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ELCA Assembly Hears Presiding Bishop Report
CWA-08-05-TW

     ORLANDO, Fla. (ELCA) --  ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S.
Hanson engaged voting members and guests in reflecting on the
church's identity and mission in his report Aug. 9 at the 2005
Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA).
     The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of
the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 8-14 at the World Center Marriott
and Convention Center.	About 2,300 people are participating,
including 1,018 ELCA voting members.  The theme for the biennial
assembly is "Marked with the Cross of Christ Forever.
     Four times, the presiding bishop asked voting members and
guests to discuss among themselves the aspects of the current
state of the church.
     "The state of the ELCA is really inseparable from how all 5
million baptized members would answer these questions," said
Hanson.  "How is it with your soul?  Your walk with Jesus?  How
do you live out your baptism?
     Suggesting that "this church has a strong name that reveals
a great deal about who we are," Hanson framed his report on the
church's name.

'Evangelical
     He began by challenging members to "claim boldly, humbly and
clearly that we are evangelicals," proclaiming and believing "the
good news of Jesus Christ.
     Yet "amidst all the competing gospels today, what good news
do we announce?" Hanson asked voting members.
     "In our culture, everything presses us in a different
direction than this good news" of justification by faith through
God's grace, Hanson said. "In this culture we are valued for what
we accomplish and for what we accumulate.
     Living in such a culture is living "in a mission field,
said the presiding bishop.  "As long as there is one unchurched
or dechurched person who does not know the story of Jesus in our
townships or workplaces, our classrooms or car pools or families,
we are called to invite that person as the Samaritan woman left
the well to invite her friends to come and see Jesus.

'Lutheran
     Hanson went on to describe being Lutheran as being "always
evangelical, ecumenical and reforming.
     He drew applause when he stated that the challenge "is to
build upon the strong foundational themes of the ongoing Lutheran
Reformation and be sure that they, rather than the ethnic
identities of European immigrant ancestors, become that which
shapes our identity as a reforming movement in the church
catholic, a church engaged in God's mission for the life of the
world.

'Church
     Quoting German pastor and author Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hanson
reminded the assembly that "the unity of the church as the Body
of Christ is not a goal to be attained, but a fact to be
recognized.  According to this image, the church is not to
achieve unity, but to act as the unified body that we already are
. so that the world might believe.
     In that regard, Hanson referenced the ecumenical work of the
ELCA in establishing five full communion partnerships and the
recommendation for an interim Eucharistic Sharing agreement with
the United Methodist Church that will come before the assembly
Aug. 11.  He then suggested that the ELCA "explore the
possibility of a joint declaration on the Eucharist" with Roman
Catholics "as one way of celebrating the 500th anniversary of the
Lutheran Reformation in 2017.
     "Now is the time for Pope Benedict [XVI], the Ecumenical
Patriarch in Istanbul, and the Anglican and Lutheran Communions
to convene a global, ecumenical council on the Christian
interpretation of Scripture" in order to address "a global
identity crisis ... due to the dominance today of a
fundamentialist-millenialist-apacolypticist reading of
Scripture," Hanson said.
     Speaking more specifically to the ELCA itself, the presiding
bishop described the commitment to church unity expressed in the
constituting documents of the ELCA that describes an
"interdependence" of congregations,
synods and the churchwide
organization.
     "But I suspect that there are many factors and forces --
cultural, ecclesial, financial, and relational -- that seek to
undermine that commitment to interdependence in the ELCA.  We
struggle with that," he said.
     Yet the bishop also stated that his experience of the church
in the past four years is that each segment "wants to strengthen
their relationship in and with this church and their identity as
Lutherans engaged in God's mission for the life of the world.

'In America
     In addressing the final part of the church's name, Hanson
acknowledged that "we are a public church.
     He asked the assembly, "Can we as a church convene and be
participants in public conversations of moral deliberation?  We
must acknowledge the complexity of issues, and call for civility
in our discourse.  But we must also recognize that categories of
morality apply not only to the behavior of individuals, but to
the actions of nations or corporations, and, yes, churches as
well.
     He further exhorted ordained ministers "to be witnesses to
and instruments of God's peace and reconciliation for the world
and "committed to justice in the life of the church and society
and in the world.
     Hanson closed his report by asking voting members and guests
to lay hands upon one another as he prayed that the Holy Spirit
"confirm their faith, guide their lives, empower them in their
serving, give them patience in suffering, and bring them to
everlasting life.
*-
    Information about the ELCA Churchwide Assembly
is at http://www.elca.org/assembly/05 on the Web.

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