When ELCA Lutherans meet in Chicago Aug. 6-11 for their 10th Churchwide Assembly, more than 1,000 voting members from the 65 synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will tackle issues such as an intensive Bible-reading initiative for the church, a commitment to a strategy regarding the HIV/AIDS epidemic, worldwide peacemaking efforts and a proposed social statement on education.

The ELCA, created from the merger of three Lutheran bodies 20 years ago, is a very young denomination,said Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, from denominational headquarters in Chicago.

The call to a five-year renewal program of deep scriptural study will ask ELCA Lutherans to "become fluent in the first language of faith, the language of Scripture," Hanson said.

Addressing more than a fear of becoming "biblically illiterate," a renewed commitment to Bible study will, first and foremost, let Christians "experience the power of the word of God to transform the lives of people and congregations," he said.

"The prevailing way in the culture to interpret the Bible is fundamentalist, apocalyptic, millennialist," Hanson said. His hope is that people instead read the Bible evangelically, he said.

Those assembled also will continue to discuss the issue of human sexuality in advance of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, which will be asked to craft a social statement on human sexuality, an issue which has been a hot-button topic at churchwide assemblies since 2001.

As part of the decision-making process, the denomination has sent study materials to congregations as they deliberate the knottiest issues that will arise, such as whether to ordain gay or lesbian clergy in same-sex relationships and whether or not to approve blessing of same-sex unions.

Hanson, who, in addition to his bishop's post, is president of the nearly 67 million-member Lutheran World Federation, said that he would like to see the ELCA recommit itself to ecumenical relationships, regardless of the recent statements of Pope Benedict that non-Catholic Christian denominations are not "true churches."

Some Protestants felt a sense of discouragement at the pope's statement, "a hope that we had proceeded further,"Hanson said.

He cautioned people to remember that the pope's view was not something profoundly new, he said, but a restatement of traditional belief.

However, he said, "grassroots ecumenism of life sustains the theological conversations when we run into these difficulties," he said. "I encourage members of the ELCA, when we reach these difficult places, to renew local contacts.

"With people in the pew, there's an impatience with the seeming inability of us as leaders to work our way through our differences," Hanson said. Feeling excluded from sharing the Eucharist is where the deep hurt of division is most concretely felt, he said.

"People long to feel shoulder-to-shoulder at the Eucharist with those they love, friends and neighbors."

The other dilemma is, he said, "do we as Christians have the luxury to let our differences separate us in a world full of people of other faiths? When the voices of religious extremists prevail in the world today, we as moderate persons of faith need to reach out."

Baptized membership continues to slowly decline in the 4.85 million-member ELCA, Hanson said.

That, and the composition of the body at 97 percent white, "are both of deep concern to me," he said.

"The realities of demographics do not discourage or diminish our resolve" to evangelize and diversify, he said.

"We can't wait for the culture to produce Lutherans for us, or for Lutherans to have more children for us,"he said. Church members must be committed to reaching out to share their faith with others, he said.

Hanson's hope for the Churchwide Assembly is that it will include debate on the war in Iraq.

Rather than fear tension, he said, "my greater fear would be silence. It's appalling that, as people of faith, we are not yet gathering in public places to debate (this).

"My worst fear is if we left Chicago and didn't say a thing."

(Reach reporter Karen Herzog at 250-8267 or karen.herzog@;bismarcktribune. com.)