ELCA Council Takes Mid-Term Action on Four Items

MUNDELEIN, Ill. (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) initiated a process to consider ways of dealing with "unusual circumstances" surrounding ordination ceremonies, elected a new director for synodical relations, selected the site of the ELCA's 2003 Churchwide Assembly, and approved the reorganization of one of the church's nine regional administrations.
The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between its churchwide assemblies. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is in August 2001 in Indianapolis.
This is the first time the council has met during a summer in which an assembly was not held. It met July 28-30 at the Center for Development in Ministry, University of St. Mary on the Lake.
The purpose of the special meeting was to give council members a chance to discuss a tough issue without the need to pass legislation on it, said Dr. Addie J. Butler, ELCA vice president and chair of the council, Philadelphia. Homosexuality and the Christian faith was the primary topic of the weekend.
"However, a couple of issues came up and, due to timeliness, we needed to go into a legislative session for a very brief period of time," she said. The one-hour legislative session was held July 30.
On July 8, The Episcopal Church approved an ELCA proposal for "full communion." As part of the agreement, the ELCA would require an ELCA bishop to preside at the ordination of an ELCA pastor.
The council asked that its legal and constitutional review committee submit to the council's November meeting possible ways "to allow a synodical bishop, in unusual circumstances and with appropriate consultation, to authorize another ELCA pastor to preside at an ordination" while honoring its new agreement with the Episcopal Church.
The council elected the Rev. Kathie Bender Schwich to a four-year term as director of the ELCA Department for Synodical Relations. In that position she also serves as an assistant to the presiding bishop. On Sept. 1, she will succeed the Rev. Michael Cooper-White who becomes president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa.
One of the ELCA's nine regional structures -- serving congregations in Alabama, the Bahamas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Virginia -- proposed it reorganize in 2001 to expand its steering committee and to reduce its staff. The council ratified the plan.
In its only other formal business, the council designated Milwaukee as the site for the ELCA's Eighth Churchwide Assembly, which will be held August 11-17, 2003. The site selection is subject to the Office of the Secretary completing negotiations with several businesses in Milwaukee.
The Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary, told the council that Milwaukee was recommended because of its access to major airports and its driving distance for many ELCA members. Milwaukee's convention center was available free of charge and appropriate housing accommodations were available for the dates needed, he said.
Charlotte, N.C., was considered for the assembly, but facilities there were not available on the dates needed. Almen said Charlotte will be one of the sites considered for the ELCA's 2005 Churchwide Assembly.

EDITORS: More information on possible ordination measures and on the
Schwich election is provided in accompanying stories.

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