Pate to Lead ELCA's African American Lutheran Association

     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