ELCA News Blog
May 8, 2007
ELCA issues progress report on European American Lutheran Association
by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Multicultural Ministries issued a progress report on the formation of a European American Lutheran Association (EALA). In November 2006 the ELCA Church Council "affirmed the creation of a European American Association in the ELCA." Since that action ELCA Multicultural Ministries hosted a conference call and a two-day meeting to formulate a plan for creating the EALA to further antiracism work in the church, the report said. "The EALA will stand alongside the American Indian and Alaska Native, African American, Black, Arab and Middle Eastern, Latino, and the Asian and Pacific Islander Lutheran associations."
The report said the EALA is "tentatively scheduled to come into official existence with an organizing conference in the summer of 2008. A preliminary informational and organizational gathering will take place in Los Angeles as part of the Spirit of Wholeness in Christ: A Racial Ethnic Multicultural Event, July 12-15, 2007."
The association's primary membership will be "people who self- identify as European Americans and understand themselves to have inherited a history that is full of honor and faithfulness as well as being full of access to power and privilege. The members of the EALA will be people who agree that racism is present in society and institutions. The association will seek to provide communication, networking and resources to move people and institutions toward an antiracist identity," the report said.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog