wfn.org | ELCA Higher Education, Schools Board Continues Strategic Planning

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 21, 2001

ELCA HIGHER EDUCATION, SCHOOLS BOARD CONTINUES STRATEGIC PLANNING
01-63-JB

     KENOSHA, Wis. (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) has a "precious" understanding of the connection
between faith and education, said Dr. Leonard G. Schulze, executive
director of the ELCA Division for Higher Education and Schools
(DHES).  It is the division's responsibility to lift up that
understanding, he said following the DHES board meeting March 9-11
here at Carthage College.
     Schulze, who was elected executive director in 2000, and DHES
staff are working with the board on strategic planning for the
division.  The basis for the process is understanding the connections
between the church and education, he said.
     DHES provides programs and support for the ELCA's education
ministries, including affiliated colleges and universities, campus
ministries, early childhood education centers, and elementary and
secondary schools. There are 200 elementary and 30 secondary schools
operated by ELCA congregations throughout the United States and the
Caribbean. About 2,000 congregations operate early childhood
education centers.
     Last fall the board and staff discussed the division's mission.
The March meeting focused on the changing environment in which the
division is called to serve, Schulze said.  Later, the board and
staff will discuss the resources available and those that need to be
developed to achieve the mission, he said.
     Among the items the board discussed was a possible new mission
statement which should drive the division's work, Schulze said.
     "We're sharpening our sense of the purpose that the church has
in supporting this division," Schulze said.  "I think this is a
faithful approach to our work."
     In a presentation on societal trends, Kenneth W. Inskeep,
director, ELCA Department for Research and Evaluation, said
enrollment in grade schools is increasing significantly in the
western United States and the number of ELCA campus ministry settings
declined during the last decade.  These and other environmental
factors identified by Inskeep, along with a refined mission
statement, will define the division's agenda, Schulze said.
     The board also heard a report on the church's history in
homosexuality issues from the Rev. Joseph M. Wagner, executive
director, ELCA Division for Ministry.  Wagner's appearance resulted
from a board action last September, in which members said they would
devote agenda time to "serious discussion" of issues of "rostering
sexual minority persons in ministry."  The ELCA maintains official
rosters of its ordained and lay ministers.  The church expects gay
and lesbian ministers to abstain from homosexual sexual
relationships, according to its policies.  In recent years some
people in the church have questioned these policies, suggesting they
discriminate.
     The Division for Ministry is promoting conversation in the
church on a wide range of issues related to homosexuality, Wagner
said.
     "What we are trying to do is have moderated, even-handed, non-
judgmental conversation in our church on this issue," he said.  "We
want to be very careful this conversation involves as much of our
church as possible."
     In a discussion that followed, Wagner said the division's
strategy is to be deliberate and careful. The strategy is "not a
strategy of delay," he added.
     Board members expressed concern that the church's language may
discriminate against gay and lesbian people by putting issues in "us
vs. them" terms, and that some of the church's educational resources
include so-called "ex-gay" ministries.
     Later in the meeting the board adopted a resolution suggesting
possible revisions in the church's policy document for ordained
ministers.  The wording may be considered if the ELCA permits
ordination of gay and lesbian people in committed relationships, the
resolution said.
     The board resolution suggested that gay and lesbian ordained
ministers must be in lifelong committed relationships.  These pastors
"are expected to live in fidelity to their partners, giving
expression to sexual intimacy within a lifelong committed
relationship that is mutual, chaste and faithful," the suggested
wording said.
     In other actions, the DHES board:
     + reviewed a request from Trinity Lutheran College, Issaquah,
Wash., to become affiliated with the ELCA.  Twenty-eight colleges and
universities are presently affiliated with the ELCA.  It has been
nearly 40 years since a college or university sought to be affiliated
with the church, and criteria need to be developed, said David L.
Wee, board member, Northfield, Minn.  The ELCA Church Council 
will make any final determination on Trinity's request, said Wee, who 
chairs the board's colleges and universities committee.
     + adopted a resolution thanking the Rev. Patricia J. Lull for
her service as director for campus ministry, DHES.  Lull recently
accepted a call to serve as dean of students at Luther Seminary, St.
Paul, Minn.  Luther is one of eight ELCA seminaries.
     + elected Raymond L. Bailey, Fort Collins, Colo., as board
chair.  Bailey succeeds the Rev. John G. Andreasen, Fargo, N.D., as
chair.  Andreasen's term on the board will expire at the ELCA
Churchwide Assembly in August.  Kristine F. Hughey, Wallingford, Pa.,
was elected vice chair and Dean Baldwin, Erie, Pa., was elected
secretary.  Other members elected to the executive committee are
Jennifer Peterson, Austin, Tex., and Rod Schofield, Colorado Springs,
Colo.
     Carthage College is a college of the ELCA.  ELCA churchwide
offices are in Chicago.

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