wfn.org | ELCA Financial News, Evangelism Efforts Reported to Bishops

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 17, 2000

ELCA FINANCIAL NEWS, EVANGELISM EFFORTS REPORTED TO BISHOPS
00-065-JB

     FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (ELCA) -- Income to the churchwide
organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
exceeded expenses in 1999 by $2.1 million in current operating funds,
said Richard L. McAuliffe, ELCA treasurer.  McAuliffe reported results
of the fiscal year ending Jan. 31 to the ELCA Conference of Bishops'
spring meeting here March 2-7.
     Receipts totaled $82.7 million for fiscal 1999, with related
expenses at $80.6 million, McAuliffe said.   Income from congregations
through synods totaled $68 million, up from $66.7 million the previous
fiscal year, he said.  Financial giving to the churchwide organization
increased in 54 of the ELCA's 65 synods.  McAuliffe called the increase
"remarkable" and thanked the bishops for their "leadership in
stewardship."
     Contributions to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal in 1999 were $16
million, up $3.5 million from the previous year, the ELCA treasurer
said.  Giving to the ELCA Disaster Response fund last year was $6
million, compared to $5.4 million in 1998.
     In his report to the Conference of Bishops, the Rev. H. George
Anderson, ELCA presiding bishop, called the ELCA's Companion Synod
program "the absolute pinnacle" of what the church has done in
evangelism.   The program matches ELCA synods as partners with specific
Lutheran churches in other parts of the world.
     The ELCA has sent hundreds of missionaries and volunteers to other
countries, Anderson said, and companion synods have sent representatives
from those countries to the United States and Caribbean.
     Anderson said there is strong support among ELCA and companion
synod members for Jubilee 2000, a campaign to eliminate international
debt in the world's most impoverished countries.
     The ELCA has increased its membership of people of color, he said,
but it did not achieve its membership goal of 10 percent people of the
color by 1998, Anderson said.
     "We can show increase in all ethnic categories," he said. "We have
a good way to go," he added.
     Anderson and the synod bishops also expressed thanks to seven
bishops whose terms will end this year and have announced they will
retire. They are the Rev. John C. Beem, bishop of the ELCA East-Central
Synod of Wisconsin, Appleton; the Rev. James E. Bennett, bishop of the
ELCA Southwestern Texas Synod, San Antonio; the Rev. Mark B. Herbener,
bishop of the ELCA Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, Dallas; the
Rev. Robert L. Isaksen, bishop of the ELCA New England Synod, Worcester,
Mass.; the Rev. Richard N. Jessen, bishop of the ELCA Nebraska Synod,
Omaha; the Rev. George P. Mocko, bishop of the ELCA Delaware-Maryland
Synod, Baltimore; and the Rev. Alton Zenker, bishop of the ELCA
Central-Southern Illinois Synod, Springfield.

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