Women of the ELCA Head Meets with Clinton

     WASHINGTON, D.C. (ELCA)  --  Catherine I.H. Braasch, executive director of Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, discussed President Bill Clinton's racial initiatives at a White House breakfast Nov. 20, together with other religious leaders.  "In the coming year the president wants to discover the best ways to address racial issues affecting this country," Braasch said in an interview.
     Clinton stressed the increasingly multicultural realities of the United States, Braasch said. He told about 120 religious leaders, "The demographers can tell us what we will look like in the future. It's up to us to determine what we will be like."
     Braasch said, "Women of the ELCA will recognize many of our concerns for proclaiming God's peace and living God's justice in the issues discussed that day.  We are not alone in voicing these concerns."
     Clinton fielded questions on race relations and their impact upon education, the strengthening of family life, immigration, the economy, and employment.  "We can't expect women on welfare to go to work" without addressing skills readiness and child care services availability, Clinton said.
     Braasch said, "Women of the ELCA and other women of faith have already shown leadership in anti-racism initiatives as well as in addressing the root causes of women and children living in poverty."
     Vice President Al Gore echoed Clinton's encouragement to churches to become a part of the Welfare-to-Work Program, Braasch said.  Gore called on faith communities and their members to commit to one year of partnering with welfare recipient families where parents are returning to work.
     "It takes a year," Gore said.  "Once someone has a job the challenge is just beginning. There are all of the issues that go with keeping a job and keeping families together: Everything from work habits and how to shake someone's hand, to where the kids will go for day care or dental care."
     "Government can't do this, but government can facilitate partnership with faith communities" to move people from welfare to work," Gore added.
     Braasch told Gore the president's racial initiatives offer hope for "looking at how men and women can work together in achieving important goals."
     Braasch described her conversation with Gore at breakfast:  "It was a privilege to get to know the vice president on a more personal level, especially to hear how family life has shaped him as a public leader.  Spending time with his family is what he does to relax," she said.
     The value of the event was "networking, networking, and networking," said Braasch. "It was a prime opportunity to connect names with faces of political and religious leaders of this country, to swap business cards, and to give and receive counsel about our mutual ministries and our mutual concerns for God's peace and justice among all people."
     Another ELCA leader present at the event was Kathleen Hurty, executive director of Church Women United.
     Nearly three million women in 9,000 congregations make up Women of the ELCA, carrying out a partnership with the church as a self-supporting organization.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or
NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html