# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1981_S373
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

372 OTHER REPORTS

respond to a disaster; and is studying a process by which
the board could respond to chemical, nuclear, and other
technological disasters.

—Urgent concerns regarding registration and the draft
were expressed in a letter sent to all LCMS, ALC, and
AELC congregations in July 1980. The mailing was
prompted by the order that all 19- and 20-year-old men
register for a potential draft.

—A national assembly on Lutheran social ministry was
planned for this May, with costs paid by Lutheran
Brotherhood. The assembly has given the churches a
chance to “display the unity of purpose and identity of
their social ministries, address issues common to the
mission of each entity, provide for communication and
exchange, and highlight the advantages of voluntary
service delivery.” A followup Consultation on Social
Ministry Futures will do planning through the 1980—90s.

American Indian Services

1980 marked the 10th anniversary of the unique partnership
between Lutheran people and Indian communities—the
National Indian Lutheran Board—which is staffed by the
division’s Indian desk. Some celebrating of the anniversary
took place at the annual meeting of the NILB in February, but
most of the time was given to identifying program priorities for
the 1980s. As described by board member Richard Magnus of
Denver, three areas were selected: “Developing Indian leader-
ship, not just for the Lutheran community but for the Indian
community, leadership which will be good for the whole
community; doing more work on local and regional levels,
using existing structures and not always creating new ones,
building networks, broadening the number of workers, support-
ing one another as needed; confronting racism and injustice by
examining ourselves and confessing our individual and
corporate sins.”

“Point of Partnership— Perseverance” and “Point of Part-
nership—Recommitment” were the themes of recent annual
meetings and also of promotional materials used in the church
bodies to raise money for NILB’s funding of Indian projects.
Approximately $200,000 a year goes for this purpose. The
projects seek to raise the level of services for Indian people, who
remain among the country’s “poorest of the poor.” Under way
are some efforts to invite Lutheran churches overseas to fund
hunger and other projects for Indians.

Declining attendance at meetings of the Central, Eastern,
Southwest, and Northwest NILB regional conferences has led
to seeking alternatives and yet achieve the primary purpose for
the meetings—to share information and surface Indian issues
needing attention. One plan is to add Indian concerns to the
agendas of the division’s 21 regional planning consultations.

The board has sponsored seven workshops in urban centers
across the country aimed at assisting members of the 41 tribes
not recognized by the federal government to obtain such
recognition. Volunteer attorneys and researchers are being
sought to help the Indians through the required acknowledg-
ment process, which takes two to three years.

Advocacy work during the biennium has included getting
Congress to pass the following: the Indian Child Welfare Act,
which provides jurisdiction for tribal courts in the foster and
adoptive placement of Indian children and authorizes funds
for a variety of programs aimed at strengthening Indian
families; a joint resolution setting forth a clear policy of
religious freedom for American Indians; and funding authority
for the operation of tribally controlled community colleges. The
Navajo community in Church Rock, N. Mex., received help in
generating national concern for the contamination of its water
and land by uranium mining activities in the area.

Immigration and Refugee Services

Resettling the constantly increasing flow of refugees from
Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos has continued to be a major
thrust. The total resettled through Lutheran congregations
since Communist governments took over the three countries in
1975 topped 45,000 in 1980. An LCMS congregation, St. Paul
Lutheran, Melrose Park, II]., is among those who have
responded to resettlement as a special calling. To date the

congregation’s Care Corps has resettled 125 Indochinese
refugees, and the number continues to grow.

In June 1979 LCMS President J.A.O. Preus joined his
presidential colleagues in the ALC, LCA, and AELC in success-
fully appealing to President Carter to double from 7,000 to
14,000 the monthly quota for entry of refugees from Southeast
Asia under the President’s parole authority. At a press confer-
ence arranged in New York City for religious leaders to appeal
for doubling the quota, the now retired general secretary of the
council, George Harkins, promised, “We’re ready to do every-
thing that is necessary to resettle those that can be resettled.”

The previous month the department, on behalf of all of the
voluntary resettlement agencies in the U.S., opened a refugee
processing office in Hong Kong. Its costs are covered by a
contract with the State Department. The office quickly grew to
a staff of 50 people processing 9,000 refugees a month. “When
you’re over here,” Director Richard L. Shinn reported, “you
realize even more that the churches hold so many lives in their
hands. Hands are made to reach out and serve. Let’s do it!”

Launched at a Hong Kong refugee camp in November 1980
was a project to give English-as-a-second-language training
and cultural orientation to refugees slated to come to the U.S.A.
The project is being run by LIRS and the American Council for
Nationalities under a contract with the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees.

The arrival last year in Florida of approximately 130,000
refugees from Cuba plus the presence of 15,000 Haitians once
again called for an expeditious response from LIRS and
Lutheran congregations. By the end of the year they had
resettled nearly 8,500 of the total.

The Cubans’ “freedom flotilla” forced a resolution of the
plight of the Haitians here. They had been viewed as economic
and not political refugees and were unwelcomed. Both groups
came to be classified as “entrants.”

A 20-minute film designed to encourage congregations to
sponsor refugees, “Room for a Stranger,” was completed in
1979. It uses an actual discussion in a congregational meeting
considering a sponsorship as a thread of continuity in focusing
on the Indochina refugee crisis.

Meanwhile the department worked hard with other partner
agencies to get Congress to pass a new refugee act. President
Carter signed the resulting legislation into law in March 1980.
It represents the first major overhaul of U.S. refugee provisions
since 1962. It increases from the present 17,400 to 50,000 the
annual “normal flow” allotment for refugees as persons from
anywhere fleeing “because of persecution or a well-founded
fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality,
membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”
Previously only those fleeing from Communist countries or the
Middle East were considered refugees.

A national conference on undocumented aliens convened
by the department in November 1978 has led to the formulation
of adocument on the principles involved in the undocumented
alien issue and guidelines for solving the problem. The docu-
ment concludes: ‘Exploitation is never the church’s answer to
any social or economic issue. Instead the church’s answer
should always be a ‘yes’ to our Lord’s commission by his own
example to love fully and act justly. The undocumented issue is
within that commission and compels our earnest concerned
action.” :

In a restructuring of the department to meet its burgeoning
work, Kenneth J. Stumpf, who joined the staff in 1977 as
coordinator of the U.S. immigration and refugee concerns,
became in March 1979 associate director for administration,
and Franklin L. Jensen, consultant for social responsibilities
with the LCA’s Division for Mission in North America, became
in October 1979 associate director for church and agency
relationships.

Specialized Pastoral Care and Clinical Education

Twenty-four CPE supervisors and other group facilitators
conducted a series of workshops on aging the summer and fall
of 1979. The workshops were designed to help parish clergy
come to grips with their own aging process so they can in turn
offer an effective, creative ministry to the aging in their
congregations and communities. The series was coordinated
by the department with funding from Lutheran Brotherhood.

An in-depth evaluation of the workshops by associate