Social writing projects are ways that we, as ELCA members, can learn about and discuss the questions and complexities of being the church in the world. There are two projects that are currently in progress: a social statement on women and justice and a social message on human rights. Social statements are teaching and policy documents that provide broad frameworks while social messages are more topical documents that focus on timely and pressing matters to the church and society. Right now, you have the opportunity to give feedback on both of these writing processes.
The draft message on human rights helps to explain why a concern for human rights is important to us as a church, how we can talk about human rights, and what our distinct responsibility is. Finally, there are concrete commitments of our church towards upholding and advocating for human rights. This message is currently available for your review and feedback before August 31. The next steps will be for the Conference of Bishops to review the document and for it to be considered by the Church Council in November 2017.
To read the full message and learn how to respond, click here.