ELCA Department for Communication, News & Information
8765 West Higgins Rd, Chicago, IL 60631 800/638-3522 ext. 2963
HEADLINES FOR ELCA NEWS RELEASE ISSUE #22, October 12, 1995
-- "MESSAGE" ON HUMAN SEXUALITY
-- SIMBA CIRCLE OFFERS AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN
SELF-ESTEEM AND NONVIOLENCE
-- BISHOP CHILSTROM WELCOMES PEACE SIGNING
October 12, 1995
"MESSAGE" ON HUMAN SEXUALITY
95-22-067-FI
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America will produce a "message" on human sexuality before it
considers another possible "social statement" on the subject.
The ELCA Division for Church in Society (DCS) will "draft a
`message' for consideration by the Church Council in fall 1996 on those
areas for which there appears to be consensus within this church,"
according to the council's executive committee.
The council may adopt the message or it may distribute the
text for comment in the church prior to transmitting it to the 1997
Churchwide Assembly, the executive committee action said. The DCS
board received the committee's action at its Sept. 28-30 meeting here.
Any prospect of developing a social statement on human sexuality will
be reviewed following that assembly, the executive committee said.
The assembly could consider the message if the council
feels it is setting new policy. It would also "help keep the momentum
going in terms of our discussion of the subject," said the Rev. Charles S.
Miller, DCS executive director.
The division develops social statements for action by the
Church Council and the biennial Churchwide Assembly, and it develops
messages on social issues for action by the 37-member church Council.
Social statements usually define church policy, while messages are
"persuasive, non-policy communications on timely, urgent social issues."
"We may have to push the margin a bit," Miller said. A
message on human sexuality may go beyond current definitions "only
because some of the material ... is not treated in predecessor church
social statements, and the understanding of a message is that it does not
ordinarily break new ground in terms of policy for the church."
The message will probably not create new policy, said
Miller. "There are just some places we are going to have to admit this is
taking us into territory where the predecessor churches have not been,"
he said.
As an example, Miller said earlier policy may not have
addressed the exploitation of women in advertising. There was some
consensus on that subject in responses to statement drafts and the
1995 Churchwide Assembly passed a resolution on violence against
women that addressed the subject, so the message may speak directly
to the exploitation of women in advertising, he said.
The ELCA Church Council will meet here Nov. 17-20 and
may be asked to confirm the action of its executive committee. The
action is an interpretation of actions the 1,000 voting-member
Churchwide Assembly took Aug. 16-22 in Minneapolis.
The ELCA has been studying the topic of human sexuality
since 1989 with the hopes of developing a social statement on the
subject. Two drafts of a possible statement were met with great interest
and largely negative response, but portions of the drafts were praised
for clearly stating the church#s opposition to abuses of human sexuality.
Miller said the message may "on the one hand deal with
practices that violate our sexuality and then on the other hand deal with
our witness in public policy regarding matters of sexuality. Those two
areas would be the ones most naturally lifted up in the message,
because we found in the responses to the first and the second draft
relatively little disagreement with that material," he said.
"We will have a small consulting group that will naturally
be made up of diverse voices who are able to help us think through what
are the places where seems to be sustained agreement," said Miller. The
message will also examine the biblical debate surrounding human
sexuality, "because it's been the very nature of the theological
framework that's been in dispute in the church's discussion so far," he
said.
The Church Council's executive committee asked the
division to begin work on "a multi-authored volume on how Lutherans do
ethics, with a companion document to be prepared for congregational
use."
DCS will work with Lutheran ethicists, to develop the
multi-authored piece probably dealing with more topics than human
sexuality. The ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries will be asked
to work with DCS on the companion document, said Miller.
The executive committee also directed DCS staff to
undertake "appropriate efforts related to issues of hospitality and justice"
with gay and lesbian Lutherans.
The possibility of the ELCA ever producing a social
statement on human sexuality is unclear. "We'll have to wait until after
the 1997 Churchwide Assembly to see whether, in light of what we've
produced, the church through the assembly still believes we should
continue work on a social statement," said Miller. A special committee
looking at the purpose of social statements will have its report ready by
then, he added.
In other action, the board officially brought "closure to the
work of the original task force on human sexuality" assembled in 1989.
A letter of appreciation will include recognition of the personal attacks
task force members suffered in the course of their work on this
controversial topic.
###########
October 12, 1995
SIMBA CIRCLE OFFERS BLACK MEN
SELF-ESTEEM AND NONVIOLENCE
95-22-068-BM
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ELCA) -- Leon Bynum learned the
hard way just how easy it is for young black men to slip through this
society's cracks.
"I have a child who I lost to gang violence," says Bynum,
church council president at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church,
Greensboro, N.C.
"He was a straight-A student, a gifted athlete. But when
he was 19 he shot a man in sort of bad deal -- paralyzed the man. Now
he's serving 23 years at Morganton (prison). I didn't see the signs
coming. Had I been in "Simba," I think I would have seen the signs and
known what to do about it."
Simba, as Bynum belatedly learned, is a Christian-based
"manhood training program" developed by leaders of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America. Through an African-inspired Rites of
Passage program, it seeks to infuse young Black men with self-respect
and a sense of responsibility to their family, community and nation.
This project is designed for African American males, ages
14 to 18, who live in inner city communities, said Gaylord Thomas, ELCA
director of community development.
Bynum, 44, attended a Simba Circle Camp in Wisconsin
earlier this year that drew gang members from Chicago, Atlanta, New
York and other large cities.
"The transformation was amazing," Bynum says of the
two-week camp. "We saw those kids -- some hard-core cases -- leave
there as kids."
And now Bynum and Emanuella Hudson, 46, the director
of Christian education at Prince of Peace, are trying to bring the Simba
message to North Carolina.
They'll board a bus in Greensboro and travel to the
Lutheran church's Camp Agape in Fuquay-Varina. They'll spend the next
three days helping volunteers from across the Southeast learn how to
be mentors in the Simba project.
"We use the theme that it takes a whole village to raise a
child," said Hudson, who also attended the camp in Wisconsin.
"We African Americans have lost a lot of this sense of community, this
sense of heritage. When you look at putting the family back together,
you have to look to the elders. We need to develop that sense of the
village, the community."
A wide spectrum of people ranging in age from 21 to 71,
have signed up for the trip to Camp Agape. They include teachers,
counselors, police officers, court officials, ministers and social workers.
Sessions will be run by Dr. Lewis Dodley, a psychologist.
They'll include ways of teaching young men how to deal with anger,
prevent violence, and find appropriate role models.
Bynum adapted some of his experiences at the Wisconsin
camp earlier this year to his Sunday school classes in Greensboro. The
results , he says, were astonishing.
"I wanted something meaty for my kids," Bynum said. "It's okay to
play church, but I needed to get at the problems they had -- terrible
problems with teachers, families, anger, violence. They learned to build
one another up instead of tearing each other down. The biggest thing
we worked on was how to vent anger," he said.
In October Bynum and Hudson will run three days of
Simba sessions in Greensboro with troubled boys and girls from
Hampton Homes and the Warrenville neighborhood. They hope to run an
extended camp next summer.
For Bynum and Hudson, one of the rewards of
participating in the Simba project is a clearer understanding of what it
means to be an African American.
"Now," Bynum said, "I truly understand I come from a rich
country. My ancestors were unique, brilliant and far ahead of the game."
Hudson added: "It means understanding that my heritage
gives me a number of positive things to carry on. One is the instinct for
survival. I know those survival genes are in me and will be in my
children if we nurture them. If I understand who I am, I'm free to be me --
regardless of how the world might judge me."
Then Bynum offered a prediction: "Simba is going to be as
popular Head Start. You watch."
[Story reprinted with permission from Bill Morris - Staff Writer -
Greensboro News & Record]
###########
October 12, 1995
BISHOP CHILSTROM WELCOMES PEACE SIGNING
95-22-069-LC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Herbert W. Chilstrom,
bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA),
commended the "patience and perseverance" of negotiators, including
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat,
who agreed to the Interim Agreement signed in Washington, D.C., Sept.
28. He called the signing "a welcome event."
Chilstrom said, "This occasion marks what we hope will
prove to be an historic step toward a state for the Palestinians and
security for the Israelis. However, we recognize that while another
ceremony is a sign of hope that the tragic struggle between Israelis and
Palestinians may one day end, it is also a somber reminder that the fruits
of peace -- economic development, self-determination, and freedom from
fear and violence -- are still out of reach."
The ELCA appeals to "the people and political leaders on
both sides to comply fully with the commitments of the Interim Agreement,
to work to strengthen understanding and tolerance, to be guided by
international norms of human rights and the rule of law, and to avoid
actions, such as the building of settlements, which will make the next
stage of negotiations all the more contentious," Chilstrom said.
Chilstrom praised the agreement's movement ahead on
"difficult issues relating to Palestinian elections, Israeli troop
redeployment, security, economic relations and the release of prisoners."
The bishop urged the United States to direct more of its
Middle East aid toward "relieving the humanitarian hardships of the
Palestinian people and reducing the threat that economic despair poses
to the peace process." He encouraged giving priority to "initiatives which
promote human development, institution building and community level
support for small business, small farmers and essential services
necessary to spur job creation."
The ELCA participates in Churches for Middle East Peace,
Washington, whose Sept. 28 statement said, #The shortcomings,
ambiguity and potential of this agreement will be subject to passionate
debate, as is the 1993 Declaration of Principles. In both agreements, the
principle of mutuality, the cornerstone of durable treaties, has been
undermined by Israeli limitations and controls over Palestinian authority
that reflect the inequality of power."
Churches for Middle East Peace said, "We also hear and
seek to encourage the hopeful voices of ordinary Israelis and
Palestinians and their diplomats that call for an end to their relationship as
occupier and occupied in order to become neighbors."
[To receive the complete text of Bishop Chilstrom#s statement, contact
Brenda Williams, ELCA News and Information, 321/380-2958.]
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