In 2022, the Churchwide Assembly authorized two reconsiderations (see pages 4-5 and 11 of this Assembly action summary) of the Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust (2009) social statement:
- Reconsideration #1: A review of specific text references that “would consider the import that marriage legally is now a covenant between individuals;” review specific wording “in light of public acceptance of marriage of same-gender and gender-non-conforming couples;” and “consider references to diversity of family configurations;” and
- Reconsideration #2: A fresh consideration of the “church’s current concept of the four positions of bound conscience” found on pages 19-21 of Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust.
In the Spring of 2024, the ELCA Church Council Executive Committee seated a task force, which immediately began work on the first reconsideration. The task force represents a diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Click here to learn about task force members. The task force has taken up only the first reconsideration at this time. The work on the second reconsideration of bound conscience will not start until Fall 2025, as affirmed by ELCA Church Council at the start of the work.
Consistent with ELCA social teaching processes, ELCA members were invited to submit feedback on the draft edits for the first reconsideration during a public comment period (October 2024-January 2025). This feedback is an important part of the church’s discernment on the first reconsideration, and all survey responses, letters, and emails were shared with the task force. Receiving feedback from across the church is a vital step in discerning together. Your perspective matters.
Resources
The full social statement with the draft edits can be downloaded here. Each draft edit is highlighted in yellow and underlined in the document. Please remember that these are draft edits at this time. A Spanish translation of the social statement and the draft edits can be downloaded here.
A table of explanations of each draft edit can be found here. In the table, each draft edit is listed in the left column, with a short explanation of the edit in the right column. This is also available in Spanish here and in large-print here.
You can read an FAQ about the task force’s work here. The FAQs are also available in Spanish (click here) and in large-print (click here).
While the public comment period is now closed, questions can still be sent to the task force at Reconsiderations@elca.org.
Related Resources
Click here for a full text of the social statement Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust as originally adopted in 2009.
