ELCA Presiding Bishop Highlights Churchwide Assembly Topics

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- According to the Rev. Mark S. Hanson,
presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA), biblical literacy, education and human sexuality will be
among some of the significant decision items to face the 2007
ELCA Churchwide Assembly. At a news conference here Aug. 6,
Hanson said worship will be the centerpiece of the assembly.
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of
the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 6-11 at Navy Pier's Festival Hall.
About 2,000 people are participating, including 1,071 ELCA voting
members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Living in God's
Amazing Grace: Thanks be to God!"
"One of the most significant actions this assembly will take
(is) to adopt an initiative called 'Book of Faith: Lutherans Read
the Bible,'" said Hanson, who expressed concern that Lutherans
seem to be "becoming biblically illiterate." For the next five
years, the 4.8 million members of the ELCA will endeavor to
become "fluent in the first language of faith, the language of
Scripture," he said.
The assembly will receive a recommendation to adopt "Our
Calling in Education" as a social statement of the church.
Adopted by ELCA churchwide assemblies, social statements are
social policy documents that address significant issues.
Education is and has been a "hallmark of Lutherans for 500
years," said Hanson. The social statement explores the ELCA's
educational institutions, education and vocation, and the
church's renewed "commitment to public education as core to civil
society and our participation for the common good," said Hanson.
Hanson said the church will continue its conversation on
human sexuality and "the place of gay and lesbian people in
ministry," although "we are still in the process of developing
our social statement on human sexuality." The social statement
on human sexuality is slated for presentation to the 2009 ELCA
Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis.
The ELCA's 65 synods have the authority to bring actions to
the assembly for consideration, said Hanson. "A number of our
synods have brought a variety of memorials regarding human
sexuality," he said.
Other topics the assembly will consider include the church's
effort to strengthen its commitment to advocacy and education on
HIV/AIDS, the reception of "Evangelical Lutheran Worship" -- the
new primary worship resource, elections for ELCA secretary and
presiding bishop, the war on Iraq, and how the ELCA sees itself
in the "eyes of people around the world," Hanson said.
The assembly will acknowledge several anniversaries, such as
the 20th anniversary of the ELCA, the 100th anniversary of
Lutheran campus ministries, and the 60th anniversary of the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Hanson is president of the LWF
-- a global communion of Lutheran churches representing 66
million Lutherans.
Hanson will serve as chair of the assembly. "It will be a
full week, but I think we have matured as a church in our ability
to engage one another around questions where we don't have an
agreement. We're mindful that within the unity we have in the
body of Christ there is deep diversity. But diversity does not
demand uniformity, nor does it need to be the occasion for
division. It can be, in a respectful way, a way that we enrich
the unity we have in the body of Christ. That is my prayer for
the assembly," he said.
- - -
Information about the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be
found http://www.ELCA.org/assembly on the Web.

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