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HEADLINES FOR ELCA NEWS RELEASE ISSUE #14, May 18, 1995

-- FULL COMMUNION IS WORKSHOP TOPIC
-- "LUTHERAN SERVICES IN AMERICA" IMAGINED
-- STUDY OF ECONOMIC LIFE TAKES SHAPE

May 18, 1995

FULL COMMUNION IS WORKSHOP TOPIC
95-14-043-FI

        ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (ELCA) -- "As divided churches we are no
longer able to work with credibility in this world," Dr. Gunther Gassmann
told more than 100 ecumenical representatives of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church during the 1995
National Workshop on Christian Unity (NWCU) here May 1-4.
        Gassmann is a visiting lecturer at the Lutheran Theological
Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., and past director of the Faith and Order
Commission of the World Council of Churches, Geneva.  He addressed a
luncheon for the Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives Network and the
Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers.
        Gassmann gave a brief history of Lutheran-Anglican dialogue
from 1520, when the writings of Dr. Martin Luther were received at
Cambridge, to today's study of a proposal that the ELCA and Episcopal
Church enter into "full communion."
        "Full communion" means the churches would share the
sacraments among their members and "make provision for the orderly
exchange of ordained ministers."  The churches would work together
closely, particularly in mission, without actually merging.
        Gassmann compared the U.S. proposal with the Porvoo
Agreement, which is currently in the process of acceptance among
Lutheran and Anglican churches in Northern Europe.  Both proposals
stress the mutual recognition of each other's ministry as more important
than their traditions.
        The Porvoo process is significant because "a majority of
Christians in Northern Europe will be involved," Gassmann said.  "These
are your competitors, so to speak ... What is true in one situation must be
true in another."
        "In the United States you live more side by side" with a greater
opportunity to experience full communion at the grass roots, he said.
The current study of full communion is a "rare jump forward" for the
ecumenical movement on the whole.
        "The goal of the ecumenical movement is the full, visible unity of
the church" for Christ's mission, said Dr. Darlis J. Swan, associate
director of the ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs.  That's also
been the goal of every dialogue in which the ELCA has been involved,
she said.
        The ELCA is in varying stages of dialogue with the African
Methodist Episcopal Church, Episcopal Church, Moravian Church,
Orthodox Church, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in
America, Roman Catholic Church and United Church of Christ.  It also
participates in talks on Lutheran-Jewish relations.
        The goal of unity is most evident, Swan said, in two current
proposals for full communion -- one with the Episcopal Church, the other
with three churches of the Reformed tradition:  Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ.  In
August 1997 the ELCA Churchwide Assembly will vote on these
ecumenical proposals.
        "Entering into full communion would be challenging but would also
strengthen our common witness," said Swan.  The traditions would
complement one another and keep each tradition aware of its own
unique gifts.
        She admitted that there are still doctrinal difference between the
churches, but she concluded that those differences are no reason to
separate the churches in carrying out their common mission.
        Some Lutherans are looking at the proposals for full communion
with a "balance sheet," trying to determine which church is giving up
more, Swan said.
        "The proposal for full communion is not about giving up things.  It
is about receiving gifts from one another," she responded.
        The ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs is conducting a
churchwide study of the proposals through coordinating committees with
the corresponding churches.  The ELCA Department for Research and
Evaluation is conducting a formal study of each proposal with about 200
ELCA congregations.
        The weekend prior to the National Workshop on Christian Unity,
representatives of the Lutheran and Reformed churches met in Santa Fe,
N.M., for a retreat to discuss issues related to full communion and the
study of their ecumenical proposal.
        Among the 375 registrants at the NWCU there were 106 members
of the Roman Catholic Church, 86 of the Episcopal Church, 53 of the
United Methodist Church, 49 of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 47 of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 22 of the United Church of
Christ and 11 of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
        The National Association of Ecumenical Officers sponsored the
32nd NWCU, with the New Mexico Conference of Churches as host.
The 1996 workshop will be held in Richmond, Va.

##########

May 18, 1995

"LUTHERAN SERVICES IN AMERICA" IMAGINED
95-14-044-FI

        SAN FRANCISCO (ELCA) -- More than 250 independent Lutheran
social service agencies across the United States and Caribbean could
arrange themselves into the nation's largest non-profit organization,
"Lutheran Services in America."  The Blue Ribbon Committee of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is drafting a recommendation
that the church form an alliance with all Lutheran human-care ministries.
        "It's premature to say what it's going to look like," said Suzanne
Gibson Wise of Sarasota, Fla., a member of the Blue Ribbon Committee's
steering group.  "The two organizations that will be invited to come
together to form that alliance will really determine its complexion."  Wise
is former director of the Christian Community Service Agency, Miami.
        In 1994 the 250 Lutheran social ministry agencies and 500
subsidiary organizations had a combined budget of $2.3 billion and
maintained $3.2 billion in assets, making it the largest U.S. charity.  Some
of those agencies are also recognized by the Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod, which may be invited to work through the alliance as it sees fit.
        The ELCA's Division for Church in Society (DCS) appointed the
Blue Ribbon Committee in 1993 "to develop a new shared vision for the
corporate social ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
and the goals and strategies to achieve this vision."  The committee met
here April 29-May 1 to compile reports from several subcommittees.
        "We began to see those separate pieces and how they were
going to interlock into an entire concept," said Wise.  "The concept will
give us the ability to benefit from a network of faith-based organizations
with common values and a variety of services and to do that in an
alliance that does not make each give up its own identity."
        Wise said she's heard some hesitancy from social ministry
organizations about creating a "centralized" system.  She said an alliance
will let the agencies remain independent while "benefiting from the
exchange of information that you only get when you talk with other
organizations."
        The committee met after the founding convention of the
Association of Lutheran Social Ministry Organizations (ALSMO) here
April 27-29.  The National Association of Lutheran Ministries with the
Aging and the Coalition of Executives formed ALSMO "to bring together
Lutheran social ministry organizations into a unified system capable of
enhancing Lutheran social ministry within our church, our society and
our social ministry organizations."
        ALSMO has the potential of representing all social ministry
organizations affiliated with a Lutheran church body when the merger
takes effect July 1. Those organizations provide services such as
counseling, child care and adoption support, refugee resettlement,
disaster response, fixed-income housing, long-term health care, nursing
homes, hospices, and AIDS ministries.
        A "next step" in the Blue Ribbon Committee's work is to review a
working draft of its report and to conduct focus groups this spring
across the church.  "We need to hear from our stakeholders -- our
partners in ministry -- with what is rapidly becoming a final report of the
committee," said the Rev. Charles S. Miller, DCS executive director.
        The stakeholders, he said, include all Lutheran social ministry
organizations and the ELCA's Conference of Bishops, 65 synods, 11,000
congregations, Church Council and DCS board.
        Miller gave a report to the ALSMO convention on the committee's
progress and answered several questions.  Many of those present
participated in earlier focus groups and were pleased with "the boldness
and aggressiveness of the vision," he said later.
        The committee identified critical issues for the future of social
ministry, such as solid continuous strategic planning, quality assurance
and financial networking, said Miller.  The most effective and efficient
way to do those things is with "a system that will bind together the
human and financial resources" of the stakeholders.
        The Blue Ribbon Committee plans to have a final report and
recommendations for the DCS board in September.

##########

May 18, 1995

STUDY OF ECONOMIC LIFE TAKES SHAPE
95-14-045-FI

        CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Jesus put himself in situations where he
was dealing with the realities of people's economic life.  Since he did
that, we need to do that too," said the Rev. Janet M. Corpus, St. Mark
Lutheran Church, Fairfield, Calif.  Corpus co-chairs the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America's Task Force on Economic Life, which met
here May 5-7 to work on a churchwide study.
        "We are called to live out our faith in all the dimensions of our
lives," said Corpus.  "The daily lives of the people in our congregations ...
whether they are on Social Security, whether they work for a
manufacturing company, whether they are in the military, whether they
are raising children at home, whether they are on welfare, whether they
are unemployed ... are economic lives."
        The 16 members of the task force analyzed a compiled report
from "listening posts" conducted across the United States in the fall of
1994.  They suggested several ways of working what they'd learned
into the study materials, using the stories they had heard to present facts
of economic life.
        Corpus hopes the study materials will help the ELCA's 5.2 million
members carry on discussions similar to one the task force has had
since it was appointed in 1994 by the ELCA's Division for Church in
Society.  "We've gotten to a point where we know each other well
enough, and we've talked enough about the issues, that we are really
able to engage our disagreements as well as our agreements," she said.
        Bible study played a key role for the task force.  "One session
focused on biblical themes and theological themes.  That laid the basis
for us to surface the things that are going to be hard issues to struggle
with in the development of this study," said Corpus.
        Those issues organized themselves into three categories:  the
private sector, government and not-for-profits, said Dr. David Krueger,
professor of business and economic ethics, Baldwin-Wallace College,
Berea, Ohio.  "We will have some discussion of faith, theology and ethics
... some general discussion of economic life today ... also a consideration
of the church and implications for members of the church."
        The study materials will be "a mechanism for members of
congregations to discern together how their faith sheds light on various
aspects of economic life, so we can deliberate together on what this all
means," said Krueger, task force co-chair.
        The task force identified a writing team to draft the study
materials and to make the first attempts at a possible social statement on
economic life for the ELCA, he added.
        Corpus and Krueger will serve on the writing team with two other
task force members:  Dr. Gregory A. Krohn, economics professor,
Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pa.; and the Rev. Robert J. Marshall,
adjunct professor of Old Testament, Lutheran School of Theology at
Chicago.
        The writing team will report to the full task force when it meets
Oct. 6-8.  "Our January 1996 meeting is when we would be making some
final decisions about the study document as well as dealing with the first
draft of the social statement," said the Rev. Karen L. Bloomquist, ELCA
director for studies.
        The study materials and first draft of the statement will be
presented to the board of the ELCA Division for Church in Society in
March 1996 for distribution to the church.  The task force will take
responses to these documents until the end of 1996 in preparation of a
social statement for consideration by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in
August 1997.

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