Storms, Lawsuit, Candidates' Letter Among Top 2004 ELCA Stories

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Natural disasters, a civil trial in Texas,
the presiding bishop's letter to U.S. presidential candidates,
sexuality issues and a revival of two well-known animated
characters from television in the 1960s and 1970s were among the
top news stories of 2004 involving the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA).
The top stories were determined by the ELCA News Service,
ELCA Department for Communication. Staff include John R. Brooks,
director; Melissa Ramirez Cooper, associate director; and Frank
F. Imhoff, associate director.
Top stories (listed in no particular order) were:
+ Natural disasters: Through Lutheran Disaster Response,
the ELCA supported relief efforts to widespread disasters
including as 19 tornadoes that struck Utica, Ill., April 20,
killing eight people. In Iowa, Lutherans responded to 17
tornadoes that damaged at least 1,400 houses in a 14-county area
May 25. More than 3,000 homes, businesses and crops in
southeastern Minnesota were damaged or destroyed when 11 inches
of rain fell there Sept. 14. An unprecedented four hurricanes
struck Caribbean islands, Florida and other U.S. states in August
and September, resulting in deaths, injuries and some $18 billion
in property damage. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding
bishop, met ELCA Florida-Bahamas Synod professional and lay
leaders in October to thank them for their ministry during and
after the storms.
The ELCA, through International Disaster Response, joined
several international partners to respond to relief efforts in
several coastal nations of the Indian Ocean after a Dec. 26
underwater earthquake created huge waves that claimed as many as
150,000 lives 12 countries. Among the dead was ELCA member
Tamara Mendis, Chicago, who perished when the tsunami struck a
train she was traveling in along coastal Sri Lanka. This was the
seventh ELCA International Disaster Response of 2004.
+ Texas civil case: The ELCA churchwide organization joined
Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, the Michigan Multi-
Synodical Candidacy Committee, and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church,
Marshall, Texas, to settle with several plaintiffs in a civil
lawsuit stemming from the criminal sexual behavior of a former
ELCA pastor, Gerald Thomas, who served at Good Shepherd. Three
others defendants -- the ELCA Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana
Synod (NT-NL), Dallas, the Rev. Mark B. Herbener, former NT-NL
bishop, and Earl H. Eliason, Herbener's former assistant --
defended themselves in a trial that began Apri1 13. Following
several days of testimony and deliberations, the jury awarded $37
million to the several plaintiffs April 22 and held five parties
liable, including the synod, Herbener and Eliason. Partly as a
result of the case, the ELCA Church Council in November updated
its procedures which guide the church's candidacy process for
ordained ministers. The procedures included new screens for
potential pastors and professional lay ministers.
Thomas was convicted in 2003 in state court of 11 counts of
multiple sex crimes against children, and was sentenced to serve
a 397-year sentence.
+ Presiding bishop's letter to U.S. presidential candidates:
Just a few days before their first presidential debate in
September, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, wrote
to President George W. Bush and U.S. Senator John F. Kerry,
calling on both to change the tone and content of their
campaigns. Hanson challenged both nominees to answer questions on
social concerns such as HIV/AIDS, the environment, the growing
gap between wealthy and impoverished people, affordable housing,
health care, wages and education. Hanson acknowledged that
terrorism was an important concern, and terror must be rejected.
However, he pleaded with Bush and Kerry that they not "reduce all
of the cries of suffering humanity to this single issue."
+ ELCA membership slips below 5 million: In August, the
Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary, reported that the baptized
membership of the ELCA slipped below 5 million in 2003. Almen
announced a reduction of 53,081 baptized members -- a decrease of
about 1 percent -- for a total of 4,984,925 baptized members in
10,657 congregations.
+ ELCA Studies on Sexuality task force: The task force met
several times in 2004 to learn about and discuss various topics
related to homosexuality, culminating in a Dec. 10-12 meeting
here at which it made significant decisions about recommendations
it will place before the church for possible action in August by
the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The task force drafted
recommendations on how the ELCA should answer two key questions
on homosexuality -- whether or not the church should bless same-
gender relationships and whether or not it should allow people in
such relationships to serve the church as professional lay and
ordained ministers. It will release its report and
recommendations on Jan. 13, 2005. The task force also began work
on a social statement on human sexuality which is expected to be
presented to the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
+ ELCA opposes federal marriage amendment: In June the
Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), the ELCA's
federal public policy office, Washington, D.C., joined 25 other
religious organizations to urge members of the U.S. Congress to
reject a proposed "Federal Marriage Amendment." The religious
organizations said the proposal threatened individual civil
rights and religious freedom.
+ "Davey and Goliath" return in a big way: "Davey and
Goliath," a classic stop-motion animated television series
starring Davey Hansen and his talking dog, Goliath, returned to
television and publishing. "Davey and Goliath" is a property of
the ELCA and aired on commercial television in the 1960s and
1970s. "Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Christmas," the first new
television production featuring the characters in 30 years, aired
twice in December on Hallmark, a national cable channel. The
ELCA and Scholastic, world's largest publisher and distributor of
children's books, entered into an agreement to create a series of
"Davey and Goliath" books which will be available in early 2005.
Meanwhile, Augsburg Fortress, the ELCA publishing ministry,
released "Davey and Goliath's Circus Spectacular," a new Vacation
Bible School resource for 2005, a follow-up to its successful
2003 VBS release, "Davey and Goliath's Camp Creation." Augsburg
Fortress announced participants in the Camp Creation "mission
well" project raised $234,250 in 2004. The project is intended to
provide safe drinking water for the people of southern
Bangladesh. The ELCA publisher also released a "Davey and
Goliath" devotional series.
+ Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) convention agrees to
continue cooperative ministries with ELCA: Convention delegates,
meeting in July in St. Louis, voted 672-479 to continue
discussion between representatives of the two church bodies on a
variety of scriptural, theological and church topics. In
addition, the LCMS Praesidium -- the Synod's president and five
vice presidents -- recommended ELCA-LCMS cooperative arrangements
for military chaplaincy be continued. Following the vote, Hanson
said in an address to the convention that he is "profoundly
grateful" for the decision.
+ Lutheran Vespers changes speakers: The Rev. Walt Wangerin
Jr., announced he will leave Lutheran Vespers, the radio ministry
of the ELCA, after serving more than 10 years as
speaker. Wangerin, an ELCA pastor, professor, author and
lecturer, is a faculty member at Valparaiso (Ind.) University.
He said he wanted to leave the radio ministry to concentrate on
teaching and writing, and be at home with family more. The Rev.
Peter W. Marty, senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church,
Davenport, Iowa, was named to succeed Wangerin begin