wfn.org | ELCA Lutherans Will Study "Livelihood"

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 3, 1996

LUTHERANS WILL STUDY "LIVELIHOOD" (67 lines)
96-16-049-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The 5.2 million members of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America will have most of 1997 to look over a
100-page study document and to discuss the many facets of "a
sufficient, sustainable livelihood for all" in the United States
and Caribbean.  The church's Economic Life Task Force gave a
working draft of the study one last look when it met here June
21-23.
     "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread: Sufficient, Sustainable
Livelihood For All" is the title of a study that will come out in
November or December.  The title and the study are "very
intentionally connecting economic realities to a central petition
of the Lord's Prayer," said the Rev. Karen L. Bloomquist, ELCA
director for studies.
     A sufficient, sustainable livelihood for all is "what we as
people of faith should hold forth because it is very consistent
with the biblical vision," she said.  "How that gets worked out
in concrete realities is an ongoing struggle and an ongoing
debate" that she hopes the study will stir up in all 11,000 ELCA
congregations between Jan. 1 and Nov. 1, 1997.
     "The study document is a many faceted document presented in
chapters," said Bloomquist.  The eight chapters are laid out in
three sections that deal with faith and economic life, critical
challenges today and arenas of responsibility.
     "We devote at least a third of the document to considering
how Scripture and our Lutheran traditions can shape our views of
economic life and can help us shape understandings and responses
to contemporary economic problems," said Dr. David Krueger, task
force co-chair and professor of business ethics, Baldwin-Wallace
College, Berea, Ohio.
     "As Christians, our ethics are shaped by our faith, by our
understanding of God and Jesus Christ," he said.  "We believe God
is sovereign over all of creation, therefore God and ethics do
apply to economic life as they do to every other sphere of life."
     The study begins with the Bible to build a Lutheran ethic
for economic life.  It explores changing job realities, the
persistence of poverty, and the future of America's communities,
environment and coming generations.  The study concludes by
leading its users through a discussion of the responsibilities of
business, government, non-profit organizations and the church.
     There's a "tension" for Christians talking about economic
life, said the Rev. Janet M. Corpus, task force co-chair and
pastor, St. Mark Lutheran Church, Fairfield, Calif.  "We need to
speak theologically of that vision of sufficient, sustainable
livelihood for all.  We count on that, while there are people who
would say that's impossible."
     "We hope that the study document will be part of an
education process for the church," she said, as ELCA members talk
to each other about their faith and perspectives of economic
life.
     Corpus said Lutherans are in virtually every occupation and
economic situation.  "We have a lot to teach each other."
     The Division for Church in Society studies social issues and
prepares social statements for the ELCA's consideration and
action.  It also assists Lutheran congregations in programs that
help poor people gain economic independence.
     The division's board will decide whether to distribute the
study this fall.  The task force will receive responses to the
study materials until Nov. 1, 1997, when it will begin work on a
possible social statement on the topic.
     The first draft of a social statement could be ready for
distribution by spring 1998, and a final version could come to
the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Denver in August 1999.

For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia
Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956