$15 million goal by 2015 to fight malaria T
he Churchwide Assembly voted 968-19 to launch the ELCA Malaria Campaign and raise $15 million over four years to fight malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. For ELCA partners in Africa, malaria is more deadly than war and HIV/AIDS. Voting members learned that some 800,000 people die each year from malaria. About 90 percent of those deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Malaria Campaign. Most are children. In fact, a child dies from malaria every 45 seconds. It’s a disease from which campaign coordinator Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl believes Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:38-39).
“The ELCA must always be a part of this fight,” Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi said in a video presentation. “We need [your] support to succeed.”
The action passed with two amend- ments. One acknowledged the malaria campaigns of full-communion part- ners. And another asked that campaign gifts be over and above regular gifts to ELCA World Hunger. “In 2010, World Hunger observed a budget deficit,” voting member Andrew Stevens, St. Paul Area Synod, said during debate. “It is important that our support of the malaria cam- paign does not come at the expense of World Hunger.” Booker Vance, a pastor in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, added a concern that communications around all of the ELCA’s fundrais- ing efforts—including for HIV/ AIDS—not compete but be “part of one mission.”
Fundraising is well under way in
pilot efforts that have brought in $1.5 million, said DeGroot-Nesdahl. That
support could be seen in Churchwide Assembly worship offerings that brought in an additional $23,913 for the campaign, as well as pledges of $165,500.
Further support was visible on the assembly floor. Voting members from the Southwestern Texas Synod wore red T-shirts that read: $125,026 for the ELCA malaria campaign … so far.” Bishop Elizabeth Eaton shared the Northeastern Ohio Synod’s commit- ment to meeting its original goal of
Budget surpasses $80 million, income ‘stabilizing’
V
oting 919-33, the Churchwide Assembly approved a 2012 bud-
get totaling $80,202,900, which includes $61,792,000 for operations of the ELCA, its units and programs, and $18,500,000 for World Hunger. The 2012 budget is a 19.5 percent decrease from the 2011 budget approved by the 2009 Churchwide Assembly.
The budget was proposed based on a three-year decline in mission support, which has dropped from $65.3 million in 2009 to a projected $47 million in 2012. The ELCA’s spending has been reduced by nearly 24 percent to accommodate the giv- ing decline.
The assembly also approved an
income proposal of $61,939,400 for 2013, with $18,500,000 for World Hunger. The Church Council was charged with the responsibility for adjusting both the estimates of income and the spending plan for mission support funds.
$250,000 for what would have been a joint campaign with Lutheran World Relief, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the U.N. Foundation. “We were saddened by the decrease in mission support that led to the deci- sion [not to participate in the U.N. Lutheran Malaria Initiative partner- ship], but in tough times it is important to turn outward, not inward on our- selves,” Eaton said as she presented a check from the synod for more than $141,000.
Operating Income vs. Operating Expense 1989 - 2010
$40 $45 $50 $55 $60 $65 $70 $75 $80 $85 $90
Total Operating Income Total Operating Expense
ELCA OFFICE OF THE TREASURER Mission support, the money
received in congregations and passed on to synods and the churchwide offices, is the single most important source of funds for the denomination, said Wyvetta Bullock, ELCA execu- tive for administration. A report from ELCA Treasurer
Christina Jackson-Skelton noted that while income had decreased signifi- cantly in the last two years, the drop was “stabilizing” and the reduced spending plan for 2011 was expected to be fully funded.
Nearly half of the budget falls under the categories of “supporting congregations and outreach min- istries” and “stepping forward as a public church.” About one-fifth of the budget is for “coordination and support” of the ELCA’s offices of pre- siding bishop, secretary, archives and other administrative functions.
September 2011 23
Millions
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