ELCA Assembly Asked, What’s ‘Our Witness?’ by Presiding Bishop

MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), asked “What shall be our witness this week?” in his oral report to the ELCA’s eleventh biennial Churchwide Assembly here on Aug. 18. He suggested at least 15 ways the 4.6 million baptized members might answer the question over the next eight years.
“As witnesses, we are never alone, for our witness is shaped and supported by the witness of others,” Hanson said, citing Hebrews 12:1-2.
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 17-23 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. About 2,000 people are participating, including 1,045 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is “God’s work. Our hands.”
Hanson invited listeners to “think ahead eight years ... looking back from 2017,” the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, on “what ... we want our witness to have been.”
At the end of his list, Hanson posed a final question: “What will be our witness regarding human sexuality and the rostering of people who are in publicly accountable, life-long, monogamous, same-gender relationships?”
“This assembly’s discussions and decisions will shape our witness,” Hanson said. “So, too, will responses that are made to our actions.”
Other points that Hanson hopes for in the future include:
+ “Because of the Book of Faith Initiative, by 2017 we will have become more fluent in the first language of faith, the language of Scripture. In just two years, evidence abounds that we are growing as a Book of Faith church.” The 2007 Churchwide Assembly launched that Initiative.
+ “‘God’s work. Our hands’ became much more than the tag line for the ELCA, for it became a powerful and memorable way for us to communicate not only who we are, but whose we are.”
+ “Every one of the 10,464 ELCA congregations has grown as a center for evangelical mission. That is not a wish. It’s a commitment.”
+ “As an entire church body, we resolved that no seminary graduate should be so burdened with educational debt that they are unable to flourish as faithful, wise and courageous leaders.”
+ “We have trained 1,000 evangelists following the model of our global companion churches.”
+ “The [ELCA] is committed to becoming a more multicultural church, not because we need persons of color to preserve a predominantly white denomination [and that its members] said, ‘enough of being a 97 percent white church in an increasingly and richly diverse context.’ ”
+ “Each synod has renewed ... ministries that are the specific results of our ethnic ministry strategies and our commitment to ministry among persons living in poverty.”
+ “In the midst of continued economic volatility and uncertainty, ELCA members advocated for public policies, business practices, personal financial decisions and church-budget decisions that would first reduce poverty in local communities and throughout the world.”
+ “In 2009, members of the ELCA -- the vast majority of whom are descendants of a once-immigrant people -- gave leadership to welcoming new immigrants into their communities and congregations and were instrumental in the U.S. Congress adopting, and President Obama signing, fair and just immigration reform.”
+ “ELCA members, building upon a long-standing Lutheran commitment to health care and drawing upon the ELCA social statement, ‘Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor,’ actively participated in health care reform and we achieved together with others ... the goal of equitable access to basic health care for all people.”
+ “The ELCA fully implemented an HIV and AIDS strategy in 2009 by joining with global companion churches and local partners.”
+ “The Lutheran Malaria Initiative, in which the ELCA participates with The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Lutheran World Relief, the United Nations Foundation, the Global Fund, and partners around the world had a lasting impact on the efforts to fight diseases intensified with poverty: malaria, HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis.”
+ ELCA members ... continue to exercise leadership in the care of God’s creation. No small achievement was the completely green churchwide assembly in 2013, a feat that began in earnest in 2009.”
+ “The development of the social statement on justice for women will be as lively and participatory as the social statement on human sexuality.”
+ “This year [2009] the ELCA, building upon our strong ecumenical partnerships and global relationships, expanded our commitment to grow in understanding of and service with people of other faiths, together diminishing the once-growing power of religious extremists in the world.”
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To read the prepared text of Bishop Hanson’s report online, go to http://www.elca.org/bishopstatement.

Information about the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be found at http://www.elca.org/assembly/ on the Web.

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John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
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