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_________________________________________________________________ACTIONET
August 27, 2009
Churchwide Assembly Affirms Urgency
of
Lutheran Voice in Health Care
Reform
Health
Care is not just an issue...it's a Faith issue
A
resolution on Health Care Reform (see below) was adopted
last week at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly with the full
support of all 65 Bishops of the ELCA. Included in this
message are resources to help you faithfully carry out
the tasks of the resolution: understanding and conveying
to others the urgency of increasing access to health
care for all people.
-
LAMPa's "Faith-inspired
Vision of Health Care" website
has just been updated with
the fourth installment of three new
resources (newsletter article,
bulletin insert, and promotional summary) in
our five part summer series. This month's
resources are centered around the third of
four faith inspired reform principles:
Affordability.
Other
principles include Accessibility,
Accountability, and Inclusivity. It's
NOT too late to start using these resources
in your congregation!
- Last week,
over 140,000 people listened to conference call
with faith leaders & President Obama! This was
the result of a faithful response from the
members of over 30 co-sponsoring organizations,
including the ELCA! If you were not able to
join the call, you can access a recording of it
here.
- A litany based
on the ELCA Social Statement
"Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor" was
used at a vigil for Health Care Reform held
during Churchwide Assembly. It is now available
for download on the bottom of the
LAMPa health care page. Adapt it as you see
fit for use in your congregation or community.
Adopted by the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in Assembly, on
August 20th 2009:
WHEREAS, the 2003 ELCA
Social Statement, “Caring for our Health: Our Shared
Endeavor” states: “We support: a comprehensive approach
to health care as a shared endeavor among individuals,
churches, government, and the wider society; a vision of
health care and healing that includes individual,
church, and social responsibilities; a vision of a
health care system that is based on understanding
health, illness, healing, and health care within a
coherent set of services; equitable access for all
people to basic health care services and to the benefits
of public health efforts; faithful moral discernment
guiding individual participation and public policymaking
in health care services,” (pages 2-3); and
WHEREAS, “health care in
the United States,
its territories, and Puerto Rico
suffers from a prolonged crisis” (page 1); and
WHEREAS, “the stress on
individuals and families because of society’s inability
to fashion an adequate health care system makes action
increasingly urgent” (page 2); and
WHEREAS, the United States
Congress is working on comprehensive health care reform
for passage; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in Assembly,
commit this church in all of its expressions to the
premise that “each person should have ready access to
basic health care services that include preventive,
acute, and chronic physical and mental health care at an
affordable cost” (page 13); and be it therefore further
RESOLVED, that this
assembly request that the ELCA Washington Office, in
partnership with the synods, congregations and members
of the ELCA, convey the urgency and sense of this
resolution to Congress and the White House. |
