wfn.org | ELCA Commission for Multicultural Ministries Builds Windmills

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 20, 1999

ELCA COMMISSION FOR MULTICULTURAL MINISTRIES BUILDS WINDMILLS
99-253-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Eight "windmills" will produce "electricity" for the
ministry of the Commission for Multicultural Ministries of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  The commission's steering committee
learned about the eight windmills at its meeting here Oct. 8-9.
     "Today, about 50 miles inland from the southern coastal tip of India,
windmills produce much needed electricity to meet the needs of my people,"
said the Rev. Frederick E.N. Rajan, executive director for the commission.
Rajan offered eight "windmills" to serve the needs of people in the ELCA.
     The eight windmills are "broad goals" for the commission in the next two
years, Rajan said.  Four goals are to develop a full tuition reimbursement
plan for people of color working in the ELCA's central offices who wish to
seek a bachelor's degree, master's degree or a professional certificate; to
encourage the eight seminaries of the ELCA to help finance the tuition of
students earning a doctorate degree in theology; to encourage the ELCA's 28
colleges and universities to partner with ELCA seminaries to recruit students
of color to earn masters of divinity degrees; and to train men and women for
culture-specific ministries, Rajan said.
     "The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago's scholar in residence
program has a history of successfully recruiting and preparing men and women
of color to be teaching theologians," Rajan said.  "All seminaries should
establish a similar program."
     "A total of 1,392 full-time students are enrolled in the master of
divinity degree programs at our ELCA seminaries.  Of these students, 45 are
persons of color," said Rajan.  "The 28 colleges and universities of the ELCA
should develop a closer partnership with the church's seminaries to recruit
candidates for master of divinity degrees," he said.
     The four other goals are to develop "ethnic ministry centers" designed
to serve ethnic-specific ministries of the church and communities; to
establish internship programs supporting editors and writers for The Lutheran,
magazine of the ELCA, and Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, the publishing house
of the ELCA; to develop opportunities for welcoming immigrants from Asia,
Africa, the Middle East and Latin America interested in the ELCA; and to
increase participation in the annual ELCA Multicultural Mission Institute.
This year's institute will take place Nov. 5-7 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
     The steering committee adopted the eight goals "in their general form"
and requested a progress report and plan for implementation at its subsequent
meetings.
     "The windmills I have offered here are not grand ideas, and indeed many
will point out that they are not new ideas.  They are a common-sense approach
to an uncommon task," said Rajan.
     "These windmills are not an act of desperation but an act of hope. Hope
that despite all our struggles and failures in the past 12 years, I believe in
my heart that God has a purpose for us, and God will make our church a truly
multicultural church," Rajan told the steering committee.
     With only a little more than 2 percent of its members people of color or
whose primary language is not English, the ELCA failed to reach its goal to
widen church membership to consist of 10 percent people of color between 1987
and 1997.
     "We must come to terms with the reality of our condition after 12 years
of existence," said Rajan.  "Denial never has been a source of creativity,
innovation or renewal.  If the people of the southern tip of India lived on
denial, there would be no windmills today," he said.

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John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
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