ELCA NEWS SERVICE October 9, 2003 ELCA Bishops Elect Roy Riley, Chair, Andrea Degroot-Nesdahl, Vice Chair 03-181-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) elected the Rev. E. Roy Riley Jr., bishop of the ELCA New Jersey Synod, Trenton, to a four-year term as conference chair. The bishops also elected the Rev. Andrea S. DeGroot-Nesdahl, bishop of the ELCA South Dakota Synod, Sioux Falls, as vice chair. The ELCA is organized into 65 synods, each headed by a bishop. The ELCA Conference of Bishops is an advisory body to the church consisting of the church's 65 synod bishops, ELCA presiding bishop and ELCA secretary. The conference met here Oct. 2-6. Riley, 55, succeeds the Rev. Donald J. McCoid, bishop of the ELCA Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, Pittsburgh, as conference chair. McCoid was elected chair in October 1999. DeGroot-Nesdahl, 53, was elected vice chair in October 2001 to complete the term of the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, who was elected presiding bishop of the ELCA by the 2001 Churchwide Assembly. Before he was presiding bishop, Hanson served as bishop of the ELCA Saint Paul (Minn.) Area Synod. At this meeting, she was easily elected to a full term on the second ballot for vice chair with 58 votes. Riley was elected on the third ballot for chair, 47-15 over DeGroot-Nesdahl. The Rev. Peter Rogness, bishop of the ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod, received one vote on the third ballot. There were 19 nominees on the first ballot for conference chair. "I'm honored, and, with God's help, I'll do the best I can," Riley told the bishops following the election. "I'm grateful for the honor of serving you in this way." In an interview Riley said the key focus for the Conference of Bishops is the mission of the church. He pointed to ongoing discussions related to ordination, Word and Sacrament ministry and the church's recent adoption of a comprehensive evangelism strategy as examples. "When you're in a country where the immigrant population is exploding --especially the Latino population -- there's just an enormous need for the church to figure out how to do evangelical outreach and how to understand the cultures to which and to whom we are called to give witness to the gospel," he said. "That's a big part of the bishops' task." Other significant topics the bishops are concerned with presently are the ongoing ELCA Studies on Sexuality, changing worship resources and racism concerns, Riley noted. Over the past few years many members of the Conference of Bishops have changed, including one year in which nearly one- third of the bishops were newly elected, he said. "It is just so energizing to see the gifts, the imagination and the experience that the church is gathering in these new servants," Riley said. "It gives me a lot of confidence to be in a room with so many gifted and spirit-filled, faithful servants, who truly do want to be servants of this church and are living that out." Riley has served as bishop of the New Jersey Synod since 1991, and was assistant to the bishop in the synod from 1980 to 1991. He is a member of Abiding Presence Lutheran Church, Ewing, N.J. He and his wife Betsy have four grown children. The Rileys live in Lawrenceville, N.J. McCoid Completes Term as Conference Chair McCoid thanked the Conference of Bishops for the opportunity to serve as chair, to work with "faithful bishops" and to "see the wider work of our church body." During his term the bishops addressed a variety of issues related to "Called to Common Mission," the full-communion agreement of the ELCA and Episcopal Church; concerns about the roles of people who are gay and lesbian in the church; people living in poverty; unrest in the Middle East and concerns about global terrorism; and "lay presidency," referring to the roles of lay people in worship practices such as presiding at communion or other leadership roles in the church. "My greatest concern is that our direction will not emphasize unity but will show disunity as a body," he told the bishops. "When we have differences about what the Conference of Bishops is, it is not surprising that differences of opinion about polity, governance, organizational, social, ecumenical and other issues will be magnified." The bishops need to honor individual opinions, but he emphasized that the conference should "speak corporately, theologically and faithfully, when and where that is possible and needed." The bishops have "an urgent need" to consider ministry nationally and globally rather than locally or in synods, McCoid said. "I would urge our conference to continue to keep before us what we can give to the life and ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and not only what we can receive from it," he added. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news