CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) approved the establishment of
the "Mission Development Fund," a new temporarily restricted fund
in the ELCA Foundation, and it approved initial 2007 fiscal
spending authorizations for the churchwide organization and ELCA
World Hunger.
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 Nov. 11-13.
Assemblies are held ever other year; the next is here Aug. 6-11,
2007.
Financial gifts to the ELCA in the form of unrestricted
bequests and trusts in excess of the church's budgeted amount
will be placed in the new fund, "after covering any shortfall in
other current income categories, in any fiscal year," according
to the council's action. Additional consideration will be given
to the cash balances available for the ELCA to meet its cash
management policies. The transfer of such income will be
authorized by the ELCA Office of the Presiding Bishop and the
ELCA Office of the Treasurer.
Resources from the mission development fund will be used as
"seed money for new and innovative ministries and in support of
churchwide priorities," said Grieg L. Anderson, Portland, Ore.,
council member. He said the creation of the fund serves to "set
a policy for large, unrestricted gifts" to the church.
Funds will be allocated the request of the ELCA Office of
Presiding Bishop in consultation with the ELCA Office of the
Treasurer and the ELCA Foundation. The council amended the
action to include consultation with the ELCA Cabinet of
Executives, and it added that "expenditure from the Mission
Development Fund in an amount greater than $1 million shall
require action by the Church Council."
Christina Jackson-Skelton, ELCA treasurer, said the fund
will first be available in February 2007.
In a separate action, the council approved an initial 2007
fiscal year current fund spending authorization of $80,727,000
for the ELCA churchwide organization and a spending authorization
of $17.5 million for ELCA World Hunger.
Anderson, who delivered a report from the council's budget
and finance committee, said mission support -- funds contributed
to the churchwide organization by congregations through the 65
synods of the ELCA -- continues to remain "flat." Income
estimates for mission support in 2006 and 2007 will remain the
same at $65.5 million. Actual mission support received in 2005
totaled more than $65.468 million.
Phyllis L. Wallace, Saint Thomas, V.I., council member, was
elected chair of the budget and finance committee. Ann F.
Niedringhaus, Duluth, Minn., council member, was elected vice
chair of the committee. Wallace succeeds Earl L. Mummert, 61,
who died Oct. 20 in Hershey, Pa.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
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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
