wfn.org | Lutherans Gather to Address the Multicultural Challenges

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 11, 1999

LUTHERANS GATHER TO ADDRESS THE MULTICULTURAL CHALLENGES
OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
99-278-KSE**

     FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (ELCA) -- Some 300 Lutherans met here Nov.
5-7 to discuss the continuing challenges of building a multicultural
church into the new millennium. The meetings were part of the 1999
Multicultural Mission Institute, an educational program of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
     "It's time for a change. We've had enough of a dead church," said
the Rev.  William B. Trexler, bishop of the ELCA Florida-Bahamas Synod,
one of 65 synods of the ELCA.
     "God's order is for change -- revival, not just reformation,"
Trexler said at the opening worship. "The church needs to change its
focus from maintenance to mission.  We are called to become a global,
multicultural church and to enhance our work in spiritual formation."
     The theme of the institute was "Making Christ Known: Multicultural
Challenges of the New Millennium."  Through Bible studies, worship,
workshops and speakers, the Institute was designed to: focus on, support
and encourage unity as a multicultural community in Christ;  equip and
inspire participants for ministries in their settings;  build a
multicultural community through dialogue; strengthen and support African
American, Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, Arab and Middle
Eastern, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanic congregational
ministries; develop a better understanding of issues related to being
multicultural; strengthen and support synod multicultural ministry
efforts; and build bridges with White Lutherans for a better
multicultural church.
     "We're in the news business, not the advice business. There's a
difference between Jesus Christ and Ann Landers," Trexler said. "The
good news is about God's news, not the church's well-being.  The good
news is that the kingdom of God has come near.   A new age has begun.
The God that was far off has become close and personal," he said.  Three
things are foundational for faith formation: prayer, Scripture, and
patience, Trexler said.  "There is no solo salvation.  We'll need our
ecumenical 'fishing partners' in the new millennium," he said.
     Recently the ELCA has entered into ecumenical partnership with the
Reformed Church in America, which had representatives at the opening
worship.  The Rev. Stan Perea, coordinator for urban ministry of the
Reformed Church in America, brought greetings to the Institute. The Rev.
Johncy Itty, social justice office of the Episcopal Church, also brought
greetings. An ELCA full-communion proposal is now being considered by
the Episcopal Church.
     Trexler's exhortation that it's time for change was echoed by many
other presenters during the weekend event.  In a Bible study the Rev.
Titus D. Clarke, born in Liberia, Africa, told participants that the
changing face of America will force the church to change.
     "In a changing environment, the church must think about new ways
of doing ministry. It will face the challenge of interpreting the gospel
to people with diverse world views and cultural backgrounds," said
Clarke, who is a pastor at the People's Community Church at All Saints
Lutheran Church in Baltimore and a student at Lutheran Theological
Seminary in Philadelphia.
     Clarke told the group, "It's not our differences that separate us
-- it's our ignorance." He said that the strength and progress of the
church depends on diversity. "We need to broaden the scope of our
message to meet the challenge of the new millennium," he said.  "We must
bear witness to a Christ who crosses social boundaries."
     Sean Thomas-Breitfeld, a member of the Multicultural Advisory
Committee of the Lutheran Youth Organization, brought a message from the
youth representatives to the institute at worship on Saturday morning.
Using the Bible story of Exodus, Thomas-Breitfeld suggested that the
people walking at the back of fleeing Israelites couldn't see the pillar
of fire because their leaders were in front of them. "We see the backs
of their heads," he said, "But Jesus enabled people from the back to
move forward.  He didn't walk in front of them.  He walked with them.
Leaders need to step back and let others go forward."
     The Rev. Sa'id R. Ailabouni reminded participants in a plenary
session that Jesus came to the poor and that the poor were the people
who waited to hear God because they depend so much on God.  Ailabouni is
program director for Europe, the Middle East, and the Horn of Africa, in
the ELCA Division for Global Mission.  "Maybe because we are no longer
poor, we don't know the mission," he said.  "The year of Jubilee is now.
Jesus said, 'I've come to set you free,'" Ailabouni told participants.
     The Rev. Marysol Diaz Feliciano, pastor at Iglesia Luterana San
Marcos, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, gave an overview of the Hispanic Lutheran
ministry in the United States and talked of the challenges facing
Hispanic Lutherans.  She shared that she has felt marginalized "by the
very institution that means to minister to me. We get treated like we're
problems to be solved."
     Feliciano said, "The 'Jesus way' challenges the church to face
itself honestly to see that it has much to learn from you and me, from
the marginalized."  She said the church needs to see Latinos and Latinas
as "a people worthy to be sitting at the table," not as a special
project.  "We need to be at the table. Does the dominant culture know
that it doesn't own the table?"
     Referring to the focus on education in the ELCA Initiatives for a
New Century, Feliciano said  "Latinos and Latinas are seriously 
under-represented on the faculties of schools of theology."  The initiatives
are designated significant areas of church ministries for the next
century.
     The Rev. Edmund Yee, professor of Asian studies at Pacific
Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif., talked about the
history of Asian ministries in North America and outlined some of the
challenges that such ministry faces today, including the inability to
retain second generations in Asian congregations; the lack of unity in
the Asian communities; conflicts between Asian heritages and with
Lutheran identity; and the fact that gender and sexuality issues are not
dealt with in the Asian community.
     "We have inherited a church for all people -- there are no
barriers," the Rev. Marlene Whiterabbit Helgemo, pastor at All Nations'
Indian Church, Minneapolis, told participants in a Sunday morning Bible
study that looked at the biblical story of Peter's dream.  Helgemo, a
Hochunk Indian, led the group in an exercise to show how the concept of
kinship is played out in tribal culture.
     Workshop topics included preparing leaders for tomorrow; the
issues facing youth; music and mood in worship; how the church can
publicly expose racism and hate groups; re-inventing the past to shape
the future; sharing information about the Lutheran Theological Center in
Atlanta; Caribbean Lutherans and the church; world percussion and
praise; and partnerships with the ELCA and Lutheran fraternal
organizations.
     The closing worship was led by the Rev. Lenier L. Gallardo,
Iglesia Luterana Principe de Paz, Miami, who preached that the "very
purpose of God is to be multicultural and the ELCA has to be
multicultural to be faithful to the purpose of God."  According to
Gallardo, "We are not multicultural because society tells us to be. We
are multicultural because that's the future to which God is calling us.
Are we ready?"

[**Kate Sprutta Elliott is editor for Seeds for the Parish in the ELCA
Department for Communication]

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