World AIDS Day statement issued ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry issued a joint statement on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day: “We encourage Lutherans and Episcopalians near and far to stand in solidarity with all persons living with HIV, and to continue the difficult work of building an AIDS-free generation. We recommit ourselves to a future free of this pandemic.”
Supporting American Muslims On Nov. 18, Shoulder-to-Shoulder hosted a press conference during which Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Buddhist faith leaders gathered in Washington, D.C., to observe the daily Muslim prayer service. “We call on the president-elect to forcefully denounce speech and actions negatively targeting the Muslim community, including the proposal to require the registration of Muslims in the country,” the statement said. The ELCA is a founding member of the interfaith organization. View the video at
youtube.com/elca.
Little change in voting patterns of faithful Exit polling revealed that the political alignments of U.S. religious groups in 2016 haven’t significantly changed in comparison to other recent presidential elections, the Pew Research Center reported. Religious “nones,” Hispanic Catholics and Jews strongly supported Hillary Clinton, while white Roman Catholics and white self-identified “born-again/evangelical” Christians strongly supported Donald Trump. More than 80 percent of the latter group—which includes self- described Protestants, Catholics, Mormons and others—say they voted for Trump, while 16 percent voted for Clinton.
Rwandan bishops apologize for role in genocide In the past the Roman Catholic Church in Rwanda has been accused of playing a role in the 1994 genocide, but never apologized. But on Nov. 20, Roman Catholic bishops in Rwanda issued an apology for the role played by individual clergy and church members in the killing of nearly 1 million ethnic Tutsis and Hutus. The apology was read aloud in all Catholic churches that day in the local Kinyarwanda dialect and came at the end of Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Council looks to future
At its meeting Nov. 10-13 in Chicago, the ELCA Church Council adopted “Called Forward Together in Christ—ELCA Strategic Directions 2025,” which provides a framework for leaders across the church to realize common goals and meet challenges the church may face in the future. The document is the result of a process that asked the ELCA’s 3.7 million members to provide ideas and feedback about the future of the church.
During the meeting, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton announced a $3 million gift to the ELCA Fund for Leaders, which will provide full tuition seminary scholarships for 60 additional students over the next three years. In related news, Eaton also announced a new leadership initiative to inspire ELCA leaders to seek out and encourage people in their congregations and communities to consider a call to ministry.
Among other business, the council requested the development of a social message on human rights; approved a revised 2017 fiscal year current-fund spending authorization of $67,210,025; approved a resolution to stand with Eaton as she supports the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (page 10); and established a task force to consider whether the ELCA Foundation should be separately incorporated.
Manuscript returned to Greek Orthodox Church During a Nov. 15 ceremony, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago returned a rare 9th-century Greek manuscript of the complete New Testament to the Greek Orthodox Church. Known among biblical scholars as Codex 1424, the manuscript was one of many taken in 1917 from the Kosinitza Monastery. His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, in the U.S., received the manuscript from James Nieman, seminary president. Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton said, “The action of a Lutheran seminary returning this 9th-century New Testament manuscript to the Greek Orthodox Church is an expression of the essential partnership between theological education and the Lutheran-Orthodox relations.”
RELIGIOUS NEWS & SOCIAL ISSUES •
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