Title: ELCA Council Takes Mid-Term Action on Four Items
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 31, 2000

ELCA COUNCIL TAKES MID-TERM ACTION ON FOUR ITEMS
00-181-FI

     MUNDELEIN, Ill. (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) initiated a process to consider ways
of dealing with "unusual circumstances" surrounding ordination
ceremonies, elected a new director for synodical relations, selected the
site of the ELCA's 2003 Churchwide Assembly, and approved the
reorganization of one of the church's nine regional administrations.
     The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as
the legislative authority of the church between its churchwide
assemblies.  Assemblies are held every other year; the next is in August
2001 in Indianapolis.
     This is the first time the council has met during a summer in
which an assembly was not held.  It met July 28-30 at the Center for
Development in Ministry, University of St. Mary on the Lake.
     The purpose of the special meeting was to give council members a
chance to discuss a tough issue without the need to pass legislation on
it, said Dr. Addie J. Butler, ELCA vice president and chair of the
council, Philadelphia.  Homosexuality and the Christian faith was the
primary topic of the weekend.
     "However, a couple of issues came up and, due to timeliness, we
needed to go into a legislative session for a very brief period of
time," she said.  The one-hour legislative session was held July 30.
     On July 8, The Episcopal Church approved an ELCA proposal for
"full communion."  As part of the agreement, the ELCA would require an
ELCA bishop to preside at the ordination of an ELCA pastor.
     The council asked that its legal and constitutional review
committee submit to the council's November meeting possible ways "to
allow a synodical bishop, in unusual circumstances and with appropriate
consultation, to authorize another ELCA pastor to preside at an
ordination" while honoring its new agreement with the Episcopal Church.
     The council elected the Rev. Kathie Bender Schwich to a four-year
term as director of the ELCA Department for Synodical Relations.  In
that position she also serves as an assistant to the presiding bishop.
On Sept. 1, she will succeed the Rev. Michael Cooper-White who becomes
president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa.
     One of the ELCA's nine regional structures -- serving
congregations in Alabama, the Bahamas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi,
North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, the U.S. Virgin
Islands and Virginia -- proposed it reorganize in 2001 to expand its
steering committee and to reduce its staff.  The council ratified the
plan.
     In its only other formal business, the council designated
Milwaukee as the site for the ELCA's Eighth Churchwide Assembly, which
will be held August 11-17, 2003.  The site selection is subject to the
Office of the Secretary completing negotiations with several businesses
in Milwaukee.
     The Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary, told the council that
Milwaukee was recommended because of its access to major airports and
its driving distance for many ELCA members.  Milwaukee's convention
center was available free of charge and appropriate housing
accommodations were available for the dates needed, he said.
     Charlotte, N.C., was considered for the assembly, but facilities
there were not available on the dates needed.  Almen said Charlotte will
be one of the sites considered for the ELCA's 2005 Churchwide Assembly.

EDITORS: More information on possible ordination measures and on the
Schwich election is provided in accompanying stories.


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