Title: ELCA Church in Society Board Manages Statements, Messages
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 5, 2003

ELCA CHURCH IN SOCIETY BOARD MANAGES STATEMENTS, MESSAGES
03-039-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Social statements and messages, in various
stages of life and development, were topics for the board of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Division for Church in
Society, which met here Feb. 20-22. The board discussed "the role of
the church in public life" with the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding
bishop of the ELCA, and elected its officers for the next two years.
     Board members adopted a proposed social statement on health care,
heard a progress report on work toward a social statement on sexuality
and appointed a task force to help develop a social statement on
education. They asked DCS staff to begin developing a message on
terrorism and commended the former governor of Illinois for acting in
accord with the ELCA's social statement on the death penalty.
     Hanson, with the help of Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, School of
Theology and Ministry, Seattle, led a discussion with the board in a
background session, in which the contents may be reported for news purposes
in a general way without specific attribution, according to the ELCA policy
on open meetings. The discussion centered on questions of what
preparations those who speak for the church should make, what obstacles
they face, their bases for speaking, and what they say to whom.
     "The Division for Church in Society does stand at that
intersection of our church and the world in a unique way, trying to hear
those voices and to share the voice of the church in that dialogue, so
the role of the church in the public sphere is an important question,"
the Rev. Denver W. Bitner, DCS board chair, Zion Lutheran Church,
Rockford, Ill., said in an interview.
     "We are being asked more and more by the community in the world
and by the world church, 'What does your church say about these things?'
How do we speak those ways?" said Bitner. "We began what will be a very
fruitful dialogue about how we express the feelings, the thoughts, the
convictions, all of the ethos of our church in a public way," he said.
     "We don't generally or shouldn't just be speaking out of our
personal thoughts about these things," said Bitner. "Our Scripture, our
confessions and the statements of our church should be the foundation
from which we draw those conclusions about issues in the world," he
said.

STATEMENT ON HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
     Board members made several editorial and substantive amendments to
a proposed social statement on health, healing and health care before
adopting "Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor." They sent the
proposal to the ELCA Church Council for transmission to the ELCA
Churchwide Assembly for the church's adoption.
     "For us in our work, the culmination of a social statement has got
to be a major highlight," said Bitner. The development of a social
statement takes many years, he said.
     The topic of health, healing and health care has special
importance for the ELCA, Bitner said, because the church is deeply
involved in healing ministries, "through our church agencies, social
ministry organizations and Lutheran Services in America." The United
States is also facing "a health care crisis" and the social statement
will guide the church in addressing it, he said.
     Bitner said the statement's theme of health care being "our shared
endeavor" points out that individuals make up the church and that the
church is part of a larger community. "The care for the health of our
brother and sister, our neighbor, is important for us" as a community,
"and, as individuals, it is something for which we share
responsibility," he said.
     The statement says "health is important, but it's not the ultimate
in everything," said Bitner. "It's a part of God's wonderful gift for
us, and we seek that as part of the wholeness that we would want in
God's creation," he said.

MESSAGE ON TERRORISM
     The DCS board directed the division's staff to prepare a draft
"Message on Terrorism" that it could consider at its next meeting in
October.
     A "message" is defined as a "brief communication that draws
attention to a social issue." It is not a new policy position of the
ELCA but builds upon previously adopted social statements. A message
can be adopted by the Church Council, whereas a social statement
requires action by an assembly.
     Bitner called terrorism "an issue that has not only our nation but
the world in great fear. What do we say about how we live in these
kinds of circumstances?" He said the message will take the ELCA's
social statement "For Peace in God's World" and present "some particular
things that we need to say at this juncture of history."

STATEMENT ON THE DEATH PENALTY
     Board members adopted a resolution commending the former governor
of Illinois, George H. Ryan, for commuting the sentences of everyone on
the state's "death row" to life in prison without the possibility of
parole in January, before Ryan left office. The resolution called the
action "consistent with the social policy of the ELCA as expressed in
the 1991 Social Statement on the Death Penalty."
     "We commended not only former Governor Ryan but we commended the
bishops of this state who spoke strongly, based on our social statement
on the death penalty," said Bitner. Those bishops are the Rev. Warren
D. Freiheit, ELCA Central-Southern Illinois Synod; the Rev. Paul R.
Landahl, ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod; and the Rev. Gary M.
Wollersheim, ELCA Northern Illinois Synod.

STUDIES ON SEXUALITY
     The DCS board received a progress report from the Rev. James M.
Childs Jr., director, ELCA studies on sexuality. The Division for
Ministry and DCS are working together to address questions of blessing
same-gender relationships and allowing people in such relationships to
serve as ordained and lay ministers of the ELCA.
     The church has no policy on blessing relationships. It expects
its ministers to abstain from sexual relationships outside of marriage.
     The divisions plan to have recommendations on these questions for
the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in 2005. DCS also plans to develop a
social statement on sexuality that the ELCA Churchwide Assembly may
consider in 2007.

DCS BOARD ELECTIONS
     The board elected its officers for the next two years. The Rev.
James B. Martin-Schramm, Decorah, Iowa, was elected chair. Crystal
Oxner, Valparaiso, Ind., vice chair; and Kristin Anderson Ostrom,
Fremont, Neb., secretary. The board plans to elect other members of its
executive committee in October.
     Martin-Schramm, as a professor of religion at Luther College,
Decorah, deals in an academic setting with many of same issues the
division confronts, said Bitner. "He also has the heart of a pastor,
and he will give strong leadership to the board, caring for them and
seeing that everybody has an opportunity to express their views and to
deliberate together," Bitner added.
     Each churchwide assembly elects one-third of the board's 21
members to six-year terms. The DCS board honored seven of its members,
including Bitner, for whom this was their last meeting.
     Special prayers during the meeting's closing worship service
celebrated the life of Roger C. Gutmann, a board member who died Nov. 16
in Des Moines, Iowa.
-- -- --
     The Division for Church in Society maintains information about
ELCA social policies and studies at http://www.elca.org/dcs/studies.html
on the Web.
     A related ELCA News release on the appointment of a Task Force on
Education is at
http://listserv.elca.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0303&L=elcanews&D=1&H=1&O=D&F=&S=&P=68
on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html