wfn.org | Claiming the Lutheran heritage for black people

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Confession for the Third Millennium

WITTENBERG, Germany/GENEVA, 27 October 1999 (lwi) - By holding their
third meeting in Wittenberg, the city of the Land of the Reformation,
members of the Conference of International Black Lutherans are claiming
the Lutheran heritage for black people in Africa, America and the
diaspora.

"What does the Lutheran heritage mean for us black people? Does our
Lutheran heritage have something to contribute toward helping us to
overcome the situations of injustice, poverty, hunger and other forms of
sufferings endured by our people in the various contexts from which we
come?"

These were the remarks one of the two international co-chairpersons of
CIBL, Bishop Ambrose Moyo from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Zimbabwe (ELCZ) used to present to journalists the history and vision of
the now 13-year-old organization comprising black Lutheran (both clergy
and lay) theologians.

The other co-chair is Rev. Dr. Richard J. Perry, currently Vice-Pastor,
the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Robbins, in the United States.

Rev. Moyo told journalists that the CIBL steering committee made the
decision to hold the current meeeting in Wittenberg so that black
Lutherans can understand and receive a better appreciation of the roots
of Protestanism.

The other focus according to Dr. Moyo is the theme of the
conference:"Confession for the Third Millennium: Black Lutheran
Experiences". This subject brings into perspective the contribution of
the experiences of black Lutherans to the surmounting challenges facing
the majority of their people at the threshold of a new millennium.

At the press conference, Rev. Dr. Albert P. Pero, currently teaching
systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago,
talked of the beginnings of CIBL and its vision in the future.

Dr. Pero, who in 1975 became the first African American Theologian in
the history of Lutheranism to hold a Ph D had this to say about the body
of black theologians: "CIBL came into existence (in 1986) as the result
of a vision that involves bridging the relational gap between and among
Lutherans of Africa descent; contributing to Lutheran theological
conversations; working for the spiritual and physical liberation of all
human beings; assisting in the development of contextualized theological
education for African and African American Lutherans in particular; and
nurturing an appreciation for African and African American Christian
contributions to the whole church."

"Much has been accomplished" since those conversations in 1984 that
conceived the formation of CIBL, "yet much remains to be done for the
sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and God's people," he said.

While CIBL can look back and thank God for the achievements of the past,
the organization dares look ahead in hope, mindful of the truth that
"where there is no vision the people perish, but where there is vision
the people flourish," Dr. Pero concluded.

The CIBL Conference was preceeded by the Women's Pre-Conference (24-25
October) which was a forum for the black women theologians in Africa,
America and the diaspora to review their progress since CIBL's last
conference in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in 1996.

During the press conference, Mrs Margret Obago from the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK) said black women particularly in Africa
experience difficult situations of hunger, war, violence and
dsicrimination against women and children, and a host of other social
and economic injustices. With this reality, she said, the women in CIBL
are seeking strategies to define how black Lutheran women theologians
can support one another in order to respond to the situation in which
fellow women find themselves.

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 58 million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans. Its
highest decision making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven
years. Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council
which meets annually, and its Executive Committee.)

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/