ELCA NEWS SERVICE August 15, 2003 ELCA Assembly Hears Presiding Bishop's Report on 'Public Church' 03-CWA-39-BMC MILWAUKEE (ELCA) -- In the fourth installment of his report to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) 2003 Churchwide Assembly, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, focused on the new strategic direction on becoming a public church. 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 fourth strategic direction in the ELCA's proposed strategic plan reads: "Step forward as a public church that witnesses boldly to God's love for all that God has created." Hanson introduced the concept of the public church with a video of voting members who were asked to define "the public church." Hanson said, "our baptism calls us, Scripture compels us, and the world cries out for the ELCA to be a public church." He added that the church's responsibility to respond to these cries "is woven into the very fabric of the work of this assembly." Following a short video clip from "Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace," Hanson urged the assembly to take seriously Bonhoeffer's call for a "church of the future." The church of the future, according to Bonhoeffer, is deeply affected by the pain of others, and acts in solidarity with those who are suffering. Hanson pointed out that being a public church "does challenge an increasingly prevalent viewpoint that the church should only be private." On issues of war and peace, there is often disagreement on the public stance that the ELCA should take, he said. "We will not be a church that always agrees on justice or the particular way to peace, but we should never be a church that falls silent in working to bring about justice and peace," said Hanson. The ELCA is a public church in the degree to which it worships, witnesses, serves the poor, strives for justice and peace, and lives out the many callings of its members, he said. "We are also a public church as we communicate, telling God's story through words, pictures and now through electronic media. We can never underestimate the importance of communication in our role as a public church," said Hanson. -- -- -- 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