Anderson Closes His Tenure as ELCA Presiding Bishop

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In 1517, Oct. 31 was the day Martin Luther posted 95 theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany, launching what became the Protestant Reformation. In 2001, it is the Rev. H. George Anderson's last day as presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the world's second largest Lutheran church body.
A scholar of Lutheran history, Anderson was president of Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, when he was elected to a six-year term as presiding bishop on Aug. 19, 1995, during the ELCA's fourth Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis.
"It's gone very quickly," Anderson said in an interview. "I remember when I began, I thought, 'Six years is such a long time. Will I last? Will I be healthy at the end of it?'"
"There's always been something to do, always a new challenge or a new question. New opportunities come up, and the days just have flown by," he said.
"There's lots of uncertainty about the future. It was that way when I began, and it's still that way as I finish my time," said Anderson. "It's always been a matter of trying to ask God, 'What in the world should we be doing next, and how should we proceed?'"
Anderson described the past six years as a deeply spiritual experience. "I have understood how little any one person is able to do and how fully it's the work of the whole church that makes the decisions and gets the work done," he said. "It's been the Holy Spirit -- God working throughout the whole church -- that's made this time so exciting."
Poverty was a focal point for Anderson. "We, as a church, could be more fully God's church if we took people living in poverty seriously instead of simply seeing them as an object of charity," he said.
"I would like to see us as a church that's known not simply for our great liturgy and our wonderful theology but as a church that's known as 'the church that works with the poor,'" he said.
Anderson said he was confident his successor, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, will continue that cause. "There is a strong, clear emphasis in his speaking that he too sees that as an important objective," he said. In August the ELCA Churchwide Assembly elected Hanson to six-year term as presiding bishop beginning Nov. 1.
Formerly Lutheran co-chair of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue in the United States, Anderson undertook the ELCA's ecumenical agenda. "The church had decided earlier in the '90s that in the later '90s they would be making decisions on full communion," he said.
The ELCA approved relationships of full communion with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ in 1997. In 1999 it entered into full communion with the Moravian Church in America. Full communion with The Episcopal Church, USA, went into effect this year.
The ELCA's 1997 Churchwide Assembly approved the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification," an international Lutheran-Catholic statement that condemnations of the two traditions in the 16th century do not apply to their current teachings about the grace of God. As a vice president of the Lutheran World Federation, Anderson was one of the declaration's signers Oct. 31, 1999, in Augsburg, Germany.
The ecumenical agreements illustrated a "profound" change in the ELCA's perception of itself, Anderson said. "We now see ourselves more as a part of a global Lutheran family and as a part of a wider Christian family," he said.
Anderson credited the ELCA's "companion synod program" with developing the church's "interest in what other Lutherans are doing around the world." The program establishes relationships between the 65 synods of the ELCA other Lutheran synods or churches outside the United States.
The companions have an opportunity to compare programs and determine which are more effective, said Anderson. "We can begin to learn from them and see ourselves as not simply the giving church -- the mother church that is sending money to these groups overseas -- but now able to receive from them," he said.
The program's opportunity for international visits has also been important, Anderson said. "People's lives are changed, and they have a vastly greater respect for Lutherans overseas and what they have to offer us," he said.
U.S. Lutherans have also taken an interest in "working together with other Christian bodies here," said Anderson. Full communion has brought congregations of the various church bodies closer together, he said, and it has brought the churches together at a national level. "We're interested in some of the same issues -- from copyrights and how we can make it easier for congregations to deal with this 'jungle' today, to matters of strategies on interfaith work and international work with Islam, for example," Anderson said.
The historian recognized that he would lead the ELCA from the 20th century into a new millennium. "I wanted to find out where could we put some energy that would start the ball rolling and get us ready to be a truly effective church both in Word and Sacrament ministry and in the care of people for the next century," said Anderson. The church developed seven "Initiatives for a New Century" -- significant areas of ministry "that we needed to work on," he said.
The Initiatives explored "the life of the church in its worship and its teaching -- the basics of our faith," said Anderson. They were also reaching out "to children, youth and young adults and looking at the area of leadership in the church," he said.
"We learned some very important things. We tested some programs," said Anderson. "Those kinds of experimental programs have paid off, and many of them now are incorporated into the life of the church."
Anderson pointed toward "Called to Discipleship," which was to be a one-year emphasis on the basics of the Christian faith. "Now we've got a full-blown program working in congregations," he said, because many congregations found the focus on prayer, worship, study and invitation to be valuable.
Born March 10, 1932, in Los Angeles, Anderson was adopted by Reuben and Frances Anderson. On the day he was elected presiding bishop Anderson compared that adoption with the unconditional love of God. "Adoption by those parents and adoption as a child of God has been a gift with me all my life," he said, "a feeling of being appreciated and valued by someone."
A 1953 graduate of Yale University, New Haven, Conn., Anderson earned his bachelor of divinity degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) and was ordained in 1956 in the former United Lutheran Church in America. He earned master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and LTSP. He earned a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962.
Anderson was a teaching fellow at LTSP for two years and joined the faculty of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C., in 1958. In 1970 he was named president of Southern Seminary -- the position he held until 1982, when he became president of Luther College.
In 1978, while president of Southern Seminary, Anderson was the leading candidate to become president of the former Lutheran Church in America. He withdrew his name from consideration, saying he could not "visualize" himself as head of the church.
Personal tragedy marked the next four years of Anderson's life. His wife was diagnosed with and then died of cancer. The parents who adopted him died within 10 weeks of each other.
Anderson assumed the role of a single parent to two teenagers at the same time that he assumed the role of Luther College president. He said he found comfort in the grace of God through Decorah Lutheran Church and the college chapel.
Anderson renewed a friendship with Jutta Fischer, a former student at Southern Seminary. They were married in 1983, and