LSTC faculty member elected Bishop of Diocese of Lund, Sweden

On October 17, the Rev. Dr. Antje Jackelén was elected bishop of the Diocese of Lund in the Church of Sweden. She will take office April 1, 2007. Since 2001, she has been associate professor of systematic theology and in 2003 was appointed director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

“My time at LSTC has been wonderful and challenging,” Jackelén said. “I have found it exciting to work with both masters and Ph.D. students. I have loved the combination of academic rigor and vocational commitment at the Lutheran School of Theology.”

Jackelén was elected with over 50% of the vote on the first ballot. The Church of Sweden has 14 diocese and over 7 million members.

“The honor that Antje has received certainly deserves our warmest congratulations and well wishes,” said Dean Kathleen D. Billman. “LSTC will miss this treasured member of the faculty, skilled director of the Zygon Center, and sought-after advisor to our doctoral students in religion and science.”

Plans for interim leadership of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science and a faculty search in systematic theology will be announced in early November.

Jackelén is a pastor in the Church of Sweden, where she served from 1980 until 2001. She is a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) and serves on the council of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT.) Jackelén is on the board of directors of the Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science and is an editorial advisor to the journals Theology and Science and Dialog: A Journal of Theology. She is the author of numerous books and articles. She is married to the Rev. Heinz Jackelén and they are the parents of two daughters.

Presiding Bishop, Secretary announce future intentions

CHICAGO (ELCA) — The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), announced he will be available for possible election to another six-year term as presiding bishop. Hanson, who was elected presiding bishop at the 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, made the announcement as part of his report to the ELCA Conference of Bishops meeting here.
The Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary, told the conference he will not be a nominee for another six-year term. Almen is the only person who has served as ELCA secretary, a role to which he was first elected in May 1987, seven months before the ELCA was formed through a merger of three Lutheran church bodies. He has been re-elected three times.
The ELCA Conference of Bishops is an advisory body of the church, consisting of the ELCA’s 65 synod bishops, presiding bishop and secretary. It met here October 5-10.
The 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly will meet Aug. 6-12, 2007, at Navy Pier in downtown Chicago. That assembly will elect both a presiding bishop and a secretary to terms through the 2013 Churchwide Assembly. With the ELCA vice president and treasurer, the presiding bishop and secretary serve as officers of the church.
Key responsibilities of the ELCA presiding bishop are: serving as president and chief executive officer of the corporation and overseeing staff, budget and overall administration of the church; chairing the churchwide assembly; preparing agendas for the assembly, ELCA Church Council and Conference of Bishops; serving as chief ecumenical officer of the ELCA; providing leadership and care for synod bishops, and serving as preacher, teacher and administrator of the sacraments.
Key responsibilities of the ELCA secretary are: maintaining official church records, minutes of meetings of the churchwide assembly, Church Council, Conference of Bishops and other meetings; receiving minutes for all meetings of boards and committees of the churchwide organization; maintaining official rosters of professional church leaders; preparing and researching possible amendments for the ELCA Constitution, Bylaws and Continuing Resolutions, as well as the Constitution for Synods and Model Constitution for Congregations; interpreting the ELCA Constitution; publishing official documents and policies of the ELCA and other informational and statistical material; receiving annual congregational reports; coordinating use of legal services; maintaining the church’s archives; arranging and managing meetings of the churchwide assembly and Church Council; and providing library and reference services for the churchwide office.

Hanson reflects on elections process
In 2007 there will be at least 25 elections for synod bishops, and at least 11 will be for new bishops, Hanson said. Next year many current bishops are retiring or moving on to other possible calls in the church. Like his wife, Ione, and him, Hanson said he knows many current bishops have been thinking about their future plans.
“We have been praying about this call,” Hanson said. “We have been talking about its joys and it challenges for us personally and for us as a family. I think you know how much I feel called to this office, how challenging this office is and what joy I find in this office.”
Hanson, 59, said he believes he has “the best call” in the church because he gets to see so many of its ministries at work.
“If it’s good to the spirit and the will of the voting members of the 2007 Churchwide Assembly, I would be available to continue to serve in this office for another term,” Hanson said. His comments were greeted with applause from the conference, churchwide staff and guests who were present.
Before he was elected presiding bishop, Hanson was bishop of the ELCA Saint Paul (Minn.) Area Synod. He had just been re-elected to that role a few months before the 2001 Churchwide Assembly.
The re-election process in the synod was a “low point” of his ministry, he told the bishops. That process was troubling because of how “rancorous it became, how divisive it became, how politicized it became,” he said.
“I would pray that these next months not be that for this church,” he said. “I don’t view that I have just declared myself a candidate for re-election. I have said, ‘I’m a pastor that has a call from this church to serve in this office, and now I invite the church to be together a call committee — praying, discerning the context of mission, discerning together the gifts this church needs in whoever serves in this office.’”
The 2007 Churchwide Assembly should think of itself as a call committee when it considers who should serve as the ELCA’s presiding bishop, he said.
“I said when I was elected, ‘I don’t view it as an election won but as a call received.’ And I trust that the work of the Spirit will be in this call process in the coming months,” he concluded.

Almen notes historic experiences, gives thanks
Almen, 65, said he will mark his 40th anniversary as an ordained Lutheran pastor in June 2007.
“As of next June, I will have served for more than half of my ministry as a Lutheran pastor under call as secretary of this church,” he told the conference. “This has been the type of pastoral ministry that I could never have imagined four decades ago in my senior year at Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul (Minn).”
Almen’s current term as ELCA secretary ends on Oct. 31, 2007, at which time he will have served more than 20 years as secretary, he said. At that point, it will be time to pass his responsibilities to a successor, Almen said.
“By the grace of God I will complete this term with abiding gratitude for the privilege of serving throughout this historic era in the cause of greater Lutheran unity,” he said. To be part of this chapter of U.S. Lutheran history has been “an unbounded blessing,” Almen said.
“I have had a first-row seat for many of the major events in the ELCA and its predecessor churches in the final quarter of the 20th century and the early years of this century. In several instances I have experienced more than a close view. I have been on the platform both figuratively and at times actually contributing to the shaping of those significant developments,” he said.
Almen expressed appreciation for his wife Sally, son Paul and daughter Cassandra; for the ELCA’s congregations, synods, the ELCA Church Council, Conference of Bishops, presiding bishops, treasurers, vice presidents, churchwide staff and colleagues in the ELCA Office of the Secretary.
He noted special interests such as military chaplaincy, synod staff, ecumenism, full-communion relationships, meeting patriarchs, popes and many other church leaders, ecumenical organizations, witnessing first-hand the birth of the Republic of Namibia, and relief and development efforts.
He cited as a “continuing challenge” the ELCA’s relationship with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, saying he’s tried to keep “as many doors and windows open” as possible. “The task has not been easy, and at times the prospects have seemed terribly discouraging,” he said. “I worry that too many ELCA folk in the future will simply grow tired in those efforts. I know the internal difficulties of the LCMS are complex ones. Yet I remain convinced that, for the sake of clear Lutheran witness in this land, the two church bodies need to work together in as many ways as possible now and in the years to come.”
Almen reported some regrets: that he has not been able to speak eloquently enough about the “grand vision” of the ELCA’s life together as articulated in its governing documents; that some leaders and members haven’t undertaken or experienced the interdependence and shared ministry of the ELCA; and that he may not have prepared the way adequately for his successor.
Almen called for a “renewed vision” of Lutheran unity.
“We are at a grand moment. Next spring, we will mark the 20th anniversary of the constituting of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We can be mindful that, with the formation of this church, God answered the prayers of generations of Lutherans in North America from Henry Melchior Muhlenberg forward — untiring prayers, persistent prayers for a time of greater Lutheran unity, unity not for its own sake. We didn’t become big just to be big but for the sake of effective witness to the gospel in the world now and in the years to come,” Almen concluded.
Following his remarks, the conference, staff and visitors stood and offered lengthy applause.
—
Hear comments from the Rev. Lowell Almen on the Web at:
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/061011A.mp3
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/061011B.mp3

Information about the ELCA Office of the Presiding Bishop is at http://www.ELCA.org/bishop/ on the ELCA Web site.

Information about the ELCA Office of the Secretary is at http://www.ELCA.org/secretary/ on the ELCA Web site.

STAND UP! on October 15

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, recently released a joint pastoral letter urging Lutherans and Episcopalians to recommit themselves to ending global poverty through achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in collaboration with ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History.

All member states of the United Nations, including the United States, adopted Millennium Goals to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and create a global partnership for development by the year 2015.

The ELCA is encouraging congregations to participate in the worldwide “STAND UP” effort being sponsored by the Millennium Campaign wherein ELCA congregations have the opportunity to help set an official Guinness World Record on October 15th by standing up for a moment during worship.

Visit the ELCA’s advocacy Web site to learn more about how congregations can participate in this worldwide event.

Ideal resources for individuals and study groups are Ending Poverty: A 20/20 Vision: A Guide for Individuals and Congregations and Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith. Please visit endinghungernow.org for more information.

St. Mary’s to welcome Carl Schalk

Well-known composer, Dr. Carl Schalk, will be a guest of St. Mary’s, Kenosha on Reformation Sunday, October 29, at our 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. services. Schalk will be conducting the premiere of his newly commissioned piece, “Psalm 46,” written for St. Mary’s. “Psalm 46” is scored for SATB choir, brass, and timpani.

Schalk is Professor of Music Emeritus at Concordia University-Chicago in River Forest, IL. In addition to being a prolific composer, author, and worship leader, Schalk is one of the foremost authorities on Lutheran worship.

Schalk will also be leading our Adult Forum at 9:15 a.m. on October 29.

St. Mary’s warmly welcomes all visitors to this very special Reformation Sunday celebration! The church is located at 2001 – 80^th Street in Kenosha. Further questions may be directed to Minister of Music Linda Schmidt at 262-658-3555.

ELCA reports survey results on gender issues in ministry

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News ServiceThe Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and its predecessor church bodies began ordaining women in 1970.  On the 35th anniversary of that event, ELCA Research and Evaluation conducted a survey “to describe differences and similarities in the ministerial experiences between rostered men and women.”  A “rostered” leader of the ELCA is an ordained minister or a professional lay minister — associate in ministry, deaconess or diaconal minister.  ELCA Research and Evaluation issued a 41-page report on its “35th Anniversary of Ordination of Women Rostered Leader Survey 2005” in September 2006.  The report focused on the experiences of 1,625 clergy respondents.

“The central hypothesis of this study was that there are differences in ministerial experiences and that gender is the primary factor related to these differences,” the report said.  Those differences are more pronounced when comparing responses according to the gender and the race/ethnicity of the respondent, it said.  Some differences are related more to the age of the respondent or when the respondent was ordained.

The report drew some conclusions from the surveys.  Slightly more than half of both women and men waited one to four months after completing the ELCA candidacy process before receiving a call to ministry from a congregation.  White clergy were more likely to receive calls to rural or small-town settings, while clergy of color were more likely to receive calls to large-city settings.  Whether the person was ordained before or after 1990 made the primary difference in their compensation.  Female clergy, especially women of color, were more likely to be single than their male counterparts.

Welcome to the Greater Milwaukee Synod Blog!

In an effort to keep communications fresh and easy to use, we now introduce the Greater Milwaukee Synod blog! Check here for the latest news and announcements from in and around the synod, our ministry partners, the ELCA, and the global faith community.

Without getting too much into the technology, there are many benefits to using a blog versus standard HTML, the language used to power most Web sites on the Internet. One of the most powerful is the ability to feed information to external sources, such as other Web sites, feed readers, e-mail clients, the list goes on and on.

If you’re a congregational web servant and interested in posting the news feed from our blog on your site, please contact me at the synod office. And, of course, I hope that you will “feed” me your thoughts and comments!