wfn.org | Women of the ELCA Head Meets with Clinton

[Brenda Williams <BRENDAW@elca.org>]

Reply-To: ElcaNews <ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG>
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 26, 1997

WOMEN OF THE ELCA HEAD MEETS WITH CLINTON
97-35-105-AH

     WASHINGTON, D.C. (ELCA)  --  Catherine I.H.
Braasch, executive director of Women of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, discussed
President Bill Clinton's racial initiatives at a
White House breakfast Nov. 20, together with other
religious leaders.  "In the coming year the
president wants to discover the best ways to
address racial issues affecting this country,"
Braasch said in an interview.
     Clinton stressed the increasingly
multicultural realities of the United States,
Braasch said. He told about 120 religious leaders,
"The demographers can tell us what we will look
like in the future. It's up to us to determine
what we will be like."
     Braasch said, "Women of the ELCA will
recognize many of our concerns for proclaiming
God's peace and living God's justice in the issues
discussed that day.  We are not alone in voicing
these concerns."
     Clinton fielded questions on race relations
and their impact upon education, the strengthening
of family life, immigration, the economy, and
employment.  "We can't expect women on welfare to
go to work" without addressing skills readiness
and child care services availability, Clinton
said.
     Braasch said, "Women of the ELCA and other
women of faith have already shown leadership in
anti-racism initiatives as well as in addressing
the root causes of women and children living in
poverty."
     Vice President Al Gore echoed Clinton's
encouragement to churches to become a part of the
Welfare-to-Work Program, Braasch said.  Gore
called on faith communities and their members to
commit to one year of partnering with welfare
recipient families where parents are returning to
work.
     "It takes a year," Gore said.  "Once someone
has a job the challenge is just beginning. There
are all of the issues that go with keeping a job
and keeping families together: Everything from
work habits and how to shake someone's hand, to
where the kids will go for day care or dental
care."
     "Government can't do this, but government can
facilitate partnership with faith communities" to
move people from welfare to work," Gore added.
     Braasch told Gore the president's racial
initiatives offer hope for "looking at how men and
women can work together in achieving important
goals."
     Braasch described her conversation with Gore
at breakfast:  "It was a privilege to get to know
the vice president on a more personal level,
especially to hear how family life has shaped him
as a public leader.  Spending time with his family
is what he does to relax," she said.
     The value of the event was "networking,
networking, and networking," said Braasch. "It was
a prime opportunity to connect names with faces of
political and religious leaders of this country,
to swap business cards, and to give and receive
counsel about our mutual ministries and our mutual
concerns for God's peace and justice among all
people."
     Another ELCA leader present at the event was
Kathleen Hurty, executive director of Church Women
United.
     Nearly three million women in 9,000
congregations make up Women of the ELCA, carrying
out a partnership with the church as a
self-supporting organization.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or
NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html