ELCA Task Force Drafting Study Materials on Health, Health Care

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The 11,000 congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will have materials early next year to conduct a study of what they want to say about health and health care in a social statement to be issued in 2003. The ELCA task force on health and health care met here June 2-4 to shape an outline for the study document and direct its writing team.
"Our present work is developing the study document that will be distributed to congregations in January 2001," said the Rev. Herbert E. Anderson, Seattle, chair of the ELCA task force on health and health care. Anderson is an ELCA pastor and retired professor of pastoral theology, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.
The task force worked with a preliminary outline and several sections that task force members had written independently. "In the course of the weekend, we were able to identify some common convictions ... themes or principles," he said.
The group developed a six-part outline for the study document and assigned a writing team to prepare the study document this summer, said Anderson. The task force will meet again Oct. 20-22 to finalize the study materials.
The study document will begin with a description of the current situation regarding health and health care, said Anderson. "The second section will be a theological reflection about health, healing and salvation," he said.
The third section will deal with the responsibilities people have for their own health and for the health of others. A fourth section will look at the available health systems, "some of which are at=20 cross-purposes," said Anderson.
The final sections will present the ministries of health care -- "as institutions, hospitals, nursing homes, hospice facilities, congregations, the role of chaplains in the health care process" -- as well as ethical questions, such as rationing health care and determining "the common good," he said.
The resulting social statement will need one or more definitions of "health," said Anderson. The study document will include "dimensions of a definition" and solicit the advice of the church, he said.
Trying to come up with a Christian definition of "health" illustrates the complexity of the whole task, said Anderson. "It is a gift of God, and it is a human responsibility," he said. Health is personal, holistic and communal -- a process more than a reality. "Perfect health is not something we will experience in this lifetime," said Anderson. Health and salvation have some clear connections and, at the same time, are clearly different, he said.
Before task force members left their hotel the final morning of the meeting, a young man staying at the hotel fell from a balcony into the area where members of the task force were eating breakfast. Many members of the task force witnessed the incident, and a physician on the task force provided the man with immediate medical care. The man was taken to Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, Ill., where he was treated for his injuries.
Anderson said the incident will affect the work of the task force because it was a significant, shared experience that dealt directly with its topic. Speaking for himself, he said it became clearer for him that the task force needs to speak "not just in physical terms but in emotional terms as well."
"What motivated that, what was behind that, we don't know," said Anderson, "but it does introduce for me the reality that we can't ignore the pervasiveness of depression ... a major emotional illness in our society that has physical consequences, even if we can't say it has physical causes."
Responses to the study document will inform the task force's work on the social statement. The ELCA Division for Church in Society plans to issue a first draft of the social statement in early 2002 and a final draft in early 2003. In April 2003, the ELCA Church Council may transmit the proposed social statement with recommendations to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
The assembly is the ELCA's chief legislative authority. In 1999 it approved the production of a social statement on health and health care. Among other purposes, the ELCA Division for Church in Society prepares social statements and develops educational resources on social issues.
The division's task force on health and health care includes Norman Aarestad, M.D., Denver; the Rev. Herbert E. Anderson, Seattle; the Rev. Ronald K. Chelton, Columbus, Ohio; Helen Doerpinghaus, Columbia, S.C.; Randall S. Foster, Los Angeles; the Rev. Frederick J . Gaiser, St. Paul, Minn.; Sally Gammon, Allentown, Pa.; Kristine M. Gebbie, Dr. P.H., New York; the Rev. Stewart D. Govig, Tacoma, Wash.; Mark J. Hanson, Missoula, Mont.; Cynda Ann Johnson, M.D., Iowa City, Iowa; Ellen Lowe, Portland, Ore.; the Rev. Mario C. Miranda, M.D., Bayamon, Puerto Rico; Nancy Nielsen, Berkeley, Calif.; Mary Page, Olivia, Minn.; and the Rev. Gary M. Wollersheim, Rockford, Ill. Miranda is a member of the ELCA Church Council. Wollersheim is bishop of the ELCA Northern Illinois Synod.
The Rev. Ronald W. Duty, assistant director for studies, and the Rev. John R. Stumme, acting director for studies, ELCA Division for Church in Society, staff the task force. Sally Camp, Richmond, Va., and Jill A. Schumann, St. Paul, Minn., represent Lutheran Services in America. The Rev. Donald A. Stiger represents the ELCA Division for Ministry.
The writing team consists of Anderson, Camp, Duty, Gaiser, Gebbie and Hanson.
There are four components to the possible social statement on health and health care, said Duty. The first is what health and health care mean to the church from a biblical, theological perspective. The second, Duty said, is to address the access to and equity of health care. Third, the ELCA needs to take a fresh look at the relationships between the church and its related health care institutions. The fourth component is to recognize and clarify the roles of congregations in the larger picture of ELCA involvement in health ministry, he said. -- -- --
Questions and answers about the task force and its work can be found at http://www.elca.org/DCS/healthcare.htmlsal on the ELCA's Web site.

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