Lutheran Church Stresses Need for Diversity

Voting members at the ELCA churchwide assembly will consider recommendations for diversity, as less than three percent of ELCA's 4.9 million members are of non-white descent.

By Pauline J. Chang, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, August 09, 2005

According to a recommendation on “African Descent Ministry Strategy” that will be discussed today, only one percent of the ELCA members are of African descent. In comparison, 13 percent of America’s total population is of African descent. Proponents of the strategy will urge the 1,018 voting members at the assembly to pass several recommendations to diversity the church.

The first full-day of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s national gathering will be marked with debates and discussions on several critical issues facing the church, including ethnic diversity, Middle East policies, and homosexuality.

While much attention has been placed on the sexuality debate, Bishop Mark S. Hanson, the head of the ELCA, said a greater crisis faced the church: an aging, white population that no longer reflect the demographics of the American community.

"If you keep that wide-angle lens you'll also see a church, the descendants of European immigrants, who are awakening to the fact that we need to become much more diverse, reflective of the plurality of this richly diverse society. So we will be acting upon two ethnic specific ministry strategies," said Hanson to reporters. "They position us as a church that deeply desires to reflect the diversity of this culture."

The main goal of the strategy is to “create a strategic team of leaders of the various communities (African American, African Caribbean, African national) to develop cohesive programs that will create openings for recognized churchwide leadership, not tokenism.” In other words, integrate African Americans to leadership.

A similar recommendation on Arab and Middle Eastern ministry will be presented today as well. This recommendation urges ELCA to intentionally strengthen partnership with existing Arab and Middle Eastern congregations and to reach out to a wider Arab and Middle Eastern Community.

Part of the benefits for this strengthened multi-cultural ministry is the deepening of ELCA’s interfaith relations around the world.

“Heightened tensions between Arab Islamic countries and the United States and among Jews, Christians, and Muslims here and abroad provide both challenges and opportunities for Lutherans of Arab and Middle Eastern heritage to be bridge people,” part of the recommendation read. “ They can act as bridges to unite and strengthen the communities in which they live, work, and worship.”

The recommendations on African and Middle Eastern-descent outreach is part of a vigorous “Multicultural Mission Strategy” adopted by the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in 1991.

Since then, three ethnic ministry strategies have been received and approved by the ELCA: Asian and Pacific Islander Ministry Strategy, Latino Ministry Strategy, American Indian and Alaska Native Ministry Strategy. The African and Middle Eastern recommendations are the last in the series.

In addition to these strategies, voting members will be urged to pass a statement recognizing the need to “recommit” the church to ethnic ministry. That recommendation acknowledges the completion of the five ethnic ministry strategy, and calls on the church to “confront the scandalous realities of racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, age, genera, familial, sexual, physical, personal, and class barriers that often manifest themselves in exclusion, poverty, hunger and violence.”

The ELCA has a total of 138,560 non-white congregants, representing a meager 2.7 percent of its 4.9-million member population.

Ethnic diversity is an issue of concern for both mainline and evangelical churches, and most denominations already have special ministries dedicated to the ethnic outreach.

The Ninth Biennial Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA began yesterday and is set to close on August 14. For more information on the assembly, visit: www.elca.org.