wfn.org | ELCA Assembly Adopts Rural Economic Crisis Resolution

[News News <news@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 19, 1999

ELCA ASSEMBLY ADOPTS RURAL ECONOMIC CRISIS RESOLUTION
99-CWA-31-DM

     DENVER (ELCA) -- The churchwide assembly of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) fell briefly silent Aug. 18 as members
prayed for victims of the economic crisis that currently threatens
family farms and the future of rural America.
     The silence followed sometimes emotional speeches in support of a
resolution, adopted 833 to 10, that calls on ELCA members and
congregations to stand with family farmers, their families and rural
communities.  It calls for prayer, education, advocacy with government,
and support groups that help victims gain access to social services,
including mental-health services.
     The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the
ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 16-22 at the Colorado Convention Center.
There are more than 2,500 people participating, including 1,039 ELCA
voting members.  The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ
Known: Hope for a New Century."
     Gary Preston, a voting member from the ELCA Northwest Synod of
Wisconsin, said he sold his dairy farm nine years ago.  "I thought the
farm crisis of the 1980s was well past," he said,  "But it's ongoing."
He said a friend had to sell his farm just the day before the vote; he
called it "a funeral for a family farm."
     Preston and others said the rural crisis affects everyone.  "Food
does not come from the supermarket," Preston said.  "It comes from farms
-- family farms."
     The Rev. Floyd M. Schoenhals, bishop of the ELCA's Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod, illustrated low farm prices with a reference to his days
growing up on a farm.  In 1961, he said, it took 1,000 bushels of wheat
for his father to buy a new pick-up truck.  At current prices, it would
take 8,000 to 10,000 bushels, he said.
     The resolution adopted by the assembly also reaffirms the ELCA's
commitment to small-town and rural congregations through the work of
various churchwide units.  It asks the church's director for rural
ministry resources and networking to continue assisting the ELCA to
respond to the farm and rural crisis and to identify resources for use
in that response.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html