wfn.org | ELCA Assembly Applauds Report on Archives

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 19, 1999

ELCA ASSEMBLY APPLAUDS REPORT ON ARCHIVES
99-CWA-33-DM

     DENVER (ELCA)   When ELCA Secretary, the Rev. Lowell G. Almen
finished delivering his report to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, voting
members rose to their feet in applause.  Almen's topic: the church
body's archives.
     The archives?  "Only Lowell Almen could give a report on church
records and get a standing ovation," commented one observer in the
assembly hall.  Even Presiding Bishop, the Rev. H. George Anderson
quipped that he used to give secretary's reports "and they never did
that for me."
     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."
     Almen has been secretary of the ELCA since the church body's
founding in 1987.  Among his duties is preserving the records of the
church.
     He invoked Miriam's song in the animated film, "The Prince of
Egypt," especially the refrain: "There can be miracles / When you
believe.  Though hope is frail / It's hard to kill ...."
     Within the archives, said Almen, "we really discover a warehouse
of miracles.  Or at least the record of those miracles."  He cited, for
example, the decision of the ELCA's predecessor bodies in 1974 to
establish the Hunger Appeal, which has raised some $200 million in its
25-year history.
     "They stepped forward in pursuit of new miracles.  And because
they dared to be guided by God's Spirit, what happened?" Almen asked.
"What happened?  Fewer people go to bed hungry now than in 1974."
     At the same time, Almen acknowledged, not everything in the
archives speaks so well of the church.
     "The record of the past was not always or invariably a shiny one,"
he said.  "Sometimes the archival materials reveal other things   less
than noble things.  For we can find some evidence here and there of
pettiness, or shortsightedness or selfishness, of instances of
vindictiveness or cowardice in the face of opportunity.  We find a few
terrible examples of the propagation of lies and of vicious
characterizations of people with whom individuals disagreed."
     After assembly members viewed a video about the archives, Almen
returned.  In terms no more specific than his allusions to the more-seamy side of Lutheran history, he challenged the assembly as strains of
Miriam's song played in the background: "There are miracles to be seen
when we believe," he said.  "There are possibilities for faithful
witness in a new century, possibilities greater than perhaps our
forebears ever dared to dream.
     "Will we listen?" Almen asked.  "Will we learn?  Will we venture
forth?  Will we go forth with courage?  Will we journey with marvelous
hope into a new century?
     "God is calling," the secretary said.  "There are mountains yet to
be moved."
     And the assembly rose to its feet.
                           -30-

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