Title: Religious Shareholders Press Texaco ELCA NEWS SERVICE - NEWSBRIEFS December 9, 1996 RELIGIOUS SHAREHOLDERS PRESS TEXACO A few hours before the oil company announced a $170 million settlement of racial discrimination lawsuits, religious shareholders met with Texaco Chairman Peter Bijur in the offices of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, New York. More than 70 representatives of religious institutional investors -- ICCR members -- pressed Bijur to implement 16 measures as part of a program to end discrimination at the oil company and to diversify its board of directors, management and work force. "Progress toward change and public accountability are the only ways to regain the confidence of shareholders, customers and employees," said Gary Brouse, director of ICCR's Equality Issue Group, after the Nov. 15 meeting. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a member of the ICCR coalition through the ELCA Division for Church in Society. Various ELCA institutions benefit from stocks held by endowments and foundations. The church's Board of Pensions, seminaries, colleges, social ministry organizations and some congregations make up the ELCA shareholder network. The ELCA Advisory Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility counsels the shareholder network on ways to present the concerns of the church to the corporations in which they own stock. For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service, (312) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955 or [log in to unmask]; Melissa Ramirez, Assist. Dir., (312) 380-2956 or [log in to unmask]