ELCA NEWS SERVICE
August 6, 2007
ELCA Presiding Bishop Highlights Churchwide Assembly Topics 07-CWA-01-MRC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- According to the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), biblical literacy, education and human sexuality will be among some of the significant decision items to face the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. At a news conference here Aug. 6, Hanson said worship will be the centerpiece of the assembly.
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 6-11 at Navy Pier's Festival Hall. About 2,000 people are participating, including 1,071 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Living in God's Amazing Grace: Thanks be to God!"
"One of the most significant actions this assembly will take (is) to adopt an initiative called 'Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible,'" said Hanson, who expressed concern that Lutherans seem to be "becoming biblically illiterate." For the next five years, the 4.8 million members of the ELCA will endeavor to become "fluent in the first language of faith, the language of Scripture," he said.
The assembly will receive a recommendation to adopt "Our Calling in Education" as a social statement of the church. Adopted by ELCA churchwide assemblies, social statements are social policy documents that address significant issues.
Education is and has been a "hallmark of Lutherans for 500 years," said Hanson. The social statement explores the ELCA's educational institutions, education and vocation, and the church's renewed "commitment to public education as core to civil society and our participation for the common good," said Hanson.
Hanson said the church will continue its conversation on human sexuality and "the place of gay and lesbian people in ministry," although "we are still in the process of developing our social statement on human sexuality." The social statement on human sexuality is slated for presentation to the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis.
The ELCA's 65 synods have the authority to bring actions to the assembly for consideration, said Hanson. "A number of our synods have brought a variety of memorials regarding human sexuality," he said.
Other topics the assembly will consider include the church's effort to strengthen its commitment to advocacy and education on HIV/AIDS, the reception of "Evangelical Lutheran Worship" -- the new primary worship resource, elections for ELCA secretary and presiding bishop, the war on Iraq, and how the ELCA sees itself in the "eyes of people around the world," Hanson said.
The assembly will acknowledge several anniversaries, such as the 20th anniversary of the ELCA, the 100th anniversary of Lutheran campus ministries, and the 60th anniversary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Hanson is president of the LWF -- a global communion of Lutheran churches representing 66 million Lutherans.
Hanson will serve as chair of the assembly. "It will be a full week, but I think we have matured as a church in our ability to engage one another around questions where we don't have an agreement. We're mindful that within the unity we have in the body of Christ there is deep diversity. But diversity does not demand uniformity, nor does it need to be the occasion for division. It can be, in a respectful way, a way that we enrich the unity we have in the body of Christ. That is my prayer for the assembly," he said. - - -
Information about the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be found http://www.ELCA.org/assembly on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog