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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

June 6, 2003

ELCA THEOLOGIANS OF COLOR FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP RECRUITMENT
03-117-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) who teach theology in seminaries and who are people of
color reflected on the church's process of recruiting individuals for
leadership positions in the ELCA when they met May 8-10 in Las Vegas.
More than 25 ELCA teaching theologians of color attended the meeting.
     "What makes this group unique among the larger gathering of
teaching theologians is their knowledge and experience as scholars
coming from ethnic communities that live on the margins of our society
today," said the Rev. Gregory J. Villalon, director for multicultural
leadership development and recruitment, ELCA Division for Ministry.
     Teaching theologians of color "bring fresh excitement and rich
understanding to the teachings of the church, as well as a new focus on
what it means to be a church in mission in a diverse and pluralistic
world.	That excitement spreads to students in our seminary," he said.
     Villalon said a great contribution that teaching theologians of
color make is communicating the message to students of color and others
who come from marginalized communities that there's room for them in the
church.  "It is exciting, different and inviting for students to see
scholars of color in leadership positions in our predominately White
seminaries," he said.
     The participants' examination of leadership development and
recruitment began with a reflection on how the historical segregation of
people has contributed to the growth and development of the church.  In
a presentation called, "Another Look at Our History: The Margin as a
Companion Traveler in the Growth and Development of the Church," the
Rev. James Kenneth Echols, president, Lutheran School of Theology at
Chicago, used the "Black experience" as a case study.
     Echols cited the story of Richard Allen -- born in 1760 as a slave
named Absalom Jones -- who obtained freedom from his master and became a
mission worker among the free Black population.  Jones and his group
walked out of St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, a church in which
segregated seats were set aside in the balcony for the "second class."
Echols said that event has been identified with the rise of the
independent Black Church movement in the North, a "movement in which
Black Christians left White churches in protest of their second-class
citizenship, of their marginalization in the life of the church."
     "The ELCA is 97 percent White," said Echols.  "Although the ethnic
character of Lutheranism is no longer what it once was, the church
bodies that ultimately came together to form the ELCA were the result of
Norwegians, mid-western Germans, and Danes, while the [former] Lutheran
Church in America was a merger of Eastern Germans, Swedes, Finns, Danes
and Slovaks.
     "Amidst all this merger and consolidation history, people of color
and language have constituted a fairly insignificant footnote.	To the
degree that we have been present at all, we have been on the margins of
a predominantly White church, seeking to find ways of moving into the
mainstream of the tradition and denomination without sacrificing or
abandoning our respective cultural backgrounds and heritages," said
Echols.
     "It is our unique perspectives that need to be authentically
represented and embodied by people of color" in the ELCA, "for these
unique perspectives constitute our contributions to the Lutheran
tradition.  Clearly, the seminaries and colleges of our church are key
places for these perspectives to be shared and contributions to be
made," he said.
     Echols said the ELCA has a "new openness and invitation to
marginalized communities to move into the mainstream of its faith and
life.  This movement can been seen in the increasing number of
congregations and rostered leaders who are Native American, Latino,
Asian American and African/African American.  Both now and in the
future, the progress of our church toward the full inclusion of
marginalized people will be measured, among other ways, by the service
of lay and rostered leaders in non-parish settings, including seminaries
and church colleges."
     In one session participants conducted an open conversation about
the present state of multicultural leadership development in the ELCA.
     "Today, the ELCA only has 416 pastors of color serving in
ministries of the church.  These numbers will remain low if an increased
emphasis is not placed on the identification, recruitment and support of
students of color," Villalon said.  The number of pastors in the ELCA is
17,672.
     "The number of students of color attending seminary today is
virtually the same number in the last 10 years," he said.  The number of
students of color enrolled in the eight seminaries of the ELCA is 55,
"which is equal to the number of students of color participating in the
ELCA's Theological Education for Emerging Ministries or TEEM program,"
he said.
     TEEM prepares individuals who are perceived by the ELCA to possess
those leadership abilities that are needed in specific communities such
as African American, Black, Asian and Pacific Islander, Hispanic,
American Indian and Alaska Native, Arab Middle Eastern, deaf, remote
rural and inner city communities.
     In another session, participants reviewed the ELCA's new strategic
plan and "Sharing Faith in a New Century: A Vision for Evangelism in the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America," the church's comprehensive
strategy for evangelism.  The strategic plan and evangelism strategy
will be presented to the 2003 ELCA Churchwide Assembly this summer.
     Villalon said participants raised concerns that as the ELCA moves
forward with the new strategic plan and evangelism strategy, the
progress made toward building multicultural ministry will not slow down
or diminish, and that the evangelism strategy does not become a vehicle
for oppressing "the marginalized communities" by "assimilating and
changing" communities.
     It has been more than nine years since teaching theologians of
color have had the opportunity to meet with one another and discuss
topics and issues unique to the group, Villalon said.  Ideas were shared
in terms of how teaching theologians of color can continue such
conversations and take a more active role in impacting the ELCA as it
moves in new directions for the future.  They also expressed the need to
recruit more ELCA members of color for the ordained ministry, Villalon
said.
     The Rev. George E. "Tink" Tinker, professor of cross-cultural
ministries, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, said participants at the
meeting "were able to form alliances and build mutual support for one
another as Lutheran teaching theologians of color."
     The value of such a meeting was the opportunity to "get together
with others who understand what I'm saying without having to explain or
teach them.  White theologians can gather together in a variety of
venues and have an immediate connection with one another.  For teaching
theologians of color, we're often alone among faculty, making it
difficult to build a theological language that is ours," he said.
     For the Rev. Javier Alanis, assistant professor of theology,
culture and mission, Lutheran Seminary Program of the Southwest, Austin,
Texas, the meeting was "valuable in that theologians of color in the
ELCA do not always have the opportunity to come together in a forum that
addresses theological education from the perspective of our respective
communities."  He said the meeting allowed for the sharing of stories
and experiences that are common, unique to theologians of color, and it
affirmed their roles within theological education in the church.
     An important aspect of the meeting was being able to discuss the
identification and selection of leaders for seminary training.
     The Rev. Winston D. Persaud, professor of systematic theology,
Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, said that outreach among
members of the Guyanese community in the United States, for example,
must address the fact that Guyanese immigrants have multi-religious and
multi-ethnic identities.  "Family, education and religious commitment
and practices are held in high esteem by Guyanese immigrants, and the
church must know that having worship in homes is highly valued," he
said.
     Participants agreed to meet at least every two years and will work
to initiate a conversation with the ELCA's presiding bishop and other
churchwide office leaders to discuss how teaching theologians of color
can serve as a resource to the church, particularly on the future of
multicultural ministries in the ELCA.
     The ELCA has eight seminaries and two seminary extension centers.
The Lutheran Seminary Program of the Southwest and the Lutheran
Theological Center at Atlanta are the two extension centers.

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