wfn.org | ELCA Bishops Elect Roy Riley, Chair, Andrea Degroot-Nesdahl, Vice

[NEWS@ELCA.ORG]

Chair
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 9, 2003

ELCA Bishops Elect Roy Riley, Chair, Andrea Degroot-Nesdahl, Vice Chair
03-181-JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Conference of  Bishops of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) elected the Rev. E.
Roy Riley Jr., bishop of the ELCA New Jersey Synod, Trenton, to a
four-year term as conference chair.  The bishops also elected the
Rev. Andrea S. DeGroot-Nesdahl, bishop of the ELCA South Dakota
Synod, Sioux Falls, as vice chair.
     The ELCA is organized into 65 synods, each headed by a
bishop. The ELCA Conference of Bishops is an advisory body to the
church consisting of the church's 65 synod bishops, ELCA
presiding bishop and ELCA secretary.  The conference met here
Oct. 2-6.
     Riley, 55, succeeds the Rev. Donald J. McCoid, bishop of the
ELCA Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, Pittsburgh, as conference
chair.	McCoid was elected chair in October 1999.
     DeGroot-Nesdahl, 53, was elected vice chair in October 2001
to complete the term of the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, who was elected
presiding bishop of the ELCA by the 2001 Churchwide Assembly.
Before he was presiding bishop, Hanson served as bishop of the
ELCA Saint Paul (Minn.) Area Synod.  At this meeting, she was
easily elected to a full term on the second ballot for vice chair
with 58 votes.
     Riley was elected on the third ballot for chair, 47-15 over
DeGroot-Nesdahl.  The Rev. Peter Rogness, bishop of the ELCA
Saint Paul Area Synod, received one vote on the third ballot.
There were 19 nominees on the first ballot for conference chair.
     "I'm honored, and, with God's help, I'll do the best I can,"
Riley told the bishops following the election.	"I'm grateful for
the honor of serving you in this way."
     In an interview Riley said the key focus for the Conference
of Bishops is the mission of the church.  He pointed to ongoing
discussions related to ordination, Word and Sacrament ministry
and the church's recent adoption of a comprehensive evangelism
strategy as examples.
     "When you're in a country where the immigrant population is
exploding --especially the Latino population -- there's just an
enormous need for the church to figure out how to do evangelical
outreach and how to understand the cultures to which and to whom
we are called to give witness to the gospel," he said.	"That's a
big part of the bishops' task."
     Other significant topics the bishops are concerned with
presently are the ongoing ELCA Studies on Sexuality, changing
worship resources and racism concerns, Riley noted.
     Over the past few years many members of the Conference of
Bishops have changed, including one year in which nearly one-
third of the bishops were newly elected, he said.
     "It is just so energizing to see the gifts, the imagination
and the experience that the church is gathering in these new
servants," Riley said.	"It gives me a lot of confidence to be in
a room with so many gifted and spirit-filled, faithful servants,
who truly do want to be servants of this church and are living
that out."
     Riley has served as bishop of the New Jersey Synod since
1991, and was assistant to the bishop in the synod from 1980 to
1991.  He is a member of Abiding Presence Lutheran Church, Ewing,
N.J.  He and his wife Betsy have four grown children.  The Rileys
live in Lawrenceville, N.J.

McCoid Completes Term as Conference Chair
     McCoid thanked the Conference of Bishops for the opportunity
to serve as chair, to work with "faithful bishops" and to "see
the wider work of our church body."
     During his term the bishops addressed a variety of issues
related to "Called to Common Mission," the full-communion
agreement of the ELCA and Episcopal Church; concerns about the
roles of people who are gay and lesbian in the church; people
living in poverty; unrest in the Middle East and concerns about
global terrorism; and "lay presidency," referring to the roles of
lay people in worship practices such as presiding at communion or
other leadership roles in the church.
     "My greatest concern is that our direction will not
emphasize unity but will show disunity as a body," he told the
bishops.  "When we have differences about what the Conference of
Bishops is, it is not surprising that differences of opinion
about polity, governance, organizational, social, ecumenical and
other issues will be magnified."
     The bishops need to honor individual opinions, but he
emphasized that the conference should "speak corporately,
theologically and faithfully, when and where that is possible
and needed."  The bishops have "an urgent need" to consider ministry
nationally and globally rather than locally or in synods, McCoid said.
     "I would urge our conference to continue to keep before us
what we can give to the life and ministry of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America and not only what we can receive from
it," he added.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news