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Thursday, April 25, 2002

By Steve Levin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Saying it was "a crucial time" in the life of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Bishop Mark S. Hanson, head of the 5.1-million-member denomination, called on the Southwestern Pittsburgh synod yesterday to help him change the church's focus.

"My fear," said Hanson, who was elected last year to a six-year term as presiding bishop, "is that we are defining ourselves on the basis of the issues that divide us instead of the missions that unite us."

During an hour-long talk at St. John's of Highland church in McCandless that was alternately penetrating and humorous, Hanson, 55, said the denomination's declining membership, dearth of pastors, contentious debates over ordination of gays and lesbians, and the increasing median age of its seminary students (40), had caused the church to "lose focus to our mission."

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is just 14 years old, formed in 1988 by the union of three North American Lutheran church bodies. Hanson's stop yesterday was part of his effort to visit all of the church's 65 synods, made up of nearly 11,000 congregations. The Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod has 221 churches with more than 90,000 baptized members.

For the 169 pastors, lay leaders and members of the synod council in attendance, he outlined four specific areas requiring immediate attention: church mission, leadership for mission, ecumenical and global partnership for the sake of mission and sexuality.

In order to reclaim the mission of God, Hanson said the church must articulate a strategic plan underpinned by the tradition of scripture in the context of today's world and what he called "the harsh realities in this church," where only 30 percent of the members -- about 1.56 million -- attend services each week.

"There's no brand loyalty any more," he said. "The chasm from Sunday to Monday is huge in people's lives."

He called on church leaders to become "more consumer friendly," to take advantage of the changing demographics of American society to attract more African-American, Hispanic and Asian members, and to identify church youths with a potential for ministry or lay leadership.

The disagreements engendered by the denomination's full communion with the Episcopal Church USA, Moravian Church, Presbyterian Church USA, Reformed Church in America and United Church of Christ should give way to the role that Hanson said God had set for the Lutheran church: "to be a ligament knitting much closer together the body of Christ."

Sexuality issues within the church are "daunting," he said. Hanson reminded the gathering that by 2005 the church will develop a broad statement on human sexuality.

While gays and lesbians are welcomed in Lutheran churches, they cannot serve unless they remain celibate and single.

But Hanson cautioned that understanding one's own sexuality and the intricacies of intimacy were prerequisites to fostering discussions of the issue.

"How much uniformity does our unity as Lutheran Christians require and how much diversity will we request, desire and need for the sake of effective ministry and mission?" he asked.