ELCA faces a changing American religious landscape

While some ELCA leaders call for continued dialogue between members in favor of and opposed to the 2009 Churchwide Assembly's decision on sexuality issues, at least one sees the church facing other pressing questions in the years ahead.

ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson.

"The changes of our demographics didn't begin with the Churchwide Assembly," Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson said in an interview. "We have been becoming a smaller church body in membership, increasingly older than the U.S. population, and a predominantly white denomination in an increasingly multiethnic and multicultural world. So in the larger context, what does it mean to be faithful, evangelical Lutherans in this changing context? Those questions will continue to be foremost."