wfn.org | ELCA Council Recommends Nominee, Not Synod Name Change

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 16, 1999

ELCA COUNCIL RECOMMENDS NOMINEE, NOT SYNOD NAME CHANGE
99-CWA-03-FI

        DENVER (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met here Aug. 15 to take care of some last minute business before the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, which meets here Aug. 16-22.  It decided to convey to the assembly the nomination of a new editor for The Lutheran magazine, but it sent back a request to change the name of one of the church's 65 synods.
        The council recommended that the 1999 Churchwide Assembly adopt a resolution "to elect the Rev. David L. Miller to a four-year term as editor of The Lutheran magazine" beginning Nov. 1.  In consultation with ELCA Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson and the council's executive committee, the magazine's advisory committee nominated The Lutheran's senior editor.
        According to a process outlined in the ELCA Constitution, Miller is the only person the assembly will consider in a yes-no vote.  There are no nominations from the floor of the assembly.  The churchwide assembly, the ELCA's chief legislative authority, meets every two years.
        The council voted not to send the assembly a request from the ELCA's Southern California (West) Synod to change its name to "Southern California Synod."  It referred the request back to the synod after hearing concerns from the ELCA's Pacifica Synod, which includes some counties in southern California, that the name change would be confusing.
        The Southern California (West) Synod includes ELCA congregations in California's Kern, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.  The Pacifica Synod includes congregations in Hawaii and California's Imperial, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.
        Much of the territory of the Pacifica Synod in California is further south than that of the Southern California (West) Synod.
        Changing the name of a synod requires a change in the ELCA's bylaws, which can only be done by the churchwide assembly.  The request may reach the assembly, if voting members offer it as a motion from the floor.

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