wfn.org | Financial Picture Brightens for ELCA

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 20, 1997

FINANCIAL PICTURE BRIGHTENS FOR ELCA
97-CA-42-MS

     PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- After nearly a decade of budget cuts and
belt-tightening, the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States and
Caribbean appears to have achieved fiscal stability.  Voting members of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, meeting here Aug. 14-20 in the
ELCA's fifth biennial Churchwide Assembly, were told that income from
congregations and synods is finally on the upswing.
    In the ten years of its history the 5.2-million-member ELCA has seen
its annual churchwide budget plummet from $87.2 million in 1989 (of which
only $81 million was actually received) to a low of $75.3 million four
years later (still $1 million above actual receipts).  Since then revenues
have inched upward and increases now appear to be the pattern.
    Voting members approved a 1998 spending plan of $77.5 million and of
$78.2 million for 1999.  The ELCA approves its annual budgets two at a
time, since the biennial assemblies must approve them in advance.
    Following approval of the budget for 1998, ELCA Presiding Bishop H.
George Anderson called it "a strong affirmation of the program and the
stewardship of [this] church."
    Support for the ELCA's churchwide ministry -- much of which funds
global mission work, the theological education of new pastors, and the
planting of new U.S. congregations -- originates in nearly 11,000 Lutheran
congregations.  Funds are sent to 65 regional synods, each of which
forwards an average of 55 percent to the ELCA for its budgeted programs.

For information contact:

Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html