Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Office of the Presiding Bishop.

This correspondence was generated largely in response to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) draft social statement, "The Church and Human Sexuality: a Lutheran Perspective." The process of studying the issue and of drafting the statement was the responsibility of the Division for Church in Society (DCS). The study draft was sent to ELCA pastors and other church leaders in October 1993. However, before ELCA pastors received their copies of the draft statement, it was released to the press. Therefore, many ELCA members and pastors first heard about the study through the newspaper, particularly one Associated Press article (copies of which are attached to several letters written to Bishop Chilstrom). Many church members were upset with the statement, believing it to be ELCA policy, rather than a draft of a statement. ELCA pastors were left to field questions regarding the statement without even having received it themselves. Many pastors were upset that they were not informed of the release of the statement and consequently left unprepared to deal with their parishioners' reactions.

The second draft of the statement, presented to the churchwide assembly in 1995, took these responses of ELCA pastors into account. The second draft, "Human Sexuality, Working Draft: a Possible Social Statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with Accompanying Documents," was released in October 1994. The study was presented to the Churchwide Assembly in 1995, but a decision on the sexuality study was postponed until the 1997 Assembly.