Delaware-Maryland Synod, Baltimore.

**Editors: The text of the Pastoral Letter on Wealth and Poverty is
available on the ELCA's Web site at www.elca.org/ob/wealth.html

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html