November 14, 2008

CHICAGO – Forty Lutherans of European descent met here Oct. 30-Nov. 1, approved a constitution and bylaws for a new European American Lutheran Association (EALA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and elected officers and a board for the new organization.

"The European American Lutheran Association is a group of white Lutherans who seek to dismantle structures within the ELCA that give privilege to white people and disadvantage people of color," said Katherine B. Long, Redmond, Wash., EALA's newly elected president.

"We seek to reclaim for the ELCA our biblical heritage as one family created in God's image. We will stand as partners with our brothers and sisters of the other ethnic associations working within the ELCA to fulfill its commitments to anti-racist multiculturalism, and to become inclusive and anti-racist," Long said.

In November 2006 the ELCA Church Council affirmed the EALA's creation as the church's sixth ethnic association.

"In a sense we are trying to create a new vision," the Rev. Sherman G. Hicks, executive director, ELCA Multicultural Ministries, told the council. "This church has looked at ‘multicultural' as basically ‘ethnic-specific,' and that is not multicultural," he said. "It is time that we start giving the vision that is truly representative of the words and what I believe this church has been saying it wants to be and do."

Officers of ELCA Ethnic Associations

• African American Lutheran Association in the ELCA
President: The Rev. O. Dennis Mims, Glendale, Calif.
Vice President: Janice Tibbs, St. Louis
Recording Secretary: Anoia Rhodes, Erie, Pa.
Corresponding Secretary: The Rev. Gwendolyn Snell, Cleveland
Treasurer: Jacqui El Torro, East Point, Ga.

• American Indian and Alaska Native Association in the ELCA
President: Elizabeth Gaskins, Spenser, Ind.
Vice President: Larry Thiele, Sheyenne, N.D.
Secretary: Jenny Lightfoot, Burnsville, Minn.
Treasurer: Will Voss, Scottsbluff, Neb.

• Association of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the ELCA
President: The Rev. Chi-Shih Chen, Lake Zurich, Ill.
Vice President: The Rev. Yutaka Kishino, Claremont, Calif.
Secretary: The Rev. Kevin Cho, Denver
Treasurer: Saitong Urramporn, Woodridge, Ill.

• Association of Latino Ministries in the ELCA
President: The Rev. Nelson H. Rabell-Gonzalez, Turnersville, N.J.
Vice President: Jennifer DeLeon, Des Plaines, Ill.
Secretary: The Rev. Elena N. Perez, Bay Shore, N.Y.
Treasurer: Sandra Rivera, Madison, Wis.

• Association of Lutherans of Arab and Middle Eastern Heritage
President: Fuad Nijim, Santa Clara, Calif.
Vice President: Ghassan Khoury, Hoffman Estates, Ill.
Secretary: Zeena Karakoshi, Chicago
Treasurer: Edward Allawh, Brooklyn, N.Y.

• European American Lutheran Association
President: Katherine B. Long, Redmond, Wash.
Vice President: The Rev. Lyle A. Kleman, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Secretary: The Rev. Frederick Thomas-Breitfeld, Milwaukee
Treasurer: Kathy Smith, Iowa City, Iowa

ELCA News Service