April 14, 2005

CHICAGO – The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) recommended the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly approve strategies for ministries among Arab and Middle Eastern people and among people of African Descent, and it recommitted the church to three other ethnic-specific ministry strategies.

The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The council met here April 9-11. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is Aug. 8-14, in Orlando, Fla.

The council placed the "Arab and Middle Eastern Ministry Strategy: Bridges Across History, Lands and Cultures" and the African Descent ministry strategy – "Many Voices Tell the Story, Create the Vision: Build the Future" – on the agenda of the 2005 Churchwide Assembly in an effort to intensify outreach and recommit the ELCA to partnership with existing Arab and Middle Eastern and African Descent congregations.

"There were Arab Lutherans before an ELCA," said the Rev. Bassam J. Abdallah, consultant for Arab and Middle Eastern ministries, ELCA Commission for Multicultural Ministries (CMM). "We're a small group but a very old part of the church."

Abdallah told the council that the Arab and Middle Eastern ministry strategy outlines a plan to start five new congregations in the next 10 years and look for a deeper partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.

Carol Schersten LaHurd, adjunct professor of theology, Fordham University, New York, wrote the strategy and presented it to the council. She said the strategic directions of the ELCA serve as the guiding principles for recommendations listed in the ministry strategy. Other components of the strategy include a mission statement, historical background on the ELCA Arab and Middle Eastern community, theological and biblical foundations, and goals and strategies.

The Arab and Middle Eastern community "is a small group but enormous in the contributions and gifts to the ELCA," LaHurd said.

Of the ELCA's five million members "there are 55,000 members of African descent," said the Rev. Julius Carroll IV, CMM director for African American/Black ministries. Carroll presented the African Descent ministry strategy to the council.

The strategy's "bottom line" is to help sustain the strength of the 240 African descent congregations, so that they can model for the wider church how to engage in ministry among people of African descent.

The strategy features a theological statement, vision, mission opportunities, goals and "mission actions" regarding pastoral leadership, worship, witness, discipleship, stewardship, family ministries, social justice, and unity and diversity. It also builds on the work of the African American Lutheran Association of the ELCA.

In another action, the council recommended that the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly "acknowledge with gratitude" the completion of five ethnic ministry strategies for the church, which include the Asian and Pacific Islander Ministry Strategy, the Latino Ministry Strategy, and the Native American and Alaska Native Ministry Strategy.

In the same action, the council gave thanks for the "gifts of diversity, ethnicity and varied cultures" within the ELCA and for the opportunities to "become a multicultural and multiethnic church;" affirmed the call for the ELCA "to embrace the commitments for implementation" of the church's "Plan for Mission;" commended the five ethnic ministry strategies to the ELCA Office of the Presiding Bishop with a request that a review of the strategies and budget implications be undertaken; requested a report and possible recommendation for the council's April 2006 meeting; and requested a report on plans and accomplishments be presented to the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.

ELCA News Service