CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) endorsed a timeline for communicating the report and recommendations of the church's Task Force for the Studies on Sexuality. The 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly is to receive the report and consider the recommendations on whether or not the church should bless same-gender relationships and whether or not people in such relationships should be allowed to serve as ELCA ministers.
The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The council met here April 17-18. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is Aug. 8-14, 2005, in Orlando, Fla.
Members of the ELCA are involved in a study process that is informing the task force as it prepares its reports and recommendations, which the task force plans to draft by the end of the year. The task force compiled the study guide "Journey Together Faithfully, Part Two: The Church and Homosexuality" with a response form to be completed and returned by Nov. 1.
The council approved a detailed timeline that involves e-mailed updates to the ELCA's 65 synods for distribution among congregations and ordained and lay ministers. Those updates will follow this meeting of the council and the council's November meeting in preparation for release of the report and recommendations in January.
A "target date" of Jan. 12 was set for "a confidential preview" of the report and recommendations, which are to be "available electronically" to ministers and other key leaders of the church. The preview is to be "embargoed" and not made public until 24 hours later.
The target date for the public release of the report and recommendations is Jan. 13, when the timeline says they will be posted on the ELCA Web site at http://www.elca.org/faithfuljourney/ and mailed to all ELCA congregations and ministers.
The Rev. James M. Childs Jr., director for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality, and the Rev. Margaret G. Payne, chair of the 14-member task force and bishop of the ELCA New England Synod, Worcester, Mass., are to be involved in a news conference here at the Lutheran Center when the report and recommendations become public.
Once the report and recommendations are public, the ELCA timeline calls for "broad distribution" throughout the church with an invitation for responses from synod councils to the church council and from synod assemblies to the churchwide assembly. Each of the ELCA's 65 synods plans to hold an assembly in April, May or June 2005.
The council is to meet here April 8-11, 2005. The timeline said at that meeting the council is to transmit the report and recommendations to the 2005 Churchwide Assembly as information. The council may prepare one or more assembly resolutions about the report and recommendations.
Judy Biffle, church council member, Houston, Texas, serves as the council's advisory member to the task force. She told the council that the report will be the report of the task force and cannot be amended. The Churchwide Assembly can amend the recommendations of the church council before voting on them, so discussion and resolutions leading up to the assembly could be about the recommendations.
The council action that endorsed the timeline also thanked the task force for its work and noted "opportunities for broad participation in this study" through the development of study materials "as well as readily available information on the studies' Web site."
The Rev. Jonathan L. Eilert, council member, Brecksville, Ohio, made the motion as part of his report for the council's program and services committee. He noted that any change in ELCA policy may require either two-thirds approval by the assembly or a "simple majority" of more than half of the voting members, depending on what change the assembly is considering and the specific rules established by the assembly.
The committee proposed that the council make decisions regarding the margin of vote at its April 2005 meeting. Several council members said that would be too late in the timeline and that the required margin should be information that is available with the recommendations.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, asked that such a discussion be held in the context of the whole assembly. "I don't want this [the recommendations] to seem to be the singular focus of the assembly," he said. There will be many equally important items on the assembly's agenda, he said.
The council asked that a draft of the 2005 Churchwide Assembly's rules and procedures be presented for consideration at the council's November 2004 meeting. The same action asked that the meeting's agenda include a "committee of the whole" discussion using materials of the studies on sexuality.
The 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly mandated a study in preparation for the decisions by the 2005 assembly. In addition, the study is to develop a proposed social statement on human sexuality for the assembly to consider in 2007.
Current ELCA policy expects ministers to refrain from all sexual relations outside marriage. The church has no official policy on blessing same-gender relationships. The ELCA Conference of Bishops, an advisory body of the church, stated it does not approve of such ceremonies.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
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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.
For information contact:
Candice Hill Buchbinder
Public Relations Manager
Candice.HillBuchbinder@ELCA.org
