ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 29, 2006  

Lisandro Orlov, Bono Highlight ELCA Global Mission Event Session
06-113-KH*


     AMHERST, Mass. (ELCA) -- The church must be the place where
all people can find their home including those who are often
outcast, said the Rev. Lisandro Orlov, United Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Argentina and Latin American regional
coordinator, Lutheran World Federation (LWF) HIV/AIDS campaign.
Orlov was a speaker to some 1,300 participants at the 2006 Global
Mission Event (GME) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) during a July 29 plenary session.
     Co-sponsored by the Episcopal Church and endorsed by the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the event brings together
participants of all ages from the United States and around the
world July 27-30 here at the University of Massachusetts.  The
GME features plenary and workshop sessions, keynote presenters,
global music and worship under the theme "Sent! by God's grace
for the sake of the world."
     "Are we really open to all who are different than us?" Orlov
asked his audience.  He challenged participants to be an
alternative voice in the world. "We are the church of the amazing
grace of God," he said. "Our mission is to say to all people,
'You are citizens of the kingdom of God.'"
     A video message from Bono, of the musical group U2,
encouraged participants to commit to the work of the ONE campaign
against poverty and hunger.  "God is in the slums; God is in the
cries heard under the rubble of war," Bono said in the video.
"One of things I'm most proud of in my life now is to see the
church work for justice as well as charity."
     The ONE Campaign is an effort supported by the ELCA, the
Episcopal Church and other organizations to rally Americans to
the cause of ending poverty and achieving the eight Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs): eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and
empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health;
combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental
sustainability; and create a global partnership for development.
     The session included a panel discussion addressing the role
of the church in the fulfillment of the MDGs and issues of
poverty and hunger around the world, featuring: Alex Baumgartner,
the Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations, New York;
Emily Freeburg, Lutheran Office for World Community, New York;
Kim Stietz, director for international policy, ELCA Washington
Office, Washington, D.C.; and Mary F. Brennan, world mission
interpretation and networks officer, the Episcopal Church, who
moderated.
     "I really believe that we're the first generation that can
end extreme poverty," Freeburg told participants, calling
especially on the young people in the audience to "take this
challenge to heart and live it."
     "Our church is deeply committed to the MDGs," Baumgartner
said, adding that listening to Orlov and the Scripture reading
"really put me in mind of the fact that the church is an
institution that can't have walls whatsoever.  It can't have
boundaries."
     Stietz echoed the other panelists' support of the MDGs.  "I
think historically our churches as institutions have been very
engaged and doing very well with charity and giving to our
brothers and sisters throughout the world," she said, explaining
that advocacy is different than traditional charity and giving.
"It's using your voice in total engagement to make lasting, just
change."  Stietz challenged participants to consider advocacy as
part of "our DNA as Lutherans, as well as Episcopalians."
     The Rev. Randall R. Lee, executive, ELCA Ecumenical and
Inter-Religious Relations, opened the session, highlighting the
full communion relationship between the ELCA and Episcopal
Church.  "One of the fruits of our full communion relationship
with the Episcopal Church is this gathering itself, and the work
that we do together to further the mission of God in the world,"
he said.
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     Information about the 2006 ELCA Global Mission Event is at
http://www.ELCA.org/gme on the ELCA Web site.

     Information about the Episcopal Church is at
http://www.episcopalchurch.org on the Web.

*Katherine R. Hinck is a senior journalism and religion major at
Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D.  This summer she is an
intern with the ELCA News Service.

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