Role of the Churchwide Assembly

The Churchwide Assembly is designated as the “highest legislative authority” in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). That means that the assembly deals with the purposes, functions, and directions of churchwide ministries. The assembly also addresses issues that affect the life of our whole church. In the polity of that Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we have three primary expressions—congregations, synods, and the churchwide organization. As provided in churchwide constitutional provision 8.11.:

“This church shall seek to function as people of God through congregations, synods, and the churchwide organization, all of which shall be interdependent. Each part, while fully the church, recognizes that it is not the whole church and therefore lives in a partnership relationship with the others.”

One of the ways in which that interdependent relationship is practiced is in assemblies. Congregations elect lay voting members to serve in the synodical assemblies. Clergy and those on the official lay rosters under call also participate as voting members in synodical assemblies. Synodical assemblies, in each biennium, elect the clergy and lay voting members of the Churchwide Assembly. Of the 1,071 voting members of the 2007 Churchwide Assembly, at least 60 percent will be lay women and men (50-50) and the remainder will be ordained ministers. About 10 percent of the voting members of each assembly are persons of color or persons whose primary language is other than English.

The number of voting members allocated to each synod is based on two criteria: the number of baptized members and the number of congregations in the synod. Some synods, therefore, have a dozen to two dozen voting members. Other synods have as few as four.

The voting members of the Churchwide Assembly gather as members—the baptized members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. They meet, however, not as a random collection of baptized members. They have been assigned specific responsibility to serve our whole church through the assembly.

They will gather August 6-11, 2007 in Chicago, Illinois, under the theme, “Living in God's Amazing Grace: Thanks be to God."

Responsibility of the Assembly

The Churchwide Assembly, according to ELCA churchwide constitutional provision 12.21., must:

• Review the work of the churchwide officers, and for this purpose require and receive reports from them and act on business proposed by them.

• Review the work of the churchwide units, and for this purpose require and receive reports from them and act on business proposed by them.

• Receive and consider proposals from synod assemblies.

• Establish churchwide policy.

• Adopt a budget for the churchwide organization.

• Elect officers, board members, and other persons as provided in the constitution and bylaws.

• Establish churchwide units to carry out the functions of the churchwide organization.

• Have the sole authority to amend the constitution and bylaws. Fulfill other functions as required in the constitution and bylaws.

• Conduct such other business as necessary to further the purposes and functions of the churchwide organization.

Assembly Vocabulary No Accident!

It is important to note and remember that no delegates will be present for the assembly. Voting members are not delegates, as that term is understood or used in some political contexts.  The voting members, elected by Synod Assemblies to serve in the Churchwide Assembly, come together as representatives not only of their own congregations and synods by also serve on behalf of all the people of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

• The terminology related to the legislative process of this church is no accident.

• The words, “Synod Assembly” and “Churchwide Assembly,” rather than convention, and “voting members,” rather than delegates, were deliberately chosen for our governing documents.

These words not only fulfill certain legal requirements but also reflect an ecclesial (that is, churchly) understanding—an understanding grounded in Scripture, reflected in the Lutheran Confessional writings, and established as part of this church’s polity upon the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Within the ELCA, we find three primary expressions of this church—congregations, synods, and the churchwide organization. They exist and serve within this one church.

1. A congregation of the ELCA does not meet in convention; the members gather in worship, carry out service, and assemble occasionally and properly for governance decisions and elections.
    

2. The people of this church in each of the 65 synods are not sent as agents of a particular caucus; they are not gathered to act as politicized delegates to a regional party convention. Rather, they assemble as duly selected members of this church with voting responsibilities for governance and elections on behalf of the synod. The Synod Assembly is just that, an assembly of the people of this church, some of whom have been chosen for the responsibility of being voting members of the Synod Assembly. They assemble together in worship and are nurtured in the faith through Word and Sacrament. Then, in their deliberations, they seek the wisdom and guidance of God’s Spirit in the decisions and elections of the assembly.
    

3. The people of this church, when gathered as voting members of the Synod Assembly, have the responsibility of electing the voting members of the Churchwide Assembly. Persons so chosen are given the responsibility of doing the work of the Churchwide Assembly on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. They are not sent to participate as politicized delegates from a regional or agenda-specific caucus at some national party convention. Rather, they assemble as members of this church.

In the ELCA’s predecessor church bodies, the word “delegate” was used and meant people chosen to fulfill responsibilities in what then were known as synod or district “conventions.” Like those “delegates” in our predecessor churches, ELCA voting members in ELCA synodical assemblies are chosen to represent all of the members of all of the congregations in the synod.

In the case of the Churchwide Assembly, voting members carry out their duties on behalf of all members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Nourished by Word and Sacrament, they are called in assembly to seek the well-being of this whole church.

Voting members carry a heavy responsibility. They must study carefully the issues on the agenda of the assembly, listen thoughtfully to the debate throughout plenary sessions, examine wisely possible amendments to proposals, consider with insight resolutions or new business submitted by voting members, elect with care apt persons to serve on the churchwide council, boards, and committees, seek prayerfully the guidance of God’s Spirit in all matters, and act conscientiously for the sake of the unity and well-being of this church and the whole Church.

Words Shape and Reflect Understanding

The vocabulary that we use within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America both shapes and reflects our understanding of this church. When we recognize and understand that our “congregations find their fulfillment in the universal community of the Church, and the universal Church exists in and through congregations” (ELCA churchwide constitutional provision 3.02.), then our awareness of the significance of being voting members in a given assembly may grow. After all, as we declare of the “Nature of the Church,” the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America “derives its character and powers both from the sanction and representation of its congregations and from its inherent nature as an expression of the broader fellowship of the faith” (also ELCA churchwide constitutional provision 3.02.).

We do need to (a) understand more clearly and (b) embrace more completely the conviction that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America “shall seek to function as people of God through congregations, synods, and the churchwide organization, all of which shall be interdependent. Each part, while fully the church, recognizes that it is not the whole church and therefore lives in a partnership relationship with the others” (ELCA churchwide constitutional provision 8.11.).

Indeed, we together affirm and declare the primary principle of organization for our church, namely: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America shall be one church” (ELCA churchwide constitutional provision 5.01.).

Within this one church, we as voting members, advisory members, non-voting members, visitors, and staff will gather to carry out the work of the 2007 Churchwide Assembly.

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