tell you.”
Voting members were invited to place a piece of stained glass (one for each mem- ber) into a window honoring the 25th anniversary and going to Elk River (Minn.) Lutheran Church. Artist Dennis Richards from Texas donated the window. Elk River, formed in 2010, is housed in a renovated bank building purchased by the Mission Investment Fund.
Hearing the cries ‘Yes’ to criminal justice, other actions
V
oting members gave a resound- ing yes to “Hearing the Cries,” the ELCA social statement on criminal justice, approving 882-25 the denomination’s 12th social state- ment and, by a subsequent 891-22 vote, its 11 implementing resolutions. During debate voting members referred to the high incarceration rate in the U.S. and the dispropor- tionate way in which racial minori- ties are jailed and serve more time for the same offenses. The debate also revealed significant discom- fort with racial identifiers and the language the church uses for ethnic minorities.
Beth Dirkin, North/West Lower Michigan Synod, said the statement can help ELCA members “confront racism in our culture.” Louisiana has the highest incar-
ceration rate of any state in the U.S. or the world, said Michael R. Button,
24 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
a pastor in the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod. Bringing reform to Louisiana, he said, means “we will have to contend with one individual who goes by the name of Jim Crow. Do not mistake him for the Old Jim Crow. [He] wears $1,000 suits, $500 shoes and gets $200 haircuts. And he will cut you before you know it. “[Reform will] require more than our dozen or so ELCA congrega- tions. You came to our assistance during [Hurricane] Katrina. We need your assistance now. We will not get through the door of the governor’s office [without] your help.” Congregations should become intentional sites for criminal justice ministry, said Heather Kulp, Met- ropolitan Chicago Synod. “People who have been incarcerated and their families sit next to you at church already,” she said. “You may not know, and they may not want to
Matt Musteric of the Northwestern Ohio Synod favored the statement but had one complaint: “At the center of our faith is an unjustly accused and executed criminal. … My only lament is that [this statement] didn’t begin robustly with Jesus Christ.” The amended implementing resolutions call ELCA members, congregations, synods, social min- istry organizations, institutions and churchwide ministries to prayer, discernment and Christian education; advocacy for reform; hospitality to both victims and offenders caught up in and those committed to serving in the criminal justice system; and more. The resolutions charge church-
wide staff with creating and maintain- ing a resource database, additional liturgical resources and educational materials.
The smooth way the social state- ment passed through the assembly was typical of how the 2013 gath- ering handled business. Reports were received and enthusiastically endorsed, resolutions from assembly committees won quick approval. With little discussion, the assem- bly approved the churchwide organi- zation’s budgets for 2014-2016 after hearing from the ELCA’s treasurer that contributions from congregations to national operations had leveled. Still, the budgets project a contin- ued decline in income. The 2014 budget calls for a cur- rent fund spending authorization of $70.5 million; $68.5 million in 2015; and $67.9 million in 2016. The income proposal for ELCA World Hunger was set at $19 million for each of those years. The Church Council was authorized to adjust spending levels based on actual results over the period.
While the report from the ELCA secretary showed a continuing decline in ELCA membership, the
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