wfn.org | ELCA, Other Denominations Sponsor Mission Personnel Orientation

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

June 9, 2000

ELCA, OTHER DENOMINATIONS SPONSOR MISSION PERSONNEL ORIENTATION
00-156-MH*

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA), along with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), The Episcopal
Church and the Volunteer Missionary Movement, a lay mission organization
rooted in the Roman Catholic Church, will hold their annual summer
orientation and preparation program for missionaries.  The program will
be held at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago from July 9-21.
      Members of the Reformed Church in America and the Church of the
Brethren will also participate in the program.  The denominations have
conducted joint missionary programs since 1990.
     There will be about 144 participants in the orientation; 42 will
become ELCA missionaries.
     The seminar will focus on cross-cultural dynamics from a Christian
mission perspective in an international context, said Harold T. Hanson,
director for international personnel, ELCA Division for Global Mission.
Presentation topics will include community-building skills, how to
become integrated into a new community, how to maintain one's health
while overseas and how to live safely in violent situations, Hanson
said.
     There will also be discussions on the impact of social structures
and systems, privilege and oppression in the context of the challenge to
build a community, how daily decisions can send important messages, and
gender issues in different cultures, Hanson said.
      "To be Lutheran is to be ecumenical," Hanson said.  "These
churches have a common sense of what mission is about."
     Hanson emphasized that the orientation is not a conference.  "This
is going to be work," he said.  "The work to seriously prepare for
mission service is part and parcel of mission service itself.  This
event is a significant element in the process of preparation which
continues into the first several months of someone's arrival at their
place of service."
     "It's good stewardship," said the Rev. Joel S. Bjerkestrand, board
member of the Division for Global Mission, ELCA.  "We have much more in
common in ministry than that which separates us."
     "An evident advantage of working together like this is that we
have multiple perspectives on issues of common concern," said Mike
DeArruda, coordinator for mission personnel care for the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) and a participant in the program.  "I think Harold
Hanson made a good point when he asked, 'why do alone what we can do
better together?'"
     [*Michael N. Hoffman is a junior at the University of Kansas,
Lawrence, Kan.  This summer he is an intern with ELCA News and
Information.]

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