Lutherans Gather to Pursue Their Multicultural Mission

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