Churchwide Assembly

The 2022 ELCA Churchwide Assembly will be held in Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 8-12, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. We gather under the theme, Embody the Word. There’s an importance in the double meaning of the two words:

• Embody, meaning both the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the life of the church emerging from a pandemic.
• Word – both meaning Jesus Christ and scripture

Luke 24:45 states, “Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.” We embody the Word, both Jesus and the scripture, by speaking it and proclaiming it. In 1522: Martin Luther’s translation of the New Testament made the Word accessible to the people and revolutionized the Christian movement worldwide. 500 years later, the call to make Jesus accessible to the people still exists today and as we look to the future of this church.

The ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the primary decision-making body of the church, is a process of communal spiritual discernment. When the ELCA Churchwide Assembly convenes, its voting members meet with confidence in God’s grace around word and water, wine and bread, to carry on their work on behalf of the entire church. Over the course of the assembly, voting members:

• Hear reports and review the work of churchwide officers, leaders and units;
• Receive and consider proposals from synod assemblies;
• Elect officers, board members and other leaders as specified by the constitution or bylaws;
• Establish ELCA churchwide policy;
• Worship together;
• Adopt a budget; and
• Conduct other business related to the ELCA churchwide organization.

For questions about the Churchwide Assembly, including COVID-19 related questions, please visit the frequently asked questions page.

The 2022 Churchwide Assembly will be held on the original and ancestral homelands of the Shawnee, Miami, and Kaskaskia peoples. When we gather for the Churchwide Assembly this August, let us remember the Indigenous peoples and tribal nations who were the first to love, pray, grow, celebrate, cry, drum, and sing upon the lands where we will be assembled. Read the full land acknowledgement.