wfn.org | Lutherans Gather to Pursue Their Multicultural Mission

[Brenda Williams <BRENDAW@elca.org>]

Reply-To: ElcaNews <ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG>
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

December 9, 1998

LUTHERANS GATHER TO PURSUE THEIR MULTICULTURAL MISSION
98-43-242-MR

        HOUSTON (ELCA) -- "At its beginnings the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America declared its intention to be an 'inclusive community' and defined the
accomplishment of that goal as of having at least 10 percent of its membership
be people of color and/or whose primary language is other than English," said
Dr. Ryan LaHurd, president of Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, N.C., a college of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
        Speaking to more than 300 participants of the ELCA's 1998 Multicultural
Mission Institute here Nov. 6-8, LaHurd said, "Even with good intentions and
substantial efforts by many persons, the ELCA has not yet achieved that goal.
Whether sufficient motivation and effort have been given to the goal, I cannot
properly judge."
        The theme of the 1998 Institute was "Making Christ Known: A Time for
Reflecting and Reaching for the Future."  Its purpose was to "equip and inspire"
participants for ministries in their settings and develop an understanding of
issues related to ethnic ministries through Bible study, worship, workshops and
plenary sessions.
        "The church has set as its goal that we be an inclusive community, but
those who wrote the tactics to accomplish that goal made an equation between
diversity and a percentage of people of color in the membership.  And we, people
of color in the church, become co-opted into that definition.  Thus, we came to
see ourselves as the diversity and the inclusiveness," said LaHurd.  "But if we
are the diversity, what does that make the rest of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America?"
        "Who are the non-people-of-color in the ELCA?  We have come mistakenly
to think of our church as a previously homogenous group, ethnically and
culturally, that has lately decided to reach out to others in an effort to
become diverse.  The ELCA majority has become a sort of amorphous 'vanilla'
group in our minds, so the term 'Anglo' seems as good as any other even though
the ethnic heritage of most of the group is German or Scandinavian."
        "The Lutheran church already is a diverse and inclusive community even
if certain groups are under-represented or not helped to feel welcome," LaHurd
said.  He argued with four points that "recognition of the church's current
diversity and inclusiveness serves important purposes."
        "First, we can use this recognition to help counteract the fear among
some that diversity will weaken or endanger the church.
        "Second, those of us whose culture orients us to take our identities in
part from our communities need to see the church as inclusive of differences if
we are to identify ourselves as more than peripheral members of this church,"
LaHurd said.
        "Third, the need for diversity and inclusiveness is not to change
direction but to be committed to the road Lutherans in America have long been
on.  Thus we can use the tools that worked in the past to bring the various
Northern European ethnic groups to the point of being a single church body, such
as serious dialogue and recognition of others as equal partners," he said.
        "Finally, and most importantly, I sought to remind us that the true
identity of the church is Jesus Christ and his gospel."
        Although the ELCA's 10-year goal of 10 percent people of color and/or
whose primary language is other than English by 1998 has not been realized,
there is an increase from 2.18 to 2.30 percent in this population among the
membership.   Of the 11,000 congregations of the ELCA, 284 worship in a language
other than English.  The church has 5.2 million members in the United States and
Caribbean.
        At the Institute five ethnic communities -- African American, American
Indian and Alaska Native, Arab and Middle Eastern, Asian and Pacific Islanders
and Latinos -- met individually to discuss the realities of their ministries in
the ELCA.
        Workshop topics included strengthening multicultural ministry through
prayer and Bible study, international service and social justice work in
congregations.
        Wendi Helgemo, a member of the Hochunk Nation, Wahkon, Minn., led a
workshop on sovereignty issues facing American Indians and Alaska Natives.
"Indians are a political group and recognized by the U.S. government as a
political group -- a sovereign nation."  Helgemo is an attorney for the Mille
Lacs Band of Ojibwe.
        "Tribes determine who their own members are and develop a set of
determinants.  Some members even carry a card," Helgemo said.  "Some Indian
reservations were created by treaties and there are federal laws that protect
Indians."
        "Since the earliest days that there were Blacks in this country -- and
certainly when our ancestors lived on the Motherland Africa," said Dr. Addie J.
Butler, Philadelphia, ELCA vice president, "religion was so integrally related
to living -- yes, daily living -- that the idea of an Institute to emphasize
'Making Christ Known' would be incomprehensible."  Butler is assistant dean for
the Community College of Philadelphia.
        "Even before persons of African descent became Christian, we were
spiritual beings intimately connected to the Most High God," she said.
        "Christ was made known during the years of slavery and for the more than
100 years after it, primarily through the sacred and secular songs that have
come to be called Negro spirituals," Butler said.  In her presentation Butler
quoted several lyrics from spiritual and contemporary songs and told about
"people of African descent in the Lutheran church during this country's 400
years of slavery."
        "As we make Christ known and reach for the future in our worship and in
our everyday lives, we must use every opportunity that we have to invite others
to join us for worship," Butler added.
        The Rev. Emmanuel Grantson, born in Ghana, Africa, led a Bible study
about Africans in the Bible.  Grantson is director for the Suabea Leadership
Center and pastor of Truth Evangelical (Lutheran) Church in Lanham, Md.
        "There are over 100 references to African nations in the Bible.  The
first reference is (in the book of) Genesis.  Scholars have an inadvertent
knowledge of Black people in the Bible," said Grantson.  "There are many
Africans in the Bible, but the information is not made public.  It therefore
makes our people uninteresting to the church."
        "Africans were with Jesus Christ to the point of his death.  Jesus is
our ancestor; he is our pre-eminent ancestor.  Jesus took responsibility for our
sins by death on the cross, an example of a mature and complete human being,"
Grantson said.  "Jesus belongs to the spirit world of our ancestors.  Ancestors
are close to God and are the mediators between us and God.  We have to live our
life to become a mature, complete human being. Jesus guarantees our future."
        The Rev. Ivis LaRiviere-Mestre, San Martin de Porres Lutheran Church,
Allentown, Pa., led a Bible study on how Christians can make Christ known
through ethnic-specific ministries, symbols, rituals and music.
        "We are called to be a people of reconciliation -- to forgive others as
God has forgiven us.  We need to look within ourselves first to begin to
eradicate racism," said  Herbert Shao, Bellevue, Wash., in a Bible study.

For information contact:
Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Director 1-773-380-2955 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html