ELCA NEWS SERVICE August 15, 2003 ELCA Assembly Addresses Care for Youth, Gay and Lesbian People 03-CWA-37-MR MILWAUKEE (ELCA) -- The 2003 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) encouraged the active participation of youth and young adults in the ELCA's Studies on Sexuality and requested that the task force overseeing the studies continue to include the concerns of young people in its work. The assembly also furthered the church's commitment to pastoral care for gay and lesbian people. The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 11-17 at the Midwest Airlines Center. There are about 2,100 people participating, including 1,031 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ Known: For the Healing of the World." The assembly encouraged youth and young adults to participate in the church's Studies on Sexuality through discussions in congregations, synodical youth gatherings, colleges and universities, at events sponsored by the ELCA's Lutheran Youth Organization and in other settings. In the same action, the assembly also forwarded memorials -- resolutions from the ELCA's Southeastern Synod, Atlanta, Delaware- Maryland Synod, Baltimore, and Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod -- related to pastoral care for gay and lesbian people to the ELCA Conference of Bishops "as information." The Conference of Bishops is an advisory body of the church. In a "model resolution," the three synods -- at their respective synod assemblies earlier this year -- encouraged the Conference of Bishops to offer "a special message" of pastoral care and concern to youth and adults in the church "who may be wrestling with these issues of self-understanding," to affirm the "principles of God's unconditional love" and to encourage pastors of the ELCA to provide pastoral care and support for people who struggle with homosexuality and human sexuality. The assembly defeated an amendment to "inform" the ELCA Task Force for Studies on Sexuality "about the ethical and theological risks which would be created if the ELCA were to advocate therapies which claim to change someone's sexual orientation." Christina Lynn Kelton, voting member, ELCA Southeastern Synod, presented the amendment. Speaking to the amendment Kelton said, "There are documented reports from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1989 which indicate that as many as one-third of teen suicides in the country are over sexual orientation struggles, which are caused by not only being told but being forced to change their sexual orientation." She added that "youth, young adults and adults of all ages need support and care, the type of care that can only be given by pastors or another person of faith." Speaking in opposition to the amendment, Louis M. Hesse, voting member, ELCA Eastern Washington-Idaho Synod, Spokane, Wa., who identified himself as a member of the Task Force on the ELCA Studies on Sexuality, said, "One of the underpinnings in our work is that all viewpoints come to the task force. There's nothing to be censored or put emphasis on . everything is to come to the task force for an open hearing." The 1991 Churchwide Assembly moved to "affirm gay and lesbian people, as individuals created by God," to participate fully in the life of congregations of the ELCA. That welcome was reaffirmed by the 1995 Churchwide Assembly, which also urged Lutherans to "practice and teach biblical and confessional guidance for speaking the truth in love." In a 1996 letter to the church, the Conference of Bishops wrote that congregations of the ELCA be "safe places for those who are persecuted and harassed in our society." At the direction of the 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the church is conducting a comprehensive four-year study on homosexuality. That assembly also asked for a social statement on human sexuality. The task force, assembled by the ELCA Division for Ministry and Division for Church in Society in May 2002, assists the divisions in developing study materials, recommendations and proposals regarding the assembly mandates. It also oversees the process for these studies in the church. -- -- -- Information about the ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be found at http://www.elca.org/assembly/03 on the Web. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news