Reflecting on the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly

Beloved in Christ,

A party of 21 Nebraska Synod voting members attended the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly this past week. What follows are my reflections on the week together in Phoenix and what I believe this means for the future of our church. 

Elections

• The Rev. Yehiel Curry, Bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, was elected to be the next Presiding Bishop of the ELCA. You can learn a bit more about Bishop-Elect Curry at the video below.

• The Rev. Lucille "CeCee" Mills was elected to be the next Secretary of the ELCA. Learn more about Pastor Mills here.
• Elections for the ELCA Church Council and various committees & task forces were also held. PMA Matt Schur, a member of Southwood Lutheran Church in Lincoln, was elected to a six year term on the ELCA Church Council. 

Social Teachings, Constitutional Amendments, Memorials, and Resolutions

• We adopted our newest social statement, Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Well-Being of All. 
• We approved editorial updates to the 2009 statement Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust. These updates reflect contemporary legal definitions and actions for all marriage relationships and do not change the essence of the statement itself. We will begin a reconsideration process for the statement this fall, which will be addressed by the 2028 Churchwide Assembly. 
• We heard the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church’s final report along with the ELCA Church Council’s response to the report. The CRLC’s work also found its way into some of our constitutional revisions, many of which were debated in great detail in the course of the Assembly's work.
• Memorial D4 "Stand for Palestinian Rights and End to Occupation of Palestine" Adopted 742-38
• Calls for the ELCA, its members, congregations, synods and churchwide units to advocate for human rights and a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis by supporting policies that end the occupation, to join the World Council of Churches in calling for an immediate end to the mass killing in Gaza, to urge the Office of the Presiding Bishop to petition U.S. leaders to recognize and act to end the genocide against Palestinians, halt military aid to Israel used in Gaza, and support Palestinian statehood and U.N. membership, to reject forced displacement and settler violence, to promote prayerful engagement and solidarity with those working for justice and peace, including ELCA partners in the region, and to amplify the voices of local partners and strengthen the ELCA’s advocacy through the Office of the Presiding Bishop, the Middle East and North Africa Desk, the Sumud initiative, and the Witness in Society team, among other offices.
• Memorial A3 - "Indian Boarding School Remembrance" Adopted 779-7 
• Calls for the church to observe the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools annually, develop educational programs and materials surrounding the history and ELCA’s complicity with Indian boarding schools, and provide ongoing recognition and support for the continued work to locate all known records regarding the ELCA predecessor churches’ involvement with Indian boarding and day schools, among other actions.
• Memorial B14 - "Consideration of Recommendation 1 of the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church" Adopted 646-144
• Calls for the church to acknowledge the importance of accountability in addressing racism within all structures of the ELCA, to affirm the work of the Strategy Toward Authentic Diversity Advisory Team, to request that the Church Council continue to work with the team to clarify the nature of mutual accountability, and to direct the Church Council to add a timeline to its actions taken and to provide progress updates to this church with a final report by fall 2027, including possible constitutional changes.
• We received the Common Statement on the Filioque. "Reception" means more than just hearing a report - it means we affirm the work that our ecumenical partners have done and will consider with care their recommendations related to bridging gaps between Lutheran and Orthodox churches.
• The Assembly approved an amendment setting a goal for youth (14-17) and young adults (ages 18-30) to make up 20% of Churchwide councils, committees, and task forces. 
• Special thanks go to Deacon Timothy Siburg of the Nebraska Synod for his service on the Churchwide Assembly's Memorials Committee. 

Worship, Prayer, Spiritual Practices, Speakers & Presentations

• The Assembly received the final reports of both Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and ELCA Secretary Sue Rothmeyer, who were both celebrated after their presentations and at a banquet on Thursday evening. 
• Other speakers and presenters included Presiding Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism; Bishop-elect Imad Mousa Dawood Haddad of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land; Rector Chad Rimmer of Lenoir-Rhyne University/Southern Theological Seminary, and many others. 
• Daily worship was a highlight for many of the Assembly attendees. We heard from a variety of preachers: Bishop Elizabath Eaton; the Rev. Imad Mousa Dawood Haddad, bishop-elect, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land; Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, General Secretary and President of the National Council of Churches; and the Rev. Wyvetta Bullock, ELCA executive for administration.
• On Tuesday evening, the ELCA's staff for Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations invited the Assembly to observe a powwow involving traditional dancers from a number of different tribes and nations. 
• On Thursday evening, AMMPARO hosted an impactful Candlelight Prayer Vigil for refugees and immigrants. 
• Voting members often paused for prayer before votes and even during plenary discussion.

Reflections

This is my second Churchwide Assembly, and it was a very different experience than my first (2022, as a replacement voting member and as bishop-elect). Some of you may remember that 2022 was a very difficult year for the ELCA. We were still working our way through COVID-related trauma and also struggled to deal with trauma within the church, some of it self-inflicted. I remember the plenary room feeling very anxious throughout the 2022 Churchwide Assembly; in 2025, anxiety was not nearly so rampant, even as we considered major leadership elections and further work we need to do as a church. We celebrated the ministries of Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and Secretary Sue Rothmeyer, giving thanks for their good work as leaders of this church. We acknowledged that changing structures and structural issues in this denomination is difficult, and that there is much work left to do, but I believe we also allowed ourselves to acknowledge that there are signs of hope that may not have been so apparent three years ago. 

I asked our voting members to summarize their Churchwide Assembly experience in three words. Mine are: Changing - Determined - Hopeful. We are not the church we should be - not yet. But we are also not the church we were - not anymore. As a GenXer, I know I'm supposed to be suspicious of institutions (if not outright dismissive), but I continue to see signs of the Spirit's work in this church throughout all of its expressions. God is up to something in this church: from the smallest congregations to the Churchwide office, there are people who just will not give up on this church, and I saw that determination in abundance one more time during the Churchwide Assembly. It reminded me of the quote that Rector Chad Rimmer used to close his presentation: 

“This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise; we are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished, but it is going on; this is not the end, but it is the road; all does not yet gleam with glory, but all is being purified.” Luther, Defense and Explanation of All the Articles (1521)

"This is not the end, but it is the road." Amen, Brother Martin. Here in Nebraska, it's good to be on that road together with all of you. 

Bishop Scott