CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The president and chair of Lutheran Services in America (LSA) expressed their pleasure that James Towey will head the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Jill Schumann, LSA president and CEO, Baltimore, and the Rev. Nelson C. Meyer, LSA chair and president of Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, were on hand when President Bush announced the appointment Feb. 1 at the White House in Washington, D.C.
"There has been a groundswell of people wanting to help the country in some way since last September," said Schumann. "While many Americans are serving the country overseas, LSA has long known the equal importance of the foot soldiers here at home who serve in the army of compassion," she said.
Schumann said it was imperative that the White House and Congress move quickly to ensure adequate funding, because so many of the nation's people desperately require the partnership between the government and a wide range of faith-based organizations.
"Last year, there were LSA services that were simply overbooked, and we could have helped so many more people," Schumann said. "Even more people will need help during this recession."
Towey is an attorney who founded Aging With Dignity in 1996 to promote better care for people facing the end of life. He was legal counsel for Mother Teresa of Calcutta for 12 years and served one year as a full-time volunteer in her home for people with AIDS in Washington, D.C. Prior to that he directed Florida's health and social services agency.
LSA is the largest human service network in the United States and Caribbean. Its 280 social ministry organizations, in alliance with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, form a national network of hospital, social service and long-term care programs, providing $6.9 billion in services in 3,000 communities each year.
"Lutheran health and human service organizations and congregations form a patchwork quilt of local organizations that are regionally and nationally linked, so some can offer coordination and technical skill, while others are the sorts of faith-based groups the administration is hoping to engage through these new initiatives," said Schumann.
"It is clear that the government plays the key role in addressing the acute and chronic needs for service and justice in our communities, but we are pleased to build on a long history of faith-based organizations assisting in that work," she said. "We are encouraged to think that many types of services, including mentoring, prison programs and services to pregnant teens will receive the attention and funding they need truly to make a difference."
In his State of the Union address Jan. 29, Bush announced the creation of a "USA Freedom Corps" to bolster the number of AmeriCorps, Senior Corps and Peace Corps volunteers and to initiate a Crisis Corps. The next day, he appointed John Bridgeland as executive director of USA Freedom Corps.
"Given the numbers of people in need, we applaud the president's call for a greater level of volunteer participation in communities and believe that faith-based organizations can be effective channels for that energy," Schumann said. "We see the range of faith-based organizations as remarkable community assets."
"We support the development of new and creative approaches to mobilizing all of the people and resources in communities to solve problems," Schumann added.
One year earlier, Bush created centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Justice, and Education, ordering each to identify all existing barriers to the participation of faith-based and community organizations in federal social service programs.
Bush appointed John J. DiIulio Jr. as the first director of the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, coordinating the work of the five centers. DiIulio resigned in August.
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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.8 million members in more than 8,500 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands.," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.
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