wfn.org | ELCA Public Policy Directors Discuss Health, Government, Poverty

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 23, 2001

ELCA PUBLIC POLICY DIRECTORS DISCUSS HEALTH, GOVERNMENT, POVERTY
01-262-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Directors of state public policy advocacy
offices of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) held
their annual meeting here Oct. 12-14 to catch up on recent
developments in the church's advocacy efforts, plan, share
experiences and engage in discussions on three major topics -- health
care, church-state issues and poverty.
     "The role of the state public policy directors is to take the
statements and public policy positions developed by the ELCA --
through churchwide assembly resolutions, social statements and so on
-- and to translate those into actual public policy on the state
level," said the Rev. Daniel J. Schwick, director of the Lutheran
Advocacy Network of Illinois.  Schwick chaired the meeting's planning
committee.
     Kay S. Dowhower, director for advocacy, Division for Church in
Society, Washington, D.C., coordinates the ELCA's work in the state
offices, as well as in the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs,
Washington, D.C., and the Lutheran Office for World Community, United
Nations, New York.
     The directors saw an unofficial first draft of a possible
social statement on health and health care, which the Division for
Church in Society is developing for the ELCA's consideration.
     The directors were able to share their perspectives with those
drafting the social statement, said Schwick.  They also discussed
ways "to mobilize folks in our respective states to study the draft
and to give some feedback through the hearing process in which the
ELCA engages," he said.
     "The ELCA process for establishing social statements is a very
deliberative process.  It takes four years and two churchwide
assemblies and whole slew of hearings across the country before the
ELCA takes a major position crafted in a social statement," said
Schwick.  He said the social statement process is the way Lutherans
participate in laying the groundwork for the church's public policy
advocacy.
     The directors worked through a series of church-and-state
issues -- from President Bush's faith-based initiative and charitable
choice to the possibility of states taxing religious organizations,
said Schwick.  "We had quite a bit of focus on both the merits and
the hazards of church and state cooperation," he said.
     Schwick said the directors kept coming back to a section of the
ELCA Constitution that said, to achieve the purposes of the church,
the ELCA will "work with civil authorities in areas of mutual
endeavor, maintaining institutional separation of church and state in
a relation of functional interaction."
     State and federal governments are responding to the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, while dealing with a downturn in the economy,
said Schwick.  "Money available to services for people in need -- for
homeless people, for frail elderly people, people with disabilities
-- will be more limited in the next year or two," he said.
     The directors expressed concern about "what strategies our
state governments will use to try to move resources around within a
much smaller pie.  We are afraid that human services will be one of
those areas that will suffer the most in this new environment," said
Schwick.
     The Rev. E. Roy Riley, bishop of the ELCA's New Jersey Synod,
Trenton, presented the work of the ELCA Conference of Bishops'
standing committee on ministry among people in poverty.  The ELCA is
organized into 65 synods, each headed by a bishop.  The Conference of
Bishops includes the synod bishops, as well as the ELCA presiding
bishop and secretary.
     The bishops are working together and with their public policy
directors to involve Lutherans in local and state settings "to
address the concerns of poverty that continue to plague the United
States," said Schwick.
     The public policy advocacy offices lobby state governments on
behalf of the ELCA, its social ministry organizations and the people
they serve.  Many of the ELCA's synods support offices directly.
     These offices advocate for issues and not for or against
particular candidates.  About 32 percent of their work is directed to
hunger-related causes such as food and nutrition, shelter and
affordable housing, environmental stewardship and justice, employment
and income, and access to preventative and primary health care.
     The ELCA has public policy advocacy offices in the capitals of
18 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa,
Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New
Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.
They work closely with ecumenical public policy offices in Montana
and Virginia and with the federal public policy office of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
     The ELCA North Carolina Synod will open a public policy
advocacy office in Raleigh next year.  The South Carolina Synod and
Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas are also opening an office
in Columbia.  The ELCA is developing offices in Georgia and South
Dakota.
-- -- --
     The Division for Church in Society maintains information about
the state public policy advocacy offices at
http://www.elca.org/dcs/state.html on the ELCA Web site.

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