ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996                 TAG: 9606030067
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-4  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER 

LUTHERANS GATHER FOR BUDGET TALKS ROANOKE COLLEGE IS HOST TO SYNOD

Lutherans from throughout Virginia convened on the campus of Roanoke College in Salem on Friday for their annual assembly to take care of business and worship together.

Over the weekend, members of the assembly will consider a $1.76 million budget for the Virginia Synod, make a series of amendments to the synod bylaws, attend workshops, hear reports from denominational officers, and participate in several worship services.

The proposed budget is up 2.5 percent from the current one. Half of the funds would be sent to the national church, and half would stay in Virginia.

The fiscal 1997 financial plan varies only slightly from the current one, but includes 5 percent pay raises for the bishop and his two full-time assistants, and 3 percent raises for the synod secretarial and bookkeeping staff.

Most other expenses remained unchanged.

Synod Bishop Richard Bansemer reported that he expects the national denomination to approve a series of ecumenical agreements in the coming months, to culminate in the national Churchwide Assembly in 1997. Among those agreements will be a lifting of condemnations of the Roman Catholic Church that were issued during the Reformation years. They also will initiate closer relationships with the Episcopal church, through an agreement known as the Concordat, and with churches in the Reformed tradition, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today, members will participate in workshops on subjects ranging from attracting young people to church in "Generation X and Your Congregation," to attracting those who are unfamiliar with the basics of Christianity in "Who Is This Jesus Guy, Anyway?'' Other workshops deal with such subjects as congregational singing, aging, Bible study and ecumenical relationships.

This is the ninth Annual Assembly of the Virginia Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The synod was formed after the 1987 merger of the American Lutheran Church, Lutheran Church in America and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches.

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