The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is putting in the Rev. Yehiel Curry as its first Black presiding bishop on Saturday, a landmark second for the predominantly white denomination.
Curry succeeds the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, who served for 12 years and was the primary girl to steer the ELCA.
A proper ceremony at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis kicks off Curry’s six-year time period, which started Oct. 1. He was elected on the ELCA Churchwide Meeting on July 30 in Phoenix.
“I’m hopeful that, if presence matters, me being here does something for allowing others to consider, ‘Someone who looks like me, or is from my community, or speaks with an accent, or their mother tongue isn’t English [could take on a similar role]’,” Curry mentioned in a press release when elected.
American Lutheranism is commonly stereotyped by its Scandinavian and German roots and focus within the higher Midwest. By some measures, the ELCA is greater than 95% white. However it has invested in native congregations of colour and multicultural ministries, whereas sustaining ties to rising Lutheran church buildings globally.
“He is representing a very white denomination as a Black man from the United States. I think it’s a daunting, daunting call,” mentioned the Rev. Leila Ortiz, a buddy who just lately completed a time period as ELCA bishop of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod. “I trust him, and I trust God and I can’t wait to watch.”
Bishop Yehiel Curry, who was just lately elected as the primary Black presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), poses for a photograph in Chicago.
Talia Sprague / AP
From social employee to reverend
Because the chief of the most important American Lutheran Church physique, Curry will face challenges widespread to different mainline Protestant denominations, which in recent times have weathered theological disputes over LGBTQ+ inclusion and precipitous membership declines. The ELCA has dropped from 5.3 million members in 1988 to 2.7 million members at present.
Since 2009, the ELCA has blessed same-sex marriages and welcomed LGBTQ+ clergy, elevating its first brazenly homosexual regional bishop in 2013 and its first brazenly transgender regional bishop in 2021.
Curry, 53, is just the fifth presiding bishop of the ELCA, which fashioned from a merger of denominations in 1988. Till his election, he was one in every of 65 synodal, or regional, bishops. He led the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, the place the ELCA’s headquarters can also be positioned.
Born the seventh of 11 youngsters on the south aspect of Chicago, Curry grew up Catholic and attended Catholic colleges by faculty. He was a social employee earlier than turning into a public schoolteacher.
When he and his spouse first visited Shekinah Chapel, they have been of their mid-twenties, and it was a fledgling congregation in Chicago. “I never paid attention that it was in a Lutheran Church.”
The church had a mentoring program for younger Black males and boys that he thought may serve a few of his center college college students.
“I had these unique students,” he mentioned. “And I used to be all in favour of providers for them. … There was a worship service I stayed for. And I cherished it.
Shekinah Chapel grew from an ELCA program to an official congregation. Curry went from a lay chief to a extra formal management function whereas going to seminary. He was ordained inside the ELCA in 2009.
“That’s uncommon where you get to lead in a place where you’ve been raised,” Curry mentioned. “I now recognize how fortunate I am.”
He was a part of the Theological Training for Rising Ministries (TEEM) program, which the ELCA says prepares ministers in “ethnic-specific, multicultural, rural and inner-city settings.”
New and various congregations
His path to ministry highlights a method of rising new and various congregations inside older church constructions.
Curry’s forerunners as African American Lutheran leaders embrace the Rev. Nelson Wesley Trout, the primary Black ELCA synod bishop, and the Rev. Will Herzfeld, a Black presiding bishop for a predecessor ELCA denomination.
“Blacks have been around the Lutheran Church since it presented itself in New Amsterdam in the 1600s. We have been present in some small way from the beginning,” mentioned the Rev. James Thomas, a retired ELCA seminary professor and creator of “A Rumor of Black Lutherans.”
Across the globe, the most important and fastest-growing Lutheran church buildings are in Africa.
A advantage of Curry’s management is that it may well assist elevate “the fact that African Americans have been contributing to Lutheranism for a very long time, and not just here in the United States but around the world and in Africa,” mentioned the Rev. Yolanda Denson-Byers, who wrote “See Me, Believe Me,” a guide on the challenges leaders of colour face within the primarily white ELCA.
Bishop Regina Hassanally of the ELCA Southeastern Minnesota Synod mentioned Curry’s elevation is a twin name – for him and the denomination.
“There can be a temptation to think that calling a leader of color is enough,” she mentioned. “But the reality is that it means creating supports and infrastructure and actually allowing that person to lead out of all of their gifts and their full identity, not just one piece of their identity.”
Curry mentioned his objectives embrace exploring methods for the ELCA to be a extra related church, from native congregations up by the hierarchy. Together with being a welcoming and thriving church, it’s one of many objectives the denomination has already set.
“Sometimes you come up with these unique statements and strategies, but then we move on as transition happens,” he mentioned. “I want to take something that we’ve affirmed already and maybe dig a little deeper.”
Extra from CBS Information
