wfn.org | ELCA's Magazine Will Expand Coverage Of Multicultural Events

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 12, 1998

ELCA'S MAGAZINE WILL EXPAND COVERAGE OF MULTICULTURAL EVENTS
98-229-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "The Lutheran," a magazine of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), will work to increase its coverage of
ethnic-specific ministries and events with help from the ELCA's Commission
for Multicultural Ministries (CMM).
     Regular dialogue between staff of The Lutheran and CMM will be more
intentional under a new plan the magazine's advisory committee and the
commission's steering committee developed together.  Both committees
adopted the plan together at the CMM steering committee meeting held here
Oct. 16-17.
     "We hope that more journalists will contribute stories to the
magazine," said Hazel H. Reinhardt, Edina, Minn., chair of The Lutheran's
advisory committee.  "The magazine is a consumer product that strives to
meet the needs and desires of its readers."
     The plan calls for the staff of the commission and magazine to
develop a "data bank" of writers from the ELCA's five ethnic associations--
African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Arab and Middle
Eastern, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Hispanic.
     Under the plan the magazine will offer a summer or extended
internship program to train people with skills in journalism.  The magazine
will also make "every effort" to recruit and hire a person of color to its
editorial staff when a vacancy occurs.
     "I am pleased with the magazine's coverage of the entire church
community, particularly within the last six months," said the Rev. W.
Arthur Lewis, Atlanta, chair of CMM's steering committee.  "I am prayerful
that the new relationship between both churchwide units will continue in
good faith."
     The CMM steering committee passed a resolution Feb. 27 that called
for the magazine to "intentionally expand its coverage of multicultural
ministries."  The magazine will also work to recruit and hire a person of
color to its editorial staff and assist the ELCA in implementing its
multicultural goals.
     In other business at its October meeting, the commission's steering
committee passed a resolution calling for the ELCA's Department for Human
Resources "to monitor the progress toward the recruitment of persons of
color and/or primary language other than English for senior executive
positions" in the churchwide office.
     "We cannot continue begging for participation in a land that is ours
and in a church that is ours," said Ira Frank, Messiah Lutheran Church,
Auburn, Wash., in support of the resolution.
      "I believe it's time for us to stop lamenting about the pathologies
of others, because it is really not our responsibility to persuade them to
believe people of color are worthy," said Sylvia Pate, Dayton, Ohio,
president of the African American Lutheran Association of the ELCA.

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For information contact:
Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Director (773) 380-2955 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html