Arab and Middle Eastern Lutherans Meet in Assembly

BROOKLYN, NY (ELCA) -- The Association of Lutherans of Arab and Middle Eastern Heritage (ALAMEH) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met in assembly here July 9-11. ALAMEH was created for the "mission and ministry of witness and service with and among persons of = Arab and Middle Eastern heritage, that will affirm the dignity and worth of these peoples and their cultures."
Dr. Ryan LaHurd, president of Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, N.C., gave an overview of what ALAMEH has accomplished. Lenoir-Rhyne is a college of the ELCA.
It is through ALAMEH, in cooperation with the ELCA Division for Outreach, that there are two Arab-speaking congregations in the United States and that the Arab and Middle Eastern community has been recognized as the fifth community of color within the ELCA, said LaHurd.
ALAMEH has the task of raising up leaders among the Arab and Middle Eastern population in this country and encouraging candidates for ordained ministry, said LaHurd. It is important to tell men and women that, in addition to the more traditional route, there are other routes to ordination, he said.
The assembly adopted a new budget for the coming year, designating $2,500 to each of the two Arabic congregations for their ministry.
Elected to office were Grace El-Yateem, Brooklyn, president; the Rev. Rimon Sai'd, Chicago, vice president; Suad Nijim, Santa Clara, Calif., secretary; Yousef Husary, Chicago, treasurer; and Katy Abdallah, Hammond, Ind., and LaHurd as members-at-large. El-Yateem, Nijim, Muna Tarazi, = Troy, Mich., and the Rev. Richard G. Mahan, West Charleston, W.Va., were elected to the ELCA Commission for Multicultural Ministries steering committee.
The assembly voted to request organizers of the next Women of Color Gathering to send an official invitation to women of ALAMEH. The association is eager to participate actively in all aspects of the ELCA, says the resolution. The 1999 Women of Color Gathering -- organized by Women of the ELCA -- was held July 5-7 in St. Louis.
Dora Johnson, Washington, D.C., participated in the Women of Color Gathering. She was one of five "weavers" -- weavers wove together the threads of thought, concerns and issues that emerged from the gathering's community caucuses, workshops and Bible study. Johnson is a native of Beirut, Lebanon, and an active member of ALAMEH.
In other business, the Rev. George Muenich, Zion German Lutheran Church, Brooklyn, N.Y., presented a check to the Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan, for the work of the Lutheran church in Jerusalem. Muenich's congregation has been involved with this area of the world since 1895, when it began a financial ministry to the former Schneller School, which was also known as the Syrian Orphanage, Jerusalem.
A special moment occurred at this assembly when Nakhleh (Nick) Khoury, Worth, Ill., introduced himself to Muenich. Khoury is an inventor with over 35 patents under his name. Last year he was nominated to the Inventors' Hall of Fame. In 1941, Khoury graduated from the Syrian Orphanage.
Susan Thompson, executive for newly organized congregations, ELCA Division for Outreach, Chicago, talked about the Arab and Middle Eastern ministry in Jordan.
"The Lutheran Church exists in this country," Thompson said, "because of Lutherans who came from other countries for various reasons." Thompson spoke of the objectives that were established for ministry to Arab and Middle Eastern Lutherans.
"The overall objective was to create a ministry of witness and service with and among Arabs and affirm the dignity of Arab people," Thompson said. Some of these objectives have been realized with the establishment of ALAMEH and the two Arab-speaking congregations in the United States, she said.
Thompson introduced the Rev. Rimon Sai'd, St. Elias Arabic Church, Chicago, and the Rev. Khadir El-Yateem, Salaam Lutheran Church in = Brooklyn.
Sai'd came to this country for the purpose of participating in Arabic ministry in America. He has been pastor of St. Elias since 1995. St. Elias shares the site of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Chicago. The church serves Arab Christians from places such as Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan and Syria. St. Elias consists of Lutherans, Catholics, Greek Orthodox and Coptics. The congregation serves the community through weekly worship, Bible study and a family program.
Sai'd told the assembly about the lack of Lutheran worship resources. "There were no Arabic Lutheran worship resources in this country, so I reproduced the worship book which is used in the Lutheran church in Jerusalem," he said.
"When you worship at St. Elias, you feel as if you are in Jerusalem or a church in the Middle East," Sai'd said.
"The congregation also lacked a hymnal." Sai'd began the arduous task of typing Arabic hymns into his computer in hopes of producing a hymnal. "After typing in more than 500 hymns my computer crashed," he said. "I just cried."
"Yet God provides. While on a trip to Jerusalem, I went into Jordan. There, in a Baptist bookstore, was a hymnal with over 700 hymns in Arabic. It was an answer to a prayer."
Sai'd has produced Bible study booklets about Baptism and Martin Luther, the 16th century German church reformer.
To help maintain the identity of the Arab and Middle Eastern community as new generations are born in this country, Sai'd began a program for children in which Bible stories and hymns are taught in = Arabic.
El-Yateem talked about the first time he visited what would become Salaam Arabic Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, then known as Salem Danish Lutheran Church. His first trip took him into an Arab community.
"I felt like I was driving in Jerusalem," El-Yateem said. "The congregation was dying. They prayed for a miracle. They began reaching out into the Arab community that was 80 percent Muslim and 20 percent Christian through an English as Second Language program. Through this program, they began to connect to the Christian Arab community."
"The people of Salem Danish had a wonderful impact on Christian and Muslim students," said El-Yateem. "The people of Salem Danish gave all they had to this ministry -- funds, a building and time. Finally, through this effort, Salem Danish closed its doors to give birth to Salaam Arabic Church."
"The people of Salem Danish knew that God didn't want them to die in quiet and peace, but to go into the community and bring others in to experience the wonderful love of Jesus Christ our Lord," said El-Yateem. He still honors a commitment that he made to hold a service in English = each Sunday as long as one person comes. At present, about five people attend, he said. "The people of Salaam Arabic think of the members of Salem = Danish as their family. Without them, we couldn't have done anything," he said.
El-Yateem spoke of the challenges in ministry to this community. "People come into the community, learn the language and move on," he said. "The immigrant community is not a stable one. The church has begun a pre-school program which has helped reach out to young families with children and to try and stabilize the community."
Another struggle is the fact that the people of Salaam are not only from different areas of the Middle East such as Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan, but they are from different denominations like Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Baptist. "It is a fascinating mix," El-Yateem said. "Each comes with his or her own expectations, customs, and spiritual needs."
El-Yateem and Salaam's church council worked every night for one month on a mission statement to proclaim a common vision. "The result," = he said, "is that the congregation is about respect, love and faithfulness. We can have no discrimination or denominationalism. The church is here to