wfn.org | Pate to Lead ELCA's African American Lutheran Asociation

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

June 6, 1997

PATE TO LEAD ELCA'S
AFRICAN AMERICAN LUTHERAN ASSOCIATION
97-20-057-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Sylvia J. Pate, Dayton, Ohio, was elected
president of the African American Lutheran Association (AALA) of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  AALA is a "partnership"
between the ELCA and the African American community.  Pate was
elected by AALA's 200 members when they met May 21-25, for the sixth
biennial convention in St. Louis.
     "As president, I hope to continue to do those things that will help our
churches celebrate the diversity of our human family as a true gift from
God," said Pate.  "I plan to assess where we are as an organization, to
strengthen the organization's finances, to improve communication
between the national organization and its members, and to develop a
program to attract and encourage participation of African American
youth and young adults," she said.
     Pate is president of Quality Connection -- a human resource
consulting firm -- where she is a specialist in personnel staffing,
management and equal employment opportunity requirements.
During a 31-year career with the federal government, Pate was the first
African American woman to manage the Black Employment Program for
the U. S. Air Force.  Pate retired from the federal government in 1988 as
the director for equal employment opportunity for the U.S. Department of
Education.  From 1990 to 1992 she served as interim executive director
for the ELCA's Commission for Women.  She is a member of New Hope
Lutheran Church, Dayton.
     The theme for the African American Lutheran Association convention
was "Remembering the Past -- Building the Future."  The Rev. Eric T.
Campbell, ELCA director for African American and synodical ministries,
said the convention allowed "the church to recommit to the future of
Africans and African Americans as full partners in the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America."
     For Robert H. Elliott, St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Chicago, the
convention focused on "the change in leadership and direction for the
association.  AALA foreshadows a greater participation for lay
leadership and takes an evangelistic approach to listening to the
concerns of ordinary people sitting in the pews."
     Participants "called upon the ELCA "to rebuild Black churches,
physically and spiritually, and to assist in the efforts to combat the racism
that has led to the destruction of Black churches in the past two years
through arson attacks."  AALA "affirms the efforts being made by the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ... to rebuild Black churches
destroyed and damaged in the arson attacks."
     In a separate resolution, AALA voted "to call upon the ELCA to utilize
every available resource for the development of a comprehensive
strategy that addresses the urgent and complex issues of the criminal
justice system in this country and provide opportunities for the
development of prison ministries, advocacy programs, services to
families of the incarcerated and congregation-based crime and violence
prevention programs."
     AALA called for a moratorium on all executions in state and federal
prisons, a moratorium on construction of all minimum and maximum
security correctional facilities and an end to the incarceration of juveniles
in adult penal institutions.
     Convention participants voted to "condemn" the staffing and hiring
practices of The Lutheran, the official magazine of the ELCA.  The
resolution states that the magazine has had only one African American
included among its editorial staff and no other people of color since its
formation 10 years ago.  The association plans to "inform all of its
members ...  and congregations with which it has influence ... to
withdraw any current support and subscriptions and boycott The
Lutheran."

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html