ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 17, 2003

ELCA Task Force Sets Timeline for Work, Addresses Child Abuse
03-203-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Studies on Sexuality Task Force of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) identified a
preliminary work plan to lay the groundwork for constructing a
report with recommendations on the church and homosexuality when
it met here Nov. 7-8.  The task force also set up a plan for the
development of a comprehensive social statement on human
sexuality and addressed childhood sexual abuse.
     The 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly took actions to call the
ELCA into a process of two studies on sexuality.  It called for a
final report with recommendations related to homosexuality for
presentation to the 2005 Churchwide Assembly and asked the ELCA
Division for Church in Society to prepare a social statement on
human sexuality for presentation to the 2007 assembly.  The
churchwide assembly is the chief legislative authority of the
ELCA; assemblies are held every other year.
     Current ELCA policy expects ministers to refrain from all
sexual relations outside marriage.  The church has no official
policy on blessing same-gender relationships.  The ELCA
Conference of Bishops, an advisory body of the church, stated it
does not approve of such ceremonies.
     The task force is "centered on preparation for 2005 and
2007," said the Rev. James M. Childs Jr., director for the ELCA
studies on sexuality.
     The task force will work in two concurrent "tracks."
     One track will focus on the report with recommendations for
the 2005 Churchwide Assembly.  That work will include collecting
responses from "Journey Together Faithfully, Part Two:  The
Church and Homosexuality," a study guide designed to ask members
of the ELCA to consider how the church will respond to specific
questions about blessing same-gender relationships and accepting
lay and ordained ministers in such relationships.  The task force
identified a "subgroup" to consolidate responses from the study
guide.
     "Members of the task force will go through the study guide
in their roles as members of the ELCA and will send their
feedback to the subgroup by Jan. 3," Childs said.
     The subgroup will prepare a final report on initial
responses from the study guide for the next task force meeting
March 19-21, 2004.  It will "provide guidance for an initial
discussion on what kinds of rationale would stand behind a
variety of possible resolutions that could be offered to the 2005
Churchwide Assembly.  We will not be drafting resolutions until
the study has reached its conclusion in November 2004," Childs
said.
     A separate track will focus on the development of the social
statement due in 2007, Childs said.  Members of the task force
will "investigate" five primary topics outlined in Journey
Together Faithfully, Part One.
     "Individuals from the task force will prepare brief papers
on each of the five areas and suggest what needs to be included
in the social statement and what needs to be developed further.
Their comments will also pay attention to responses received from
Journey Together Faithfully, Part One," Childs said.
     The writers "will also look at the biblical materials that
relate to the subject area, our confessional heritage, statements
of predecessor Lutheran church bodies and any outside resources
that may seem relevant.  They will also work to identify areas
that need further development and new ministry initiatives in the
life of the church.  Once they have done that work in preparation
for the March meeting, the work will be turned over to a
subgroup, yet to be formed, which will begin to put together a
vision of what the social statement will look like," said Childs.
     "As we focus both on the social statement and on our
preparation for 2005 regarding a report and recommendations on
homosexuality in the church, we want to continue to pay careful
attention to what we believe is the key ethical principle that
should drive our thinking about human sexuality and the Christian
witness," he said.
     According to the Rev. Margaret Payne, chair of the task
force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality and bishop of the ELCA New
England Synod, Worcester, Mass., the task force's meeting served
as "a turning point, where we now begin to move into these two
tracks."
     "Our task now is to begin thinking about how we will address
the task of writing the resolutions while we are receiving
responses from people all over the church.  At the same time, we
begin preliminary work on developing a social statement.  I think
the hope that all of us share is that we will be able to craft a
strong and relevant word to society about what the church
believes about the importance of human sexuality," said Payne.
     The task force and ELCA Conference of Bishops will meet Oct.
1-3, 2004.  Childs said the task force is "accountable to provide
the Conference of Bishops the opportunity to review what we're
producing."  In addition to the 65 synod bishops of the church,
the task force will submit "for approval anything that it
produces for churchwide assemblies to the boards of the Division
for Church in Society, Division for Ministry and the ELCA Church
Council," he said.
     Congregations engaged in Journey Together Faithfully, Part
Two, are asked to submit their responses to Child's office by
Nov. 1, 2004.  That fall, the task force will develop a final
draft of the report with recommendations and distribute it to
congregations and teaching theologians of the ELCA, the
Conference of Bishops, boards of the ELCA Division for Ministry
and the Division for Church in Society, and the ELCA Church
Council by January 2005.  The Church Council -- the board of
directors of the ELCA -- will take action on the report with
recommendations in preparation for consideration by the 2005
Churchwide Assembly.
     The crafting of the social statement on human sexuality will
continue in 2005 with a preliminary draft of the statement ready
in the fall of that year.  The preliminary draft of the social
statement will be ready for circulation in the church in 2006.

TASK FORCE ADDRESSES CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE
     The church needs to be engaged in truth-telling, according
to the Rev. John M. Riggle, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hull, Iowa.
"Not telling the truth is a far more painful and difficult road
to travel," he said.  "Child abuse can only flourish where there
is secrecy and silence, where children are terrorized into a
bizarre world of repressed fantasy-like memories.  Like an
aggressive cancer growing hidden from view, deep within the body,
pedophilia can only be dealt with if it is first exposed."
     Addressing members of task force, Riggle shared suggestions
on how the ELCA can actively address child abuse in society.
     He proposed that the task force "form a smaller, offshoot
group to focus exclusively on the epidemic of child molestation
in our society and world."  Riggle said the task force's
challenges would be to find ways to help ELCA members talk openly
and honestly about types of incidents of abuse in safe and
healthy ways; to foster honest confession and contrition in our
churches about sexual abuse and our corporate complicity with it;
to develop strategies for talking; and to help educate and
increase awareness about what to do both legally and morally.
     Riggle also proposed that the task force work toward
establishing a "center for healing and reflection in sexuality
and theology" to be based at one of the 28 colleges and
universities of the ELCA, or one of the eight seminaries of the
church.
     Mike Lew, a psychotherapist and group therapy leader,
Boston, told the task force that childhood sexual abuse "is about
violence.  Sexual abuse is done to a person, done to a child.  We
are not dealing with an issue of sexual attraction or sexual
orientation.  The issue is abuse and violence."
     Lew said there is "a lot of confusion about connections
between child sexual abuse and homosexuality."
     When a man sexually abuses a boy, it is often incorrectly
seen as a homosexual act.  This is a mistake, Lew said.  "We are
not talking about sex but about sexual child abuse.  An adult
male who abuses a girl is not engaging in heterosexual behavior.
He is sexually abusing a girl.  The same is true when the victim
is a little boy."
     In response to Riggle and Lew's presentations, Childs said
in an interview, "We had a profound experience of knowing better
than we had before how insidious child sexual abuse is and how
damaging it is to those who have been victims of it."
     "There is a need to address issues of sexuality" and the
"extraordinary power that sexuality exerts in our lives.  Here is
a place where we can take bold steps to initiate ministry to
people in the church."
-- -- --
Information on the ELCA Study on Sexuality is located at
http://www.elca.org/faithfuljourney on the Internet.

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