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Lutheran Ethicist Newsletter 2009 Annual Gathering of Lutheran Ethicists The 2009 Annual Gathering of Lutheran Ethicists will be held January 7-9 at the Cenacle Retreat Center in Chicago. As usual the meeting will begin Wednesday night, January 7th after dinner and conclude with breakfast on Friday. Registration information will be available in the September newsletter. The focus of the program on Thursday will be on the intersection of science, Christian ethics, and genetics. The program is still taking shape at this time, but it will include a presentation of an ethical framework being developed in the ELCA Task Force on Genetics for a study for congregations that will be published in November. Copies of that study will be available to ethicists when it is published. The planning group includes Kevin Powell, M.D., ethicist and pediatrician at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, Aana Vigen, Assistant Professor of Theology at Loyola University of Chicago, and Ron Duty. New Colleague in Studies The Department for Studies at ELCA-Church in Society is pleased to welcome Dr. Victor Thasiah to our staff. He will assume his position as Assistant Director of Studies on June 16th. Thasiah has been serving as Pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Ojai, California. He earned his Ph.D. in modern theology and Christian ethics from Oxford University. Among his initial responsibilities will be the final draft of a Message on Immigration for consideration by the ELCA Church Council at its Fall, 2008, meeting, a social statement on criminal justice due for consideration at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in 2013, and assisting Kaari Reierson with editing the Journal of Lutheran Ethics. Ethics News from the ELCA Department for Studies Social Statement on Human Sexuality. Enclosed is a copy of the first draft of an ELCA social statement on human sexuality. You are invited to send your written comments on the draft to the task force by November 1. As of this date, nearly 100 hearings have been scheduled to receive comments from members and congregations. Ethicist Diane Yeager is a member of the ELCA Task Force on Sexuality Studies, which is also staffed by Roger Willer and Kaari Reierson. Journal of Lutheran Ethics. The journal’s web site has moved! The ELCA has launched a website with a new format, which means that JLE’s web address has changed. It is now accessible through a link at http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Journal-of-Lutheran-Ethics.aspx, OR directly at http://archive.elca.org/jle/. If you have the journal bookmarked, be sure to change your bookmark. The new site and format will mean additional changes for the journal in the future, but it will be published as usual. This change in site and format also unfortunately means that many of the links on the journal’s site to articles in back issues or to portfolios no longer work. It will take some time for these links to be re-established. Please be patient. Editor Kaari Reierson is looking forward to welcoming Victor Thasiah, whose responsibilities will include some editorial work on the journal. Look for the July issue of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics for a series of articles commenting on the first draft of the social statement on human sexuality. Authors will include Carl Braaten, Eric Crump, Paul Hinlicky, Laurie Jungling, and Chris Scharen. Social Statement on Genetics. The ELCA Task Force on Genetics has begun work on a study on genetics which is expected to be published for use by congregations and other groups around November 1st. The study will address both human and non-human genetics. It will include the development of a Lutheran ethical framework of a responsibility ethic for faith active in love seeking justice. That framework will be presented for discussion at the 2009 Annual Gathering of Lutheran Ethicists in Chicago. Ethicist Per Anderson of Concordia College, Moorhead, is Co-chair of the task force. Other ethicists on the task force include Paul Nelson of Wittenberg University, Richard Perry of the Lutheran School of Theology—Chicago and Aana Vigen of Loyola University of Chicago. The task force is staffed by Roger Willer and Ron Duty. Message on Immigration. An ELCA Message on Immigration is being prepared for consideration by the ELCA Church Council at its fall meeting. A final draft of the message will be written this summer by new Studies Department member, Victor Thasiah. Race, Ethnicity, and Culture. A discussion resource on the ELCA social statement, “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture” will be prepared this summer at the direction of the ELCA Church Council. The Council took this action in response both to a statement by ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson expressing “grave concern” for the “spiritual crisis concerning race relations in the United States” and to a call by the National Council of Churches of Christ for a “Sacred Day of Dialogue and Discussion” about racism on May 18, 2008, and in light of provisions of the ELCA’s Plan for Mission. Ron Duty is leading a small team of colleagues from Mulicultural Ministries and the Office of the Bishop in this work. The resource is expected to be posted on the ELCA web site for use by September 1, 2008. (A copy of the Church Council resolution is posted at http://archive.elca.org/multicultural/RDResolution.html.) Social Statement on Education—Spanish Translation. Earlier, Lutheran ethicists received a copy of the ELCA social statement, “Our Calling in Education” which was adopted in 2008. Ethicist Robert Benne was a member of the Task Force on Education which was staffed by John Stumme and Ron Duty. A Spanish translation of this statement will be printed soon and copies are expected to be available by request in July. Thanks go to ethicist John Stumme, who did editorial work on the translation. 2008 Ecumenical Roundtable on Science, Technology, and the Church The Environment and Energy. Ethicist Larry
Rasmussen gave two presentations on the environment and energy
at the 2008 Ecumenical Roundtable at Ghost Ranch in Abuquiu, New Mexico,
April 9-13. One presentation focused on theological reflections while the
other dealt with ethics and practice. The Ecumenical Roundtable is an
annual gathering of mainline Protestant denominational groups interested in
the engagement of faith and science. Because of the topic of this year’s
gathering, each denominational group invited members of its church’s
environmental community and also discussed with them how the faith and
science and the environmental groups within each denomination could interact
in the future.
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