ELCA NEWS SERVICE
March 27, 2007
ELCA Bishops Receive Goals for Pastor/Chaplains and their Congregations
07-043-JB
GALVESTON, Texas (ELCA) -- The Conference of Bishops of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) accepted six goals
aimed at providing guidance and support for congregations and
their pastors when the pastor is mobilized into military service.
The goals are also intended to provide guidance and support to
current chaplains and their families.
The Rev. Darrell D. Morton, assistant to the presiding
bishop for federal chaplaincy ministries, Washington, D.C.,
presented the goals in a report to the Conference of Bishops,
when it met here March 1-6. The conference is an advisory body
of the church, consisting of the ELCA's 65 synod bishops,
presiding bishop and secretary.
The goals are intended for congregations and chaplains in
both the ELCA and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS).
Both churches provide cooperative support for the ministry of
active-duty chaplains, and the two churches "can demonstrate the
same unity by adopting a joint policy on the care of pastors who
are being deployed and those congregations from which they are
being deployed," Morton explained in a written report.
Morton said the goals are intended to address specific
concerns: that neither the congregations nor the pastor/chaplains
who are deploying or returning from deployment should be expected
to negotiate the complexities of the transitions without support
from the church bodies; and, as National Guard and Reserve
personnel return to their civilian jobs after war-time service,
pastor/chaplains should return to their congregations after their
service is completed.
"This proposal is a statement of joint concern and
commitment to the chaplains in the Guard and Reserve," Morton
said in his report to the conference.
The six goals are:
+ The pastor/chaplain should remain the called pastor of the
congregation while deployed and return to that role when
redeployed home.
+ The ELCA synod or LCMS district leadership should provide care
to the congregation and the pastor leading up to and including
deployment, assist in the pastor/chaplain's homecoming and
reintegration into congregational ministries, help the
congregation claim the pastor's chaplaincy role as an extension
of their ministry and assign an interim pastor.
+ The congregation will work to minimize trauma and turbulence
suffered by the family by surrounding them with love and support,
and, in most cases, allow families to remain in congregationally
provided housing while the pastor is deployed.
+ The congregational budget should fund the salary of an interim
pastor, since the chaplain's salary plus health care and housing
allowance for the chaplain and the chaplain's family will be
provided by the military.
+ The synod or district leadership will work to protect the
chaplain's pension and health benefits during deployment and
after the pastor/chaplain returns.
+ Both churches recognize and will provide appropriate care for
the pastor/chaplain and his or her family and the congregation
following deployment.
Morton told the bishops that 17 ELCA chaplains are serving
in the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"They are serving young men and women in harm's way, and
they too are in harm's way," Morton said, asking that the bishops
pray for the chaplains and their congregations. The number of
ELCA military chaplains is about 20 to 25 less than usual, and
more chaplains are needed, he said.
Congregations and pastor/chaplains are facing great stress
in these times, Morton said. "The extraordinarily large number of
National Guard and Reserve chaplains called to serve extended
periods of active duty since 9/11 is without equal since the
close of World War II," Morton said.
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Information about the ELCA's Bureau for Federal Chaplaincy
Ministries is at http://www.ELCA.org/federalchaplains/ on the
ELCA Web site.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
