ELCA Church in Society Board Manages Statements, Messages

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Social statements and messages, in various stages of life and development, were topics for the board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Division for Church in Society, which met here Feb. 20-22. The board discussed "the role of the church in public life" with the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, and elected its officers for the next two years.
Board members adopted a proposed social statement on health care, heard a progress report on work toward a social statement on sexuality and appointed a task force to help develop a social statement on education. They asked DCS staff to begin developing a message on terrorism and commended the former governor of Illinois for acting in accord with the ELCA's social statement on the death penalty.
Hanson, with the help of Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, School of Theology and Ministry, Seattle, led a discussion with the board in a background session, in which the contents may be reported for news purposes in a general way without specific attribution, according to the ELCA policy on open meetings. The discussion centered on questions of what preparations those who speak for the church should make, what obstacles they face, their bases for speaking, and what they say to whom.
"The Division for Church in Society does stand at that intersection of our church and the world in a unique way, trying to hear those voices and to share the voice of the church in that dialogue, so the role of the church in the public sphere is an important question," the Rev. Denver W. Bitner, DCS board chair, Zion Lutheran Church, Rockford, Ill., said in an interview.
"We are being asked more and more by the community in the world and by the world church, 'What does your church say about these things?' How do we speak those ways?" said Bitner. "We began what will be a very fruitful dialogue about how we express the feelings, the thoughts, the convictions, all of the ethos of our church in a public way," he said.
"We don't generally or shouldn't just be speaking out of our personal thoughts about these things," said Bitner. "Our Scripture, our confessions and the statements of our church should be the foundation from which we draw those conclusions about issues in the world," he said.

STATEMENT ON HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
Board members made several editorial and substantive amendments to a proposed social statement on health, healing and health care before adopting "Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor." They sent the proposal to the ELCA Church Council for transmission to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly for the church's adoption.
"For us in our work, the culmination of a social statement has got to be a major highlight," said Bitner. The development of a social statement takes many years, he said.
The topic of health, healing and health care has special importance for the ELCA, Bitner said, because the church is deeply involved in healing ministries, "through our church agencies, social ministry organizations and Lutheran Services in America." The United States is also facing "a health care crisis" and the social statement will guide the church in addressing it, he said.
Bitner said the statement's theme of health care being "our shared endeavor" points out that individuals make up the church and that the church is part of a larger community. "The care for the health of our brother and sister, our neighbor, is important for us" as a community, "and, as individuals, it is something for which we share responsibility," he said.
The statement says "health is important, but it's not the ultimate in everything," said Bitner. "It's a part of God's wonderful gift for us, and we seek that as part of the wholeness that we would want in God's creation," he said.

MESSAGE ON TERRORISM
The DCS board directed the division's staff to prepare a draft "Message on Terrorism" that it could consider at its next meeting in October.
A "message" is defined as a "brief communication that draws attention to a social issue." It is not a new policy position of the ELCA but builds upon previously adopted social statements. A message can be adopted by the Church Council, whereas a social statement requires action by an assembly.
Bitner called terrorism "an issue that has not only our nation but the world in great fear. What do we say about how we live in these kinds of circumstances?" He said the message will take the ELCA's social statement "For Peace in God's World" and present "some particular things that we need to say at this juncture of history."

STATEMENT ON THE DEATH PENALTY
Board members adopted a resolution commending the former governor of Illinois, George H. Ryan, for commuting the sentences of everyone on the state's "death row" to life in prison without the possibility of parole in January, before Ryan left office. The resolution called the action "consistent with the social policy of the ELCA as expressed in the 1991 Social Statement on the Death Penalty."
"We commended not only former Governor Ryan but we commended the bishops of this state who spoke strongly, based on our social statement on the death penalty," said Bitner. Those bishops are the Rev. Warren D. Freiheit, ELCA Central-Southern Illinois Synod; the Rev. Paul R. Landahl, ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod; and the Rev. Gary M. Wollersheim, ELCA Northern Illinois Synod.

STUDIES ON SEXUALITY
The DCS board received a progress report from the Rev. James M. Childs Jr., director, ELCA studies on sexuality. The Division for Ministry and DCS are working together to address questions of blessing same-gender relationships and allowing people in such relationships to serve as ordained and lay ministers of the ELCA.
The church has no policy on blessing relationships. It expects its ministers to abstain from sexual relationships outside of marriage.
The divisions plan to have recommendations on these questions for the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in 2005. DCS also plans to develop a social statement on sexuality that the ELCA Churchwide Assembly may consider in 2007.

DCS BOARD ELECTIONS
The board elected its officers for the next two years. The Rev. James B. Martin-Schramm, Decorah, Iowa, was elected chair. Crystal Oxner, Valparaiso, Ind., vice chair; and Kristin Anderson Ostrom, Fremont, Neb., secretary. The board plans to elect other members of its executive committee in October.
Martin-Schramm, as a professor of religion at Luther College, Decorah, deals in an academic setting with many of same issues the division confronts, said Bitner. "He also has the heart of a pastor, and he will give strong leadership to the board, caring for them and seeing that everybody has an opportunity to express their views and to deliberate together," Bitner added.
Each churchwide assembly elects one-third of the board's 21 members to six-year terms. The DCS board honored seven of its members, including Bitner, for whom this was their last meeting.
Special prayers during the meeting's closing worship service celebrated the life of Roger C. Gutmann, a board member who died Nov. 16 in Des Moines, Iowa. -- -- --
The Division for Church in Society maintains information about ELCA social policies and studies at http://www.elca.org/dcs/studies.html on the Web.
A related ELCA News release on the appointment of a Task Force on Education is at http://listserv.elca.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0303&L=elcanews&D=1&H=1&O=D&F=&S=&P=68 on the Web.

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