Lutheran (ELCA) Ping!
Posted on 07/09/2009 3:40:40 PM PDT by lightman
ELCA Churchwide Assembly to Consider 144 Memorials from Synods
09-149-JB
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Comprehensive immigration reform, Israel and Palestine, Lutheran Disaster Response, and fuller participation in church leadership are topics of memorials recommended for specific discussion at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
The recommendations were made by a 15-member memorials committee appointed by the ELCA Church Council, which met here last month. Memorials are requests from the church's 65 synods that ask for churchwide assembly action on significant policy issues. The committee considered 144 memorials for the 2009 assembly, recommending action on each in a 96-page report.
The biennial assembly, consisting of 1,045 voting members, is the church's highest legislative authority. It will meet Aug. 17-23 in Minneapolis.
The Rev. John C. Richter, Allentown, Pa., and Phyllis L. Wallace, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, are council members who co-chaired the memorials committee. In an interview with the ELCA News Service, Richter said the committee engaged in a wide-ranging conversation. He said he was pleased that the most important consideration for members was "how best to facilitate the work of the assembly" without dictating it.
Many synods sent memorials related to human sexuality. Because the subject is already on the agenda for discussion and action, the committee recommended that the assembly's actions serve as the response to these memorials, Richter said.
Two documents on sexuality issues will be considered at the 2009 assembly. One is a proposed social statement, "Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust." Social statements are theological and teaching documents that form the basis for policy in the ELCA. The other, a "Report and Recommendation on Ministry Policies," asks the assembly to consider a process to change ministry policies to make it possible for Lutherans who are in "publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gendered relationships" to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, deaconesses, diaconal ministers and ordained ministers. Both documents were mandated by previous churchwide assemblies.
According to the committee report, 37 synods sent memorials calling for the churchwide assembly to adopt the proposed social statement, and five called for its rejection. The report listed 34 synods that sent memorials favoring adoption of the ministry recommendation, and 12 called for rejection of the recommendation. Some synods suggested amendments to one or both documents.
In addition, the report noted that 27 synods asked for a two-thirds vote "related to some or all of the sexuality issues," while three synods asked for a majority vote. The council previously recommended a rule to the assembly that a majority vote be required to adopt ministry policies proposals. The ELCA Constitution requires a two-thirds vote to adopt social statements.
The committee recommended four categories of memorials for separate discussion and action. Richter said the committee's choices were based on what it believed voting members would want to discuss. At the same time, he said, the committee was also aware the assembly may want to discuss other topics. The four categories include:
+ Comprehensive immigration reform: Two synods asked the assembly to call on ELCA members to advocate for reform of U.S. immigration policies. The committee recommended that the assembly "urge comprehensive reform of immigration policies and processes" and call for suspension of immigration raids until reforms are in place. It also noted that a message on immigration is expected from the Church Council later this year.
+ Strategy for engagement in Israel and Palestine: Seven synods sent memorials related to the ELCA strategy, "Peace Not Walls: Stand for Justice in the Holy Land." The committee recommended reaffirming the ELCA's commitment to the strategy.
+ Fullness of leadership, Project Connect: Eight synods asked the church to confront racism and encourage more people of color to consider church service as a vocation. All cited "Project Connect," a project of three ELCA seminaries, as an example of such a program. The committee's recommended response is that people involved in Project Connect share their learnings with the church. It also asked the assembly to renew the ELCA's commitment to confront racism and review factors that limit people of color from "the fullness of leadership in this church."
+ Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR): Seven synods expressed "strong support for and concern about Lutheran Disaster Response" in similar memorials. LDR is a collaborative ministry of the ELCA and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The committee's recommended response noted LDR is involved in a strategic planning process and that the process will address "the future nature and focus of LDR." It also asks for a progress report at to the April 2010 meeting of the Church Council.
Some of the other memorials sent to the churchwide assembly addressed topics such as parish nurses, inner-city congregations, environmental stewardship, and support for seminaries and churchwide ministries. --- The Memorials Committee report is http://www.ELCA.org/assembly/memorials on the ELCA Web site.
Information about the 2009 Churchwide Assembly is at http://www.ELCA.org/assembly on the ELCA Web site.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
The Dirty Dozen are:
Minneapolis Area
St. Paul Area
New England
Sierra Pacific
NW Washington
Metro New York
Metro DC
Southeastern (GA-AL-MS)
Central States (MO/KS)
NE Pennsylvania
Metro Chicago
SE Iowa
A graphic representation of the Synods' actions regarding the sexuality memorials can be found at http://i44.tinypic.com/rmmv13.jpg
consider a process to change ministry policies to make it possible for Lutherans who are in “publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gendered relationships” to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, deaconesses, diaconal ministers and ordained ministers.
You lost me right there.
You are not a Christian religion if you allow sinners that are not repentent to become pastors.
Second,exactly how do they intend to veriy the condition listed?
.
Helpful graphic!
Two realizations have been heavy on my heart these last few weeks.
First, I pulled from the shelves old church directories from my childhood.
The ‘68 volume recounts the history: “On August 12, 1843, a few [German]Lutherans who with their pastor, A. Hordorf, had withdrawn from the Free Protestant St. John’s Church [Hamilton, OH] for ‘the sake of their conscience . . .’” The ‘68 volume proclaimed on the Rev. Paul M. Kampfe’s page: “A Confessing Ministry.”
I had a solid upbringing in the faith — until the “demythologizing” and “existentialism” years at Capital U. Then in ‘88 our neighborhood church across the street from the university and the [liberal] Trinity seminary became elca.
About the same time hubby and I came to understand the futility of our “higher education” thinking and living. By the grace of God we both had a solid foundation from our youth to which we could return. We - both prodigals - could “go home.” But it wasn’t until about 2000 that we understood that we couldn’t support the elca any longer. So we took the stand — along with a conservative church — of opposing their increasingly weak, false teachings that more and more resembled the culture instead of the Word.
Secondly, in the last few weeks I learned that there is a new elca study Bible! Having concluded that they cannot refute the notes of some of the other good study Bibles/teachers out there, they have apparently written one that will accommodate the theology they are furiously devising for themselves.
I have been meditating on that beautiful Holy Tinity icon and on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. I find myself thinking about two notes in the [John] MacArthur study Bible:
Gn 18:32 That the number of righteous people necessary to forestall judgment had been reduced from 50 to 10 may have reflected Abraham’s awareness both of the intense wickedness of the cities as well as LOT’S INNEFECTIVE WITNESS THERE. Abraham probably had the whole of lot’s family in mind.
Gn 19:8 The constraints of Eastern hospitality and the very purpose for which Lot had invited the visitors in, compelled Lot to offer his daughters for a less deviant kind of wickedness, so as to protect his guests. This foolish effort shows that while Lot was right with God (2 Pe 2:7-8), he HAD CONTENTED HIMESELF WITH SOME SINS AND WEAK FAITH RATHER THAN LEAVING SODOM. But God was gracious to him because he was righteous by faith, before God.
Our witness to the stiff-necked has been too ineffective. We have dwelt on the fringes of Sodom for too long.
Our Father’s response to our prayers may just be to drag us by the hands out of there.
Could you ‘enlighten’ me on the full meaning of the graphic.
Lord Jesus Christ, Good Shepherd of the sheep, you gather the lambs in your arms and carry them in your bosom: We commend to your loving care this Assembly. Relieve their pain, guard them from all danger, restore to them your gifts of gladness and strength, and raise them up to a life of service to you. Hear us, we pray, for your dear Name’s sake. Amen.
Very simply:
The graphic is like those red County/blue County maps that are made after each Presidential election. The most helpful are the ones that have shades of purple to indicate those regions that voted one way while leaning strongly the other.
The very dark blue areas are the Dirty Dozen which have asked that a gaysbian “wedding” ceremony be created. You can’t lean farther to the left than that. Toward the middle of the spectrum are those Synods which passed only one revisionist or only one orthodox memorial. The bright red areas represent the four courageous synods which passed three orthodox memorials and/or defeated the revisionist ones.
In raw numbers and in regional territory the revisionists have prevailed.
This, unfortunately, may be a fairly accurate preview of what will happen next month in Minneapolis.
Amen!
The immigration reform that Congress should implement is
tripling the fines of employers who hire illegal aliens. The money that is collected, from those fines, would be used to build a brick wall, along the Mexican border.
This, unfortunately, may be a fairly accurate preview of what will happen next month in Minneapolis.
I agree.
We must pray for all children of God. You guys must do what you must en masse and you personally must do what you must individually.
God bless.
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