“For the Life of the World,” 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly

by Jennifer Hockenbery

by Jennifer Hockenbery

Today marks the first day of the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly: “For the Life of the World.” I am so excited to be able to attend this event and to represent Women of the ELCA. The president of our Executive Board, Myrna Wells Ulland, will also be present. Board members Gwen Edwards and Sheena Foster will be participants in the Assembly in various roles. I know many more participants in the organization will also be there, and I can’t wait to meet them in person!

What will Women of the ELCA be doing? We will be showing a video about our mission and our work, we will be sharing information about registration for our Triennial Gathering, and we will be talking about our resolutions and memorials with all who stop by our booth. We will have lots of information to share and identity items to sell.  Women of the ELCA is a vital partner with the ELCA, and together we do so much good. 

This gathering is a big deal.  Meeting together are the allocated 845 voting members who represent the 2.7 million members of the ELCA. These members will be voting for our next presiding bishop and secretary! Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and Secretary Deacon Sue Rothmeyer will both retire at the end of their terms. The new bishop will be installed in Minneapolis on October 4th. 

There are a number of other things that are on the docket for discussion and voting as well. Many of them are pertinent to Women of the ELCA. For example, the proposed social statement, Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Well-being of All, discusses the ELCA’s view of how God calls us to be active in civic life. Topics include life in society, including the purpose of civic life, the appropriate use of power in government, the harms of Christian nationalism and the public role of rostered ministers in speaking about political issues. We are bringing to the Assembly our own resource on this issue: Called to Be Political  (Now in Spanish, thank you to our intern, Kamila Guiterraz Montserrat.)

There will also be a discussion on proposed editorial changes to the social statement Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust. This is in response to the memorial “Reconsideration of Social Statement on Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust,” which was approved by the 2022 Churchwide Assembly. The only proposed changes at this time are language updates to bring the social statement up to date and in line with current law and the church’s emerging understanding of the diversity of what makes a family.

There will also be talk about the 2024 Lutheran-Orthodox Common Statement on the Filioque. Women of the ELCA published a blog on this earlier in the year. And there are many memorials to discuss that talk about issues that have been of great importance to women of the ELCA—such as memorials on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and memorials addressing racism. Other topics include discourse on Israel-Palestine and an end to the occupation of Palestine; restoration of USAID funding; and reconsideration of the ELCA social message on end-of-life decisions. And, of course, there will budget discussions!

There will be opportunities to worship, including an AMMPARO candlelight prayer vigil recognizing and preserving the human dignity of all God’s people, with special emphasis on migrant, asylee and refugee communities. There will also be an exhibition powwow that features dancers, drummers, and singers from the tribal and urban Indian communities in the Phoenix area.

I will be writing a follow-up blog about the Assembly and our experiences next Monday! In the meantime, keep all those participating in your prayers.

Dr. Jennifer Hockenbery is interim executive director for Women of the ELCA and editor of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics.