SEPA Update for Rostered Leaders /August 17, 2009

June 17, 2009

Quick Links

Follow Churchwide Assembly online

The Twitter phenomenon has spilled over into the multimedia coverage of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Minneapolis. This is the first year blogging and social media sites will be used during a churchwide assembly.
ELCA members will be able to keep up with the actions of the Assembly via live video streams of plenary sessions and news conferences, plus photo galleries, news releases, blogs and social media sites Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter users are asked attach the tag "#CWA09" to their tweets, so anyone can follow these messages by search for "#CWA09" on Twitter Search on the Web. Assembly voting results will be posted to the ELCA Twitter feed and the ELCA Facebook page on the Web. Assembly highlights in video, photo and audio formats will be posted online at the ELCA Web Site.

2009 Churchwide Assembly links:

Assembly main page: http://www.elca.org/assembly
Live Web stream: http://www.elca.org/livevideo
Memorials Report: http://www.elca.org/assembly/memorials
Multimedia section: http://www.elca.org/assembly/multimedia
CWA09 blog: http://blogs.elca.org/assembly
ELCA Twitter stream: http://twitter.com/ELCA
ELCA Facebook page: http://facebook.com/Lutherans
Pre-Assembly Report (includes all reports and memorials): http://www.elca.org/assembly/report
Schedule: http://www.elca.org/assembly/schedule
Summary of Actions: http://www.elca.org/assembly/voting
Voting Results: http://www.elca.org/assembly/actions

Other relevant links:
You can find an alphabetical listing of topics with URL shortcuts at A-Z Index. But here are a few highlights:

ELCA News Service: http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA Studies on Sexuality: http://www.elca.org/faithfuljourney
Lutheran Malaria Initiative: http://www.elca.org/malaria
HIV and AIDS: http://www.elca.org/aids
Full Communion partners: http://www.elca.org/fullcommunion
Justice for Women: http://www.elca.org/justiceforwomen

LAMPa on PA budget as a moral document

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in PA asks us to share the following with all rostered leaders:

To: All ELCA Rostered leaders in PA via Synod Communicators

From: Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in PA

As Lutherans, we believe that Pennsylvania's budget is a moral document and a statement of our shared responsibility to protect our most vulnerable citizens.Pennsylvania is facing a budget crisis that is threatening the very lifelines that protect thousands of vulnerable Pennsylvanians, and there is no end in sight. The PA Council of Churches ministry of Public Advocacy is asking Pennsylvania's faith community-clergy and leaders from every faith tradition-to come together to sign on to a letter that will be sent to every member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. (With a specialized greeting to members of the Budget Conference Committee and to Leadership). In partnership with the council, we are sending you this request.

Please help us after you have read the letter (see below) by signing on. You can do so by sending the following information to the Rev. Sandra Strauss at s.strauss@pachurches.org:

Name as you wish it to appear, with title
Faith Tradition
Place of Residence
StateSenator and Representative (look up on LAMPa website - www.lamp.org)
E-mail

We are asking that you respond with your sign-on AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, but no later than August 20, so that we can compile signatures and forward letters to legislators by the last week of the month. Once you have signed, please forward this message to friends and colleagues to ask for their support as well.

With thanks for you ministries and partnerships,

The LAMPa staff (Rev. Amy E. Reumann, Marissa Harris, and Gail Wilson)

______________________________________

Open Interfaith Letter to Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly

As clergy and leaders in Pennsylvania's faith community, we urge you to call on your leadership and your colleagues on the Budget Conference Committee to move quickly and to work in good faith toward crafting a compromise state budget for Fiscal Year 2009-10 that safeguards our economic future, protects vulnerable Pennsylvanians on the front lines of today's deep economic recession, and rejects the use of harsh cuts to balance the budget.

Our faith traditions call us to envision a society characterized by a profound sense of justice and shalom in human relationships and social structures, which leads us to support the following principles:

That government, businesses, and society recognize the value of all persons, regardless of any identifiable demographic characteristic-AND that government give all persons a voice in making decisions concerning legislation and policies that have an impact on the ability of persons to survive and flourish in society.
That government promote, enhance, and protect the ability of all members of society to flourish.
That government ensure that the most vulnerable citizens-children, elderly, poor, physically or mentally fragile-are not made to suffer, but have what they need to create a decent life.

Clearly, the impacts of the delayed Commonwealth budget are devastating for Pennsylvania's most vulnerable citizens. Across the Commonwealth, Pennsylvanians suffering the effects of the recession are turning to state-funded services and to institutions in their communities for assistance. Sadly, the impacts that have left citizens in need have also resulted in declining revenues at every level of government. Local governments, hospitals, elder care providers and non-profit organizations, community colleges, schools, and others are left with dramatically reduced resources to meet growing demand.

Private agencies that provide many important services are already drawing down their capital reserves, depleting agency lines-of-credit, and accessing alternate funding sources in order to continue to cover the costs of food, clothing, shelter, transportation, treatment, supervision and support for citizens in need. Ongoing non-payment for services (in the absence of a budget) severely challenges the ability of these agencies to continue delivery ofservices. Their survival and the continued employment of their tens of thousands of employees is being seriously jeopardized. Closure and/or severe cutbacks in services will leave even more vulnerable Pennsylvanians at risk, without access to needed services.

We remind you that we have come to this place because of reduced revenues, not reckless overspending. We know that Pennsylvania's spending growth has been lower than the national average for four of the past five years. And we are not alone in this crisis-most other states face significant budget deficits this year as well.

Sadly, from our perspective we see two sides, firmly entrenched, unwilling to budge from the positions taken. While we support fiscal accountability, we also believe that Pennsylvania cannot solve its current fiscal crisis through spending cuts alone. In order to avoid devastating reduction and elimination of services that protect our most vulnerable citizens, we urge you to consider thoughtful measures aimed at boosting revenue to help balance the budget, as well as cuts, and to encourage the members of the Budget Conference Committee to do so as well. A number of approaches aimed at enhancing revenues have already been placed on the table.

We also assert that cuts to local education and safety net services within the state budget will not protect Pennsylvanians from tax increases. It will simply shift the burden to the local level where local property owners will bear the brunt of increased property taxes to fund important services.

We believe that Pennsylvania's budget is a moral document and a statement of our shared responsibility to protect our most vulnerable citizens. You, as a member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, have a responsibility to work toward building a solid foundation for the future-one that does not leave children, elderly, and other vulnerable Pennsylvanians without the services they need. We believe this is best accomplished by preserving critical services for the most vulnerable and sustaining investments in education and skills that will serve to build a stronger Commonwealth.

We urge you to press your leadership and your colleagues on Budget Conference Committee to move with all due speed to arrive at a compromise budget that is fair, avoids devastating gaps or loss of services for thousands of Pennsylvania citizens, and ends the uncertainty that local governments and agencies face as they try to maintain crucial services for those who need them most.

Time is running short for our neighbors who need your help.