wfn.org | Lutheran Diaconal Ministers to Meet August 6-8 in Indianapolis

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 25, 2001

LUTHERAN DIACONAL MINISTERS TO MEET AUGUST 6-8 IN INDIANAPOLIS
01-201-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- About 45 of the 50 consecrated diaconal
ministers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will
gather Aug. 6-8 in Indianapolis to discuss how the lay leaders will
relate to each other and to the whole church. "Together for Ministry" is
the theme for three days of worship, prayer and workshops.
     Together for Ministry was the title of a report to the 1993 ELCA
Churchwide Assembly for the church's study of ministry.  As recommended
in the report, the assembly created diaconal ministry as an official lay
ministry of the church.
     "By coming together with the theme 'Together for Ministry' this
gathering brings the diaconal community full circle to its origins in
the ELCA," said Karen White, diaconal minister and facilitator of the
gathering's planning committee, Columbus, Ohio.  "We are both returning
to our denominational roots and speaking to our common mission of doing
ministry with one another in the ELCA and beyond," she said.
     The gathering will take place during the days before the ELCA 2001
Churchwide Assembly, August 8-14 in Indianapolis.
     ELCA documents highlight six marks as characteristic of diaconal
ministers:
1. Be rooted in the Word of God
2. Be trained to carry out a particular service [such as nursing,
business administration]
3. Be committed and prepared to equip the baptized for ministry in the
world and in the church
4. Give particular attention to ministries at the boundaries between the
church and world
5. Exemplify the life of Christ-like service addressing all forms of
human need
6. Be grounded in community
     "Many diaconal ministers feel compelled to explore the meaning of
'being grounded in community' and its implications for the diaconal
community's call to mission and ministry within the ELCA," said White.
The ELCA Division for Ministry will host this gathering to explore the
sixth mark -- be grounded in community.
     The diaconal ministers will discuss elements of their life
together as a community: decision-making processes, patterns of
gathering, patterns of leadership, and patterns of relating within their
community, within the ELCA and with similar communities in other church
bodies.  Workshops will deal with diaconal identity, gifts and
resources, elements needed to help minister more effectively, and
discernment of indigenous leaders.
        "The gathering is for consecrated diaconal ministers, and
approved and assigned diaconal ministry candidates," said White.
Several other guests have been invited to join them:
 + the Rev. H. George Anderson, ELCA presiding bishop, Chicago
 + the Rev. Murray D. Finck, bishop of the ELCA Pacifica Synod, Yorba
Linda, Calif.
 + Sister Nora Frost, directing deaconess, ELCA Deaconess Community,
Gladwyne, Pa.
 + Dr. Susan W. McArver, assistant professor of educational ministry and
church history, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C.
 + Susanne K. Watson, deacon and canon to the ordinary, Episcopal
Diocese of Iowa, Des Moines
 + Deaconess E. Louise Williams, executive director, Lutheran Deaconess
Association, Valparaiso, Ind.
     The gathering will nominate diaconal ministers to serve on the
diaconal ministry advisory panel of the ELCA Division for Ministry.  The
division's board will select the panel members, and the new panel will
assemble in 2002.

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