Title: ELCA Commission Advocates for Peace, Women, Employees
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 26, 2003

ELCA COMMISSION ADVOCATES FOR PEACE, WOMEN, EMPLOYEES
03-064-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The steering committee of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Commission for Women took its own
advice and studied the church's peace statement when it met here March
14-15.  It also challenged the ELCA to honor its commitments to women
and to its employees while the church makes budget and planning
decisions.
     When the committee met in October, days after the U.S. Congress
gave President Bush authority to take unilateral military action against
Iraq if diplomatic efforts failed, it passed a resolution encouraging
Lutherans to use resources the ELCA has developed to facilitate
conversations about war and peace.
     The March meeting, days before President Bush gave Saddam Hussein
and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq, included "peace circles" -- small
group discussions of the ELCA social statement "For Peace in God's
World."
     The statement says the church is to be a "disturbing, reconciling,
serving and deliberating" presence in society, said the Rev. Janet M.
Corpus, Philadelphia, chair of the commission's steering committee.
Committee discussions focused on ways the church can be that presence
with the various audiences in society, she said.
     The steering committee also studied the ELCA social statement on
economic life in reaction to several reports -- on the church's
strategic planning process, on possible budget cuts for the commission
and on a staff reduction in the church's women's organization, Women of
the ELCA.
     Linda Post Bushkofsky, executive director, Women of the ELCA,
serves as an advisor to the commission.  She reported to the steering
committee that the women's organization recently reconfigured, reducing
its Chicago staff.
     "We are grieved that those positions were cut," said Corpus.  The
staff reductions "make our concerns about advocacy on behalf of women
all the stronger in the ELCA," she said.
     Another advisor, the Rev. Charles S. Miller, ELCA executive for
administration and executive assistant to the presiding bishop, told the
steering committee that the church's "income has fallen short of
expectations."  As a result, all units of the church, including the
Commission for Women, have been asked to "underspend their budgets."
     That financial situation coincides with a planning process that
the Rev. Mark S. Hanson initiated shortly after he became presiding
bishop of the ELCA in November 2001.  The process is to develop
strategic directions for the churchwide organization by the end of 2003.
     "We're concerned that this planning process, which is part of a
process of reorganization and fiscal restructuring, be attentive to the
needs of those who work in the ELCA," said Corpus.  Any process that
involves the possibility of cutting budgets and positions should be "a
very clear, transparent process that is communicated well to everybody,"
she said.
     The steering committee passed one resolution urging the church's
leadership "to ensure full inclusion of all churchwide employees in the
process of examining ways to reduce churchwide expenditures, so that
adequate opportunity is given for the voices of all employees to be
heard in an environment of participatory decision-making."
     The ELCA's economic life statement, "Sufficient, Sustainable
Livelihood for All," commits the church "to 'cultivate workplaces of
participatory decision-making' and to 'counsel and support those who are
undergoing job transitions' and acknowledges that 'employers have a
responsibility to treat employees with dignity and respect' and that
'our God-given dignity in community means that we are to participate
actively in decisions that impact in our lives, rather than only
passively accept decisions others make for us,'" said the resolution.
     Another resolution called on ELCA's leadership to reaffirm the
commission's goals and to "make them a high priority in the church's
work."
     The steering committee asked that the work of the Rev. E. Larraine
Frampton in the ELCA Division for Ministry continue.   Until recently
Frampton coordinated division and commission programs to prevent clergy
sexual misconduct, and that position remains vacant.
     In other business, the Commission for Women steering committee
elected Agnes S. McClain to become its chair in August.  McClain, an
ELCA associate in ministry, is an assistant to the bishop of the ELCA
Southwest California Synod, Glendale, Calif.  The committee will elect
other officers when it meets here Oct. 17-19.
-- -- --
     The Commission for Women's home page is at http://www.elca.org/cw
on the ELCA Web site.

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