Churchwide Assembly: Assembly approves churchwide restructuring

Employees at the churchwide offices in Chicago should know by Feb. 1, the beginning of a new fiscal year, how assembly affirmation of a restructuring design (810-169) will affect them.

The plan calls for program units: Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission, Global Mission, Multicultural Ministries, Church in Society, and Vocation and Education. Two separately incorporated program units are Augsburg Fortress, Publishers, and Women of the ELCA. There will be three offices: Presiding Bishop, Secretary and Treasurer. Service units are Communication, The Lutheran and Development and the separately incorporated Mission Investment Fund, ELCA Foundation and Board of Pensions.

Janet Thompson, chair of the Church Council’s planning and evaluation committee that oversaw the strategic planning process, outlined several goals of the process: to align the design proposal with the ELCA’s strategic directions, to integrate and focus the work of the churchwide units, and to lift up the church’s commitment to multicultural ministries throughout its structure. The restructure allows the churchwide organization to do “what only it can do or what it does best,” she said.