ELCA Council Elects Christina Jackson-Skelton as Treasurer

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) elected Christina Jackson-Skelton to a six- year term as ELCA treasurer. Jackson-Skelton, 36, will assume the role of treasurer Feb. 1, succeeding Richard L. McAuliffe, who has served as ELCA treasurer since 1992. McAuliffe announced earlier this year he would not seek a third term when his present term concludes Jan. 31.
The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between its churchwide assemblies. The council met here Nov. 9-11. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is Aug. 11-17, 2003, in Milwaukee.
The ELCA presiding bishop, vice president, secretary and treasurer are the church's officers. The ELCA Constitution specifies the treasurer is to be elected by the council; all other officers are elected by the churchwide assembly. Jackson-Skelton was nominated by a search committee which included the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop; the Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary; three members of the ELCA Church Council executive committee; and two ELCA members who are financial services executives.
Since 1996, Jackson-Skelton has served as director for finance in the ELCA Division for Global Mission (DGM). In that role, she has planned and directed the division's financial policies, served as treasurer and comptroller, directed budget planning, and served as a financial consultant to division staff, mission associations, missionaries and related churches and agencies outside the United States.
She was DGM's assistant director for finance from 1993 to 1996, and was DGM's accountant for overseas operations from 1989 to 1992.
Among the duties in her new role as ELCA treasurer, Jackson- Skelton will be responsible for a wide range of financial matters related to the churchwide organization. They include implementation of council-approved policies involving financial, accounting, insurance, property management, investment and money management systems, and related services for churchwide units.
"Christina brings to this office a deep commitment to mission, broad understanding of finances and 12-and-one-half years' experience in the churchwide organization," Hanson said. "She will be an excellent steward of the church's resources, a strong administrator, and a person whose living faith permeates all she does."
"I am looking forward to serving the church as treasurer and will strive to do so competently and faithfully," Jackson-Skelton said. "It has been a privilege and joy to work in global mission these past years, and I am excited by the opportunity to work more closely with additional areas of the ELCA's ministries."
"Of course, there will be challenges,' she added. "Yet, during challenging times in the history of our church, we have witnessed how people of faith pull together and respond with an even greater sense of generosity, compassion and mission."
Jackson-Skelton was born in 1965 in Robbinsdale, Minn. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1987 from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., one of 28 ELCA colleges and universities. In 1988, she earned a master of international management degree from Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management, Glendale, Ariz.
Jackson-Skelton and her husband, Timothy, are parents of two children. They attend Joy! Lutheran Church in Gurnee, Ill., a suburb north of Chicago. -- -- --
A video version of this story is available at http://www.elca.org/co/news/video.index.html on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
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