ELCA Department for Communication, News & Information
8765 West Higgins Rd, Chicago, IL  60631  800/638-3522 ext. 2963

ELCA NEWS RELEASE ISSUE #25, November 8, 1995

-- JUSTICE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
-- COMMUNICATION FOR HUMAN DIGNITY
-- DIACONAL MINISTRY TAKING SHAPE

November 8, 1995

JUSTICE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
95-25-077-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Incinerators, dump sites and other
environmental dangers are overwhelmingly located in lower income
and minority communities of the United States, said Kristin
Sundell.  She cited those findings of a 1987 study by the United
Church of Christ as the motivation for a conference Oct. 16-17
in Washington, D.C.
     "The entire conference focused on issues of racial and
economic justice as they pertain to environmental issues," said
Sundell, advocacy associate for environmental concerns at the
Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA) in Washington,
D.C.
     "Eco-Justice Action Training: Public Policy and People of
Faith" brought together about 70 people, including 15 members of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, for worship,
workshops, speeches, panel discussions and visits on Capitol
Hill.  The Environmental, Energy and Agricultural Working Group
of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
(NCC) sponsored the training.
     It was interesting, said Sundell, that the faith-based
conference met at the same time that the Million Man March
brought almost one million African-American men to Washington
"to address injustice over a much broader span of issues,
including matters of environmental injustice."
     "We met with Gwich#in Indians who are fighting to save
their land from oil drilling, which is a current proposal in
Congress," said Sundell.  "Caribou actually give birth on the
area that is being considered to be open to drilling."  Native
Americans have relatively little voice in Congress and are
placed at a distinct disadvantage when pitted against oil
companies, she added.
     The Gwich'in Indians live along the U.S.-Canadian border in
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge of Alaska.  Their story
carried over as a topic in workshops on biodiversity, climate,
toxins and water.
     Paula Johnson, an ELCA member working for the Forest
Service at the Manti-LaSal National Forest in Utah led part of
the workshop on toxins.  Before going to the Forest Service she
held Sundell's position at LOGA.
     Dr. Jean Sindab, NCC director for economic and
environmental justice, provided the opening address.  She works
with 32 major Protestant denominations around environmental and
economic justice issues.
     Jamison P. Wheeler, minister of music and liturgy for Holy
Trinity Lutheran Church, Berkeley, Ill., and a senior at
Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Ill., led the music in all three
worship services during the conference.
     The 1987 UCC study is also inspiring U.S. Representative
Cardiss Collins (D-Ill. 7th) to introduce The Environmental
Equal Rights Act.  "This piece of legislation would give
citizens in "environmentally disadvantaged communities' ... the
right to petition against any proposal to locate additional
hazardous or solid waste facilities in their neighborhoods,"
said Sundell.
     The Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs is asking
Lutherans across the United States to write their
Representatives in support of the Act.  LOGA is the federal
public policy advocacy office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America.
     The 15 Lutherans at the conference came from California,
Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Utah and
Washington, D.C.
                           ##########

November 8, 1995

COMMUNICATION FOR HUMAN DIGNITY
95-25-078-FI

     METEPEC, Puebla, Mexico (ELCA) -- About 350 writers,
broadcasters and academics came from 85 countries for the 1995
World Congress of the World Association for Christian
Communication, Oct. 7-11.  Field trips, keynote addresses,
regional presentations, group discussions and open sessions
revolved around the theme, "Communication for Human Dignity."
     "Concern for the poor and other justice issues do not
appear on the media agenda in proportion to the concern of
people of faith and the needs of society in general," said John
L. Peterson, director for public media ministry of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
     "The technologically rich in North America have an
increasingly large number of media choices for entertainment and
to some degree news and education from broadcast, cable and
satellite television as well as computer networks, magazines and
newspapers," Peterson said in his final report as president of
WACC#s North American Regional Association.
     He called media options an illusion.  Technology offers new
ways of packaging and delivering information, but the
information is still coming from a limited number of sources.
"This means more choices from fewer voices," he said.  "Public
discourse is diminished because of this phenomenon."
     "For churches and social organizations it is very difficult
to get messages on television or radio, unless of course they
are willing to pay for the air time," said Peterson.  "When it
comes to media access, the churches of North America are
marginalized."
     Peterson and five others represented the ELCA:  Robert
Elliott, ELCA associate director for internal communication;
Jonathan C. Frerichs, director for interpretation of Lutheran
World Relief; Frank F. Imhoff, ELCA associate director for news
and information; the Rev. Ernesto W. Weigandt, ELCA missionary,
Panama City, Panama; and Dr. Wayne Woodward, professor of
English and communication arts, Texas Lutheran College, Seguin,
Texas.
     All conference sessions were offered in three languages:
English, French and Spanish.  The corps of translators assisted
participants in twelve discussion groups which were operated
primarily in English.
     Participants and translators boarded buses and traveled to
communication sites in and around Cuernavaca and Mexico City:
schools teaching personal communication skills, newspaper and
magazine offices, a theatre, recording facilities, and radio,
television and cable stations.
     Everyone is "created in the image of God" and endowed with
the same human dignity "regardless of race, sex, age, religion,
belief, class, physical or mental ability," said the declaration
the Congress drafted through a series of group and plenary
discussions.
     "Communication makes relationship possible.  Through
communication humanity can intensify its struggle against
dehumanization" so that the world "may realize dignity and
grace," it said.
     The Congress was one way to "humanize" communication, said
Takashi Yuguchi, editor of the Asia Lutheran Press Service,
Tokyo.  "Talking as individuals I almost always find out new
things," he said, things he didn't learn in news reports from
other countries.
     The declaration included recommendations on 12 topics:
communication ethics, economics issues, human rights, media
education, communication and religion, Christian communication,
social identity, ecology and environment, indigenous
perspectives, popular culture, communication technology and
gender issues.
     The recommendations will form the framework of WACC
programs around the world for the six years until the next
Congress.  The first Congress was held in 1989 in the
Philippines.
     WACC, based in London, is composed of individual and
corporate members who give priority to Christian values in the
world's communication and development needs.  The global
organization offers guidance on communication policies,
interpretation of developments in communication worldwide and
assistance with Christian communication projects especially in
the South.
     The ELCA is one of more than 700 members of WACC in Africa,
Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, the Caribbean,
Middle East and the Pacific.

                           ##########

November 8, 1995

DIACONAL MINISTRY TAKING SHAPE
95-25-079-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America may consecrate its first diaconal minister in early
1996.  The board of the ELCA Division for Ministry met here Oct.
19-22 and tied up some of the "loose ends" for this new order of
lay ministry that was established in 1993.
     "It has to be one of the first forms of ministry that we've
allowed to take shape after we've approved it instead of before
we#ve approved it," said Nancy E. Gable, director for admission,
financial aid and diaconal ministry, Lutheran Theological
Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa.
     "We're allowing the Holy Spirit to work in a very active
way," she said, instead of "trying to figure out what to do with
these people."
     About 30 perspective diaconal ministers participated in the
"formation event" last summer at the Gettysburg seminary.  The
two weeks of training involved worship, theological
presentations, small group integration, biblical reflection,
spiritual development and practical applications.
     "Candidates helped inform and edit, in many cases," the
guidelines the Division for Ministry board approved, said Gable.
She was on the event's planning committee and hopes to be one of
the ELCA's first diaconal ministers.
     Diaconal ministers will work in either church or secular
organizations, "under call" from an ELCA congregation, synod or
churchwide ministry, helping the church to "serve in response to
God's love to meet human needs."  They will satisfy demanding
academic standards in theology and a secular specialization.
     The division board took a series of actions that will pave
the way for consecrating the first diaconal ministers:

*    adopted guidelines determining competency in an area of
     specialization;
*    approved guidelines determining satisfactory completion of
     approved work in Lutheran studies;
*    endorsed provisional guidelines for field experience;
*    authorized the Gettysburg seminary to continue offering
     formation events annually; and
*    approved a time line for the candidacy process.

     The ELCA Churchwide Assembly in August 1995 decided that
diaconal ministers should be "consecrated" into the new order.
The ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries is developing a
rite of consecration.
     At its meeting the Division for Ministry board elected Dr.
Nelvin L. Vos, professor of English, Muhlenberg College,
Allentown, Pa., as its chair.  Other officers elected to two-
year terms were the Rev. Susan E. Nagle, Montclair, N.J., vice
chair, and Dr. William F. Steirer Jr., Clemson, S.C., secretary.
Herb Dorr, Minneapolis, and the Rev. Donna M. Wright, Scribner,
Neb., were elected to fill out the board's executive committee.

                            -- 30 --