MINNEAPOLIS (ELCA) – Nancy Arnison, director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) World Hunger Program, highlighted the church body’s hunger and disaster response ministries Aug. 22 at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly. She also introduced the assembly to the Rev. Daniel Rift, the new director of the ELCA World Hunger Appeal.
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, met here Aug. 17-23 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. About 2,000 people participated, including 1,045 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly was “God’s work. Our hands.”
Arnison thanked ELCA members for record-breaking gifts to ELCA World Hunger in multiple years, including $22 million in 2008. But she also pointed out another record: that hunger now threatens 1 billion people worldwide.
“In the last year, the global financial and food crises have pushed some 100 million more people into poverty,” she told the assembly.
She said that the church body has heard and responded with aid to “the cries of those who weep -- for instance, in Sudan, “where lives have been shattered by conflict;” in Haiti, “as food costs rose higher and higher;” and in the United States, where “parents [are] no longer able to feed their children, struggling to make ends meet in an economic crisis that has swallowed both jobs and savings.”
“As Lutherans, we live at the intersection of hunger and hope,” Arnison said.
She pointed out that gifts and bequests to the World Hunger Appeal address root causes of hunger and poverty through relief, advocacy and education.
International work receives 75 percent of World Hunger funding, Arnison reported. In 2008, that came in response to disasters in 17 countries.
In the United States, she said the ELCA responded to “new” disasters in 14 states, and to “multi-year disasters” in seven states.
“ELCA Disaster Response is in it for the long haul,” she told the assembly.
Arnison pointed out that World Hunger introduced new educational resources and giving opportunities this year, including:
+ the new Hunger Education Toolkit, with Web-based resources “that make it easy for anyone to lead an interactive learning experience on world hunger”; and
+ “Taking Root: Hunger Causes, Hunger Hopes,” an in-depth curriculum for children and youth, with interactive Bible studies, children’s literature, art projects and activities that engage both students and parents in critical thinking about root causes of hunger and sustainable solutions.”
“It is a difficult time, but not an impossible time,” Arnison said. “Our prayers, our advocacy and our gifts are important now more than ever.”
Rift told the assembly that before he began this spring as director of the ELCA World Hunger Appeal, he “already knew about the amazing way that ELCA World Hunger makes a difference in the lives of poor and hungry people across the globe and here at home.
“In the last few months,” he added, “I have had the privilege of seeing this work up close -- the efficiency with which the programs operate, the way that ELCA World Hunger is so beloved in congregations across the country, and the respect it garners around the world.”
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Information about the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be found at 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
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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
