ELCA NEWS SERVICE November 15, 2004 ELCA Council Hears Presiding Bishop Ask 'What Does It Mean?' 04-211-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The death of Yasser Arafat, the recent U.S. presidential campaign and election, and multicultural challenges facing the church prompted the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to ask, "what does all this mean?" in his report Nov. 11 to the ELCA Church Council. The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The council met here Nov. 11-15. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is Aug. 8-14, 2005, in Orlando, Fla. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, speaking on the day of Arafat's funeral in Cairo, Egypt, and burial in Ramallah, West Bank, said he spoke earlier in the week to the Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (and Palestine). Younan was to be at Arafat's funeral in Cairo and hoped to get into Ramallah for the burial, Hanson said. Hanson said Younan asked him to remind the ELCA that the Palestinian people are more mature than is reported in the media and some people believe. Younan also asked Hanson to challenge President George W. Bush "to be a peace broker and to work for a two-state solution" in the Middle East, Hanson said. On the U.S. presidential election, Hanson questioned observations of election analysts that Bush was elected on the basis of "personal moral values and fear of terrorism." "Fear hardens lives, and fears close borders," Hanson said. "Faith opens our eyes. Fear causes us to flee the world; faith gives us the courage to go out into the world. Faith causes us to see the world through the eyes of the cross." Hanson returned to themes he pressed during the campaign. He asked what it meant that a president was elected who supposedly speaks to moral values, yet neither Bush nor Sen. John F. Kerry could address "moral issues" such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, lack of clean water in the world, genocide in Sudan and "horrific acts" in Fallujah. "What does it mean for those of us who care about those things and are dismissed as not caring about moral values?" Hanson asked. He also asked what it means when a president "claims a mandate" by winning an election 52 percent to 48 percent. On the church, Hanson noted that about 97 percent of the ELCA membership is White, far short of the multicultural church envisioned when the ELCA came into being in 1988. This summer, he said he attended a multicultural gathering in Orlando, Fla., organized by the ELCA Commission for Multicultural Ministries, and other gatherings. At those meetings, Hanson said he gained a clearer understanding of the questions being asked by Lutheran people of color. The 2005 Churchwide Assembly will consider adoption of ministry strategies for African Descent, and Arab and Middle Eastern communities. "Let [these] shape how we are as a church in an increasingly pluralistic society," Hanson said. Religious groups that focus on what he termed "fundamentalism" and "Pentecostalism," are getting more attention, Hanson said, adding he was "not willing to say that in that religious landscape we have nothing to say as Lutheran Christians." The ELCA can "become an evangelizing church in a Lutheran 'key,'" he said. Hanson, who is also president of the Lutheran World Federation, Geneva, Switzerland, said through the ELCA and LWF he was "witnessing a reclaiming of Lutheran identity." "I really do believe that our members want to be part of a church that matters and makes a difference in the world," the presiding bishop said. Some examples he cited of how the church can make a difference were in worship and evangelism. "We are always in the process of becoming such a church," Hanson concluded. "I share my gratitude with you of being privileged to lead such a church." For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news