Title: ELCA Council Accepts New Special Interest Conference
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 22, 2002

ELCA COUNCIL ACCEPTS NEW SPECIAL INTEREST CONFERENCE
02-275-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) transmitted to the 2003 ELCA Churchwide
Assembly a resolution to amend a constitutional bylaw that would allow
the Batak Special Interest Conference of North America to relate to the
ELCA.
     The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as
the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies.
The council met here Nov. 15-17.  Assemblies are held every other year;
the next is Aug. 11-17, 2003, in Milwaukee.
     Batak is a tribe of North Sumatra, Indonesia.  Members of the
tribe live on and in territory surrounding Samosir Island, located in
the middle of Lake Toba.  The Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) --
Protestant Christian Batak Church of Sumatra -- joined the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) in 1952 and currently has more than 2.9 million
members.
     The LWF, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a global communion of
Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition.  It has 136 member
churches in 75 countries representing more than 61.7 million of the 65.4
million Lutherans worldwide.
     In recent years Batak immigrants in the United States have sought
to form congregations in California, Colorado, New York and Washington.
Seeking to become congregations of the ELCA, U.S. Batak residents say
they wish to maintain their heritage, culture of the HKBP and connection
with other Batak churches in Indonesia.  Some early generations of the
U.S. residents are organizing the Batak Special Interest Conference of
North America to initiate a formal relationship with the ELCA.  Once
organized Batak congregations in the United States would become
congregations of the ELCA.
     The constitutions of these congregations would include the
following provision:  "This congregation shall participate in the Batak
Special Interest Conference of North America, in a manner to be
determined from time to time by this congregation, to maintain awareness
of and concern for the mission and ministry of the member churches of
the Lutheran World Federation in Indonesia."
     Staff of the ELCA Commission for Multicultural Ministries,
Division for Global Mission and Division for Outreach have consulted
with four Batak congregations to plan for mission and ministry.
     The Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary, and the Rev. Margrethe
S.C. Kleiber, program director for South Asia, Division for Global
Mission, met with HKBP leaders in Sumatra, Sept. 27-Oct. 2, and attended
the biennial assembly of the HKBP Great Synod.  About 1,100 voting
members of the Great Synod gather to consider constitutional amendments
and other matters once every decade.  Almen and Kleiber met with Ephorus
Jubil Hutauruk, presiding bishop of the HKBP, William Simarmata, general
secretary, and other members of the HKBP board.
     "The Batak immigrants who have formed congregations in the United
States wish to be a part of the ELCA, yet maintain cultural ties with
their roots.  Like immigrants before them, the possibility of a special
interest conference exists," Almen said in an interview.
     "Within the ELCA, a congregation may not be a part of two Lutheran
church bodies simultaneously.  Therefore, the Batak congregations, in
joining the ELCA, can no longer be congregations of the HKPB in Sumatra.
But their cultural heritage can still be affirmed by the special
interest conference," said Almen.
     If the secretary of the ELCA determines that U.S. Batak
congregations undertake the organization of a special interest
conference, the resolution to amend the constitutional bylaw will be
submitted to 2003 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.  If adopted the Batak
Special Interest Conference of North America will relate to the ELCA
through its Department for Ecumenical Affairs and under the authority of
the ELCA presiding bishop.
     The ELCA has four official and informal international contacts.
They are the Danish Special Interest Conference, Finnish (Suomi) Special
Interest Conference, German Lutheran Conference in North America and
Hungarian Special Interest Conference.
-- -- --
     Information about the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan of Sumatra is
available at
http://www.elca.org/dgm/country_packet/packets/asia-oceania/indonesia/church.html






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