wfn.org | ELCA Leaders Receive Presentation from Lutheran Fraternals

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 8, 2001

ELCA LEADERS RECEIVE PRESENTATION FROM LUTHERAN FRATERNALS
01-CWA04-MR

     INDIANAPOLIS (ELCA) -- The Church Council and Conference of
Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) received a
special presentation on the proposed merger between Aid Association for
Lutherans (AAL), based in Appleton, Wis., and Lutheran Brotherhood (LB),
based in Minneapolis, at its meeting here Aug. 7-8.
     The council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the
legislative authority of the church between its churchwide assemblies.
The Conference of Bishops is an advisory body of the ELCA's 65 synod
bishops, presiding bishop and secretary. Their meeting precedes the 2001
ELCA Churchwide Assembly, which takes place Aug. 8-14 at the Indiana
Convention Center.  The assembly is the church's highest legislative
authority representing the 5.15 million members of the ELCA.
     "This merger, when it is completed, will create a single, highly
successful, focused resource to serve people in ways relevant to this
new century," said John O. Gilbert, chairman, president and CEO of AAL.
     Gilbert and Bruce J. Nicholson, president and CEO of LB, delivered
the presentation to the Church Council and Conference of Bishops.
     AAL and LB are two faith-based, member-owned fraternal benefit
societies that serve the members and ministries of the ELCA.  The boards
of directors for AAL and LB have initially approved the merger and
shared the news with employees on June 27.  LB's general convention will
meet this fall to consider the merger and AAL's board, its highest
legislative body, will confirm the agreement.
     The merger "will enable us to increase our future growth.  Our
presence and potential in the lives of members will increase far beyond
what they are accustomed to today.  We will be able to meet more needs
and help more people as a single, noncompeting resource for financial
products and benevolent support in the Lutheran community," Gilbert
said.  He said the new organization will have a membership of about
three million people.
     The merger is a "momentous way for us to better serve Lutherans,"
Nicholson told the Church Council and Conference of Bishops.
     "This is a merger of two very successful organizations, each with
specific strengths, specific potentials and, yes, specific weaknesses.
We have developed individually through a long history of friendly
competition," Nicholson said.  Both organizations have 183 years of
fraternal experience combined, he said.
     "By merging, we are saying [that] we want to become the
organization of choice for the Lutheran marketplace in a way that we
couldn't do as separate organizations.  We want our new organization to
be so well-known and respected in our Lutheran market that it is said,
'If you're Lutheran, there is no place else you'd go for trusted
financial guidance in navigating the complexities of life,'" Nicholson
said.

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