ELCA NEWS SERVICE
August 10, 2007
ELCA Assembly Hears Variety of Greetings from Ecumenical Guests 07-CWA-031-JI
CHICAGO (ELCA) - Leaders of three ecumenical partners of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) thanked the church body Aug. 9 for its role with their agencies. They also brought greetings to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 6-11at 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!"
The three ecumenical leaders -- Dr. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF); the Rev. Deborah DeWinter, program executive for the United States for the World Council of Churches (WCC); and Clare Chapmann, deputy general secretary for administration and finance for the National Council of Churches of Christ U.S.A. (NCC) -- congratulated the Rev. Mark S. Hanson on his re-election earlier this week to a new six-year term as ELCA presiding bishop.
Noting that this is the fourth churchwide assembly he has attended, Noko said he is grateful "because I admire the way you do God's business among yourselves [while] you have become a church for others."
He specifically mentioned the ELCA's leadership in Lutheran World Relief, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, other areas of compassionate ministry; for "opening up your seminaries, colleges, Bible schools and institutions for men and women from sister churches to come and train and go back as leaders of there own churches;" and for the ELCA's "becoming seriously engaged in ecumenical affairs."
"God is doing amazing things ... extraordinary things in ordinary ways within the ELCA," Noko said, echoing the assembly's theme.
2007 marks the 60th anniversary of the Lutheran World Federation, which Hanson serves as president. It includes 141 Lutheran church bodies worldwide, with 66 million members in 78 countries.
DeWinter said that she was primarily at the assembly to "bring heartfelt thanks for all the particular ways in which the [ELCA] contributes to the ecumenical mandate of the [WCC] and the wider ecumenical family.
"So many of you are deeply committed on local and regional and even global levels," she said. "But what you may not all know is the special commitment that the ELCA has made to mentoring young-adult leadership in the ecumenical movement."
She said that the ELCA has recently nominated and supported "several outstandingly gifted young adults who have gone on to take responsibilities at the highest levels of the WCC."
"We live in a world increasingly torn by economic and social inequality, political conflict, religious tensions, violence, the unprecedented uprooting of people all over the globe, and environmental destruction," DeWinter said.
In response, she said, the WCC "commits itself to heeding Christ's call that they may all be one by serving together as a voice and a catalyst for unity for life and ministry throughout the world."
Noko and DeWinter are based in Geneva.
Chapmann, whose NCC offices are in New York, thanked the assembly for its action authorizing the church body's "Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible" five-year initiative, and spoke of its "common focus" with the NCC on "the role of Scripture in the life of the church." She compared that focus with a porch light "to let you know where home is."
"When you travel as much as I do, seeing that porch light is like seeing a beacon that draws you back to a quiet, strong presence of love," she said.
Chapmann spoke of the NCC's "significant program work in biblical translation and utilization, having produced the 'New Revised Standard Version' of the Bible," and "continuous work" with publishers such as Augsburg Fortress, "to ensure that Scriptures are available" in portable versions, study versions, children's editions, large-print editions, devotional Bibles, and audio versions. Augsburg Fortress is the publishing ministry of the ELCA.
"In this very basic way, the council provides for the place of Scripture in the life of the church," Chapmann said.
She told the assembly she wanted "to take a moment to add my voice to the celebration of the ministry" of the Rev. Charles S. Miller, executive for administration with the ELCA's Office of the Presiding Bishop, who is leaving office Oct. 31.
Chapmann spoke of Miller's "significant leadership" with the NCC as a member of its administration and finance committee "over many years." He has exemplified the term "servant leader," she 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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