Memorials and resolutions enable our Churchwide Organization to address broad policy issues or issues important to God’s mission in the world. Memorials address broad policy issues, while resolutions have a narrower focus, requesting consideration or action by individual offices, units, or the Church Council. A Memorials Committee, appointed by the ELCA Church Council, receives memorials from synod assemblies and makes appropriate recommendations for assembly action.
Resolution and Memorials for consideration at the 2021 SWCA Synod Assembly, which will be held June 4 - 5, are due no later than Friday, April 2 at 5:00 p.m., and should be emailed to shenderson@socalsynod.org and office@socalsynod.org AND mailed to:
Committee on Reference and Counsel
c/o Samantha Henderson
Southwest California Synod
1300 East Colorado Street
Glendale, CA 91205.
Resolutions and Memorials may come from any institution, agency, synod ministry board, coalition, or congregation, and must bear the signatures of at least five people who are members of the Southwest California Synod.
All Resolutions and Memorials not received by the Committee on Reference and Counsel by the due date shall be placed on the assembly agenda as new business, requiring a two-thirds vote of voting members to put the resolution before the assembly for consideration.
The Reference and Counsel Committee will take the following under consideration as it reviews and makes recommendations regarding submitted memorials.
- The committee should review each memorial to make sure that it is presented in correct grammatical form, so that the intent of the memorial is clear, and so that the joint assembly can consider the memorial on the grounds of its merits and not get side-tracked in issues of grammar.
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The committee should review the whereases of the memorial so that they offer correct information and support the memorial, and are not prejudicial, unnecessarily pejorative or factually incorrect.
- The committee should determine whether or not the memorial is consistent with the Constitutions of the ELCA and the SWCA Synod.
- The committee should determine to the best of its ability what financial impact, if any, adoption of the memorial would have on the synod.
- The committee may make a recommendation to the assembly regarding the resolution or memorial. The recommendation should be based in part on whether or not the resolution or memorial meets the above four guidelines.
Interested parties should begin with the guidelines and resources linked below for assistance in writing resolutions and memorials for consideration.
Cecelia Travick-Jackson, Chair of Reference and Counsel
