News from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America June 6, 1996 Title: SWEDISH ARCHBISHOP SEES POSITIVE AMERICA America and its churches are the products of "people with a positive vision," said Archbishop Gunnar Weman of the Church of Sweden. "Your forefathers might have been looked upon by some as having landed on the shores of this country as people without a positive identity ... as men and women without a social framework, as families without a home, as a people with an unjust past," he told Chicago staff of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). "But they saw themselves as a people of a new life, a new homeland, a bright and promising new future," he said. "They saw themselves as a people affirming a new destiny, as a people with a positive vision, perhaps even a mission, to fulfill. All around us is the story of how such a vision can be realized." The archbishop's trip May 10-20 to the United States recognized the 150th anniversary of Swedish migration to North America. Weman visited Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., which was founded in 1860 as America's first Scandinavian college, and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. The archbishop traveled to Minnesota to visit Swedish heritage congregations there and to tour the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn. The king and queen of Sweden are planning a commemorative trip to the United States in September. The Church of Sweden is the world's largest Lutheran church with 7.6 million members. The ELCA is second with 5.2 million members. [ELCA News and Information: 8765 W. Higgins Road, Chicago, IL 60631; phone 312/380-2963]