ELCA Assembly Approves Tuition Fund, Continuing-Ed Guidelines

    PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- An ambitious new fund to help students in seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pay for theological education and guidelines for the continuing education of professional church workers were adopted today by the ELCA's biennial churchwide assembly meeting here through Wednesday.
    The voting members seemed to have an easier task deciding to establish the new ELCA Fund for Leaders in Mission than agreeing to the guidelines for "life-long learning."   The fund  was approved with no debate by a 97 percent majority -- 837 to 27.  But the continuing-education guidelines were not adopted until after more than a dozen members had spoken and three amendments were offered.  The guidelines passed 864 to 91.
    "This is a testimony to you of the commitment this church has to its future leaders and your work with them," ELCA Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson told the church's eight seminary presidents after the vote on The Fund for Leaders in Mission.
    Under plans approved by the assembly, current and deferred gifts will be sought from individual donors to build an endowment fund aimed ultimately at paying 100 percent of a qualifying student's tuition. Currently, scholarships offset 42 percent of the average seminary student's $5,100 annual tuition.  The immediate goal of the fund, which will be managed through the ELCA Foundation, is to increase that to 50 percent within the next six years.
    The continuing-education guidelines -- not mandates -- are designed for rostered church workers who have been in ministry for at least three years. From graduation until three years in a called position, such workers do have mandated continuing-education requirements that will become effective in September.
    The new guidelines set "expectations" for rostered church workers that include 50 "contact" hours of  intentional continuing education annually, a one-to-three-month sabbatical every three to five years in a worker's current call, and an annual review of continuing-education needs and plans. There are also expectations for workers' congregations and agencies, including a commitment to spend $700 to $1,000 annually per worker for continuing education by the year 2000.  The worker is expected to contribute an additional $300.
    The Rev. William C. Behrens, director for leadership support in the ELCA's Division for Ministry, told the assembly that designers of the guidelines hope that even though they aren't rules, that they will "provide a climate that will bring [continuing-education goals] to fruition."
    No single objection or issue seemed to dominate the member's pre-vote discussion of the issue.  The only one of three amendments to the original recommendation of the ELCA Church Council that was adopted by the assembly was to encourage all ELCA members -- not only professional church workers, as in the original -- "to engage in a holistic and systematic approach to life-long learning and development."
    Both theological-education proposals adopted Aug. 17 grew out of a Study of Theological Education received by the 1995 Churchwide Assembly. Members there urged increased financial support for theological education and asked that this year's assembly consider recommendations that would address the need for life-long learning by church workers.

For information contact:

Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html