ELCA NEWS SERVICE
August 10, 2007
ELCA Assembly Hears Greeting from ELCIC National Bishop 07-CWA-027-CA
CHICAGO (ELCA) - The Rev. Raymond L. Schultz, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), asked Lutherans in the United States to work with Canadian Lutherans to "exercise a mutual prophetic stewardship" on domestic and international issues.
Addressing the 2007 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Canadian bishop said that Canada and the United States, two countries that had broken away from colonial powers, "have not always been gracious when we have had the political or economic edge over other countries."
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 1,068 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Living in God's Amazing Grace: Thanks be to God!
Schultz is retiring as bishop of the Canadian denomination, which has about 182,000 members, and brought greetings from the Rev. Susan Johnson, bishop-elect of the ELCIC.
Schultz praised the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, for keeping international issues before the church. "The governments of our two countries are not interested in the church," the bishop said, "and consider it a nuisance."
The Canadian church has also cooperated in the development of a new worship book for Lutherans, the bishop said, and the publication of Evangelical Lutheran Worship has been "enthusiastically received as the official worship resource of our church."
Materials prepared for the ELCA social statement on sexuality, which will be presented to the ELCA 2009 Assembly, have also been adapted for use in Canada, the bishop said.
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Information about the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be found at http://www.ELCA.org/assembly/ on the Web.
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