ALC OKs Chicago as Site of Headquarters

The church council of the American Lutheran Church has approved Chicago as the site of the merged Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

The headquarters site debate was the most controversial issue during two days of meetings here this week held by the ALC church council. The council approved the site Tuesday.

ALC, Lutheran Church in America (LCA) and Assn. of Evangelical Lutheran Church (AELC) are forming the 5.3 million-member merged church, the largest Lutheran organization in America.

The vote to endorse Chicago as the new church headquarters voided an earlier decision by the Minneapolis-based ALC to support Milwaukee. The endorsement came on a 26-12 vote of the 41-member ALC church council, which makes decisions for ALC between conventions held every two years.

Final Report

The LCA council voted against Milwaukee, but said it would support Chicago. The AELC voted to support Chicago.

The ALC council’s switch from Milwaukee to Chicago was influenced by the desire to have a “world-class” city as the merged church’s headquarters, leaders said. Church leaders also wanted the headquarters in a city with a significant minority population, since the Lutheran church wants to attract more minorities.

Another consideration was the accessibility of Chicago to the church’s constituency, according to Herb David, ALC director of the office of communications.

“Chicago seemed to be the major city in that Lutheran swath, sort of an arc, that runs from Pennsylvania to Chicago, and then sweeps up to the Upper Midwest. Chicago sits right in the middle of that constituency,” David said.

But the headquarters issue is not resolved, according to an ALC council member from Milwaukee.

“If we think what we are doing here today is going to end it all, it isn’t,” Dorothy Raasch said. “It is going to come to the convention. Once we move into a site we can’t move out without tremendous costs.”

Raasch said Wisconsin members would lobby convention delegates to change the site to Milwaukee, but that chances “are slim” of Milwaukee being chosen now.