The 70-member commission working since 1982 to put together a new Lutheran denomination has made major recommendations for the church. Pending the approval of participating bodies, the new denomination will be called the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The church’s main offices will be in Milwaukee, if the recommendations of the Commission for a New Lutheran Church are accepted.
The new denomination will embrace two-thirds of U.S. Lutheranism. It will unite the 2.9 million-member Lutheran Church in America (LCA); the 2.3 million-member American Lutheran Church (ALC); and the 111,000-member Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC). The new denomination is scheduled to come into existence January 1, 1988.
In approving the name Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the commission rejected an earlier proposal, Lutheran Church in the U.S.A. The commission turned down another proposal when it selected Milwaukee as the headquarters city for the new denomination.
Headquarters Site
Meeting last month in Minneapolis, the commission debated three cities as possible sites. The commission earlier had suggested Chicago. However, a task force last month recommended Minneapolis on the basis of cost effectiveness.
Chicago supporters disputed the cost figures and insisted that considerations such as ecumenical and multicultural diversity and the site’s denominational neutrality favored Chicago. Supporters of Minneapolis cited the city’s strong concentration of Lutherans and Minnesota’s strong social consciousness.
A third group favored Milwaukee. Former AELC Bishop William Kohn said Milwaukee meets the criteria for neutrality and ecumenical and multicultural diversity. The city has significant black and Hispanic populations, he said, and housing and office costs would be cheaper than in Chicago or Minneapolis. Kohn added that the Siebert Foundation, a Lutheran trust, would make a gift of $1 million to the new denomination if it located in Wisconsin.
LCA Bishop James R. Crumley, Jr., supported an effort to refer the headquarters issue to a five-member committee that would report to the commission’s last scheduled meeting in June. But commissioners defeated that proposal following a plea for an immediate decision by ALC General Secretary Kathryn W. Baerwald. “There is a perception of this commission that we can’t make up our mind,” she said, “and we’d better start making up our mind.…” The commission then voted to recommend Milwaukee as the headquarters site; however, some agencies of the new denomination would be based in other cities.
The commission hammered out the new denomination’s proposed confession of faith at earlier meetings. Conservatives failed in their attempt to have the confession describe the Scriptures as being “inerrant.” The proposed confession includes the following statement on the Scriptures: “The canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the written Word of God. Inspired by God’s Spirit speaking through their authors they record and announce God’s revelation centering in Jesus Christ. Through them God’s Spirit speaks to us to create and sustain Christian faith and fellowship for service in the world. This church accepts the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith and life.”
The question of membership in ecumenical organizations also has been raised. Until its first regular convention, expected to be held in 1989 or 1990, the new denomination will participate in the World Council of Churches (wcc) and National Council of Churches (NCC). The LCA belongs to both ecumenical organizations, but the ALC belongs only to the wcc. At its first regular convention, the new denomination will decide whether to continue its affiliation with the ecumenical councils.
In other matters, the commission is expecting reaction to merger documents, including drafts of the new church’s constitution and bylaws. Those documents will be submitted this spring to meetings of the 30 LCA synods, the 19 ALC districts, and the five AELC synods. Pension and personnel matters—including recommended quotas for women and racial and ethnic minorities—are expected to be the main issues of concern. The commission in June will revise the documents in light of suggestions made by the synods and districts. In August, the revised merger documents will be submitted to national conventions of the three uniting churches.
The commission has urged the uniting bodies to follow the inclusiveness principle in their choice of delegates to the new church’s constituting convention in May 1987. It suggested that 10 percent of the 1,045 delegates be nonwhites or persons whose primary language is not English. The commission recommended that 418 of the delegates be clergy, male or female. Among the lay delegates, it suggested that 314 be females and 313 be males.
The commission also recommended that at least 10 percent of the members of the new denomination’s church council be nonwhite or speak a primary language other than English, and that at least half of the council’s lay members be females. Similar requirements were set for the new denomination’s 240 board positions.
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The final vote on the merger documents will come at the May 1987 constituting convention. The new church’s first officers will be elected at the same convention. Mentioned among others as possible candidates for bishop of the new denomination are the heads of the uniting churches: James R. Crumley, Jr., of the LCA; David W. Preus of the ALC; and Will Herzfeld of the AELC.
WILLMAR THORKELSONin Minneapolis
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