ELCA Church in Society Board Lays Groundwork for Future Work

LISLE, Ill. (ELCA) -- In the midst of several transitions,
the board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Division for Church in Society (DCS) laid the groundwork for
years of future work, according to the Rev. James B. Martin-
Schramm, associate professor of religion, Luther College,
Decorah, Iowa. The Oct. 23-25 meeting was Martin-Schramm's first
as DCS board chair.
The ELCA Churchwide Assembly elected one-third of the 21-
member board in August, and the Rev. Rebecca S. Larson completed
her first year as DCS executive director. Worship and community-
building were significant elements of the meeting, Martin-Schramm
said.
The churchwide assembly is the chief legislative authority
of the ELCA; it meets every other year. The Church Council is
the ELCA's board of directors, and serves as the interim
legislative authority between churchwide assemblies.
The DCS board recommended the ELCA Church Council approve a
governance proposal for the church's work in corporate social
responsibility. In related actions the board endorsed and
recommended the ELCA Church Council approve issue papers dealing
with environmental, health and economic issues; and it affirmed
the appointments of Emma Graeber-Porter, New York, and Perry Gray-
Reneberg, Eureka, Calif., to the ELCA's advisory committee for
corporate social responsibility.
"Because of our own process, we have been less effective in
this ministry of advocacy in the corporate world than we probably
could have been. Now I'm confident that, with the new governance
proposal we have recommended to the Church Council, we will be
much more effective and much more able to collaborate with our
ecumenical partners," said Martin-Schramm.
Through the advisory committee, the ELCA Division for Church
in Society counsels various institutions of the church about the
social records of corporations in which they hold stock. In some
cases, shareholder resolutions may be considered to effect change
in the corporation's practices.
In many cases the resolutions are drafted in cooperation
with other religious institutions through the Interfaith Center
for Corporate Responsibility, based in New York, Martin-Schramm
said. The process the ELCA used to approve its participation in
filing the resolution often subjected the resolution to editing
that would make the ELCA's resolution different from the
resolution being filed.
Generally, resolutions are filed with corporations before
the end of each year in preparation for stockholder meetings to
be held the following spring. Many resolutions are withdrawn
before reaching the stockholder meetings because they prompt
significant dialogues between the filer and the corporation's
management.
DCS board meetings and ELCA Church Council meetings, where
stockholder resolutions are reviewed, are often held after
corporate deadlines have passed for filing resolutions to be
considered at the next year's stockholder meetings.
The new governance proposal addresses both the editing and
the timing of resolutions being considered for ELCA involvement,
Martin-Schramm said. The proposal is to give editorial
responsibility to the board's advisory committee and approval
authority to the DCS executive director.
The DCS board would "identify the broad range of issues that
we want corporate social responsibility resolutions to address.
That's a much more appropriate role for this board, so I'm
confident that the work of the ELCA in corporate social
responsibility will be much improved by this new governance
proposal," Martin-Schramm said.
The DCS board affirmed a management plan for the ELCA
Domestic Hunger Development Loan Fund, which was established in
May 1987 to help people develop self-sufficient community
projects. The fund has operated with guidelines that were
revised in 2001, and the management plan is "to achieve greater
local impact with limited staff."
"The church, when it created this loan fund, did a good job
of establishing some procedures and guidelines, but they needed a
little more work," Martin-Schramm said. The fund now manages
almost $3 million in outstanding loans, and it's important to
"make sure that the resources devoted to that loan fund are being
utilized in the most effective and appropriate ways possible," he
said.
The Rev. James M. Childs Jr., director, ELCA Studies on
Sexuality, gave the board a progress report on work to provide
the church with recommendations on blessing same-gender
relationships and on accepting ministers in such relationships,
and to develop a social statement on human sexuality. The
division is collaborating with the ELCA Division for Ministry on
this project.
Childs said the divisions' task force prepared and
distributed a six-session study guide, "Journey Together
Faithfully, Part Two: The Church and Homosexuality." Part one
was a four-session discussion of the ELCA's "Message on
Sexuality: Some Common Convictions."
The Rev. Leslie Weber Jr., DCS associate executive director,
led the board through the first session of the new study guide.
The DCS board:
+ began a process of strategic planning for 2005-2007;
+ communicated to the ELCA Church Council a summary of its
conversation that a process for restructuring the ELCA churchwide
organization focus on streamlining the organization while
ensuring broader participation of ELCA members in the church's
governance;
+ gave preliminary consideration to a message on terrorism and a
resolution on organ, tissue and blood donations that it plans to
present to the April 2004 meeting of the ELCA Church Council; and
+ elected the Rev. James M. Brandt, St. Paul School of Theology,
Kansas City, Mo., and the Rev. Rosa M. Key, Philadelphia, as at-
large members of the DCS board's executive committee.
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The Division for Church in Society has a home page at
http://www.elca.org/dcs/ on the ELCA Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news