The Church Council of the ELCA gathered at the Lutheran Center in Chicago, Nov. 14-17. The council, which serves as the ELCA churchwide organization’s board of directors and interim legislative authority between meetings of a churchwide assembly, focused much of its work on preparations for the ELCA 2025 Churchwide Assembly.
In her report to the council, Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the ELCA, spoke of God’s Love Made Real as the umbrella for the church’s vision of “a world experiencing the difference God’s grace and love in Christ make for all people and creation.” The vision calls for two distinct strategies for the church moving forward: the church that is and the church that is becoming.
Eaton emphasized that the focus of this work is to build out ways to strengthen and walk alongside congregations and the ministries that take place outside the walls of a traditional church building. “All these people, we all desperately need to hear the liberating word of Jesus and the gospel,” she said. “So how do we connect with them?”
Among key actions taken, the council:
- Approved amendments to “Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA” that were drafted in response to the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility Audit. The audit report was presented to the council at its fall 2023 meeting.
- Recommended to the 2025 Churchwide Assembly certain amendments to “Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA” that were brought to the council by the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church.
- Approved a 2025 fiscal year current fund spending authorization of $67,875,000 and a 2025 ELCA World Hunger spending authorization of $21,500,000.
- Passed a social policy resolution affirming support for and collaboration with Jubilee USA Network. The ELCA is a founding member of the network, a coalition aimed at debt relief for under-resourced countries and redirection of resources to reducing poverty and providing health care and education to people living in poverty and with deep need.
- Named Des Moines, Iowa, as the site for the 2028 Churchwide Assembly.
- Approved amendment of certain continuing resolutions in “Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA.”
- Received reports and approved actions related to the creation of a racial justice ombudsperson position, as recommended by the task force on the ELCA Discipline Process for Rostered Ministers of Color.
- Recommended to the 2025 Churchwide Assembly amendments to “Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA.” Topics include the Candidacy Leadership Development Working Group, on-leave-from-call status and specialized ministry, and allowing participants of synod-authorized worshiping communities to be elected as voting members of assemblies and to other elected positions.
- Acknowledged amendment to the governing documents of this church related to nonbinary inclusion and to gendered language in the constitution.
Read a full list of actions taken at the meeting.
