1. Meeting Background: The Sunday, November 15, 4PM meeting was ostensibly convened by Pastor Lester White-serving as the African Descent Lutheran Association (ADLA) Mid-West Coordinator.
1.2 It was held in the fellowship hall of Bethel Lutheran Church (West)-MCS/ELCA- 4215 West End Avenue on the City's West Side, Pastored by Rev. Al Starr.
1.3 More, the meeting's stated purpose was that of reorganizing both the Chicago and Milwaukee Chapters of ADLA which have fallen into lapsed membership status and are currently in disarray and not in good standing within ADLA nationally.
1.4 The meeting's special guest speaker was Rev. Lamont Anthony Wells, incoming national ADLA President and assistant to the Bishop of the Metro New York Synod-ELCA, as well as that Synod's Director of Evangelical Mission.
1.5 About 30 Black Lutherans of the MCS were in attendance- about one/third of whom were from Bethel (West), close to one/third MCS/ELCA clergy.
2. Selected Meeting Agenda.
2.1 Statement and Vision of African Descent Lutheran Association.
2.2 Chicago Chapter's Purpose (Beyond National Statement) and
What Direction and Service Will it and the Milwaukee Chapter Provide in ELCA Region 5.
2.3 Conversation with the Incoming President of ADLA.
2.4 Conclusion.
3. Selected Conversation Content.
Note: This is not an attempt at either drafting the meeting's minutes nor that of recording every one's viewpoint. It serves as a contribution to the meeting's discussion however.
3.1 The problem with ADLA'S statement and vision is that they are too general to say anything distinctive. More importantly, they are disconnected from the African American context i.e. Black American history, agency, and struggle.
Full disclosure: This writer's Black Lutheran ministry is fully informed by Kawaida Afrocentricity philosophy for racial and social justice created and defined by Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at California State University at Long Beach, the creator of Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba and world class social ethicist. Our approach, then, is out of a defined, internationally recognized, African American social theory and movement framework and practice.
Note: For a more complete statement of our ministry approach please go to our blog dedicated to it at: http://www.imanievangelist.blogspot.com.
3.2 Toward a Deep Background Interpretation of ADLA. We understand ADLA, being an advanced student of Kawaida philosophy, within the framework of the three modal periods of Kawaida Afrocentricity history thought i.e., A) the ancient period of the historic Nile Valley African Civilizations, B) the early modern period of the Holocaust of African Enslavement (as well as our uncompromising resistance, agency, and struggle for freedom) and C) the late modern period of the historic Black Reaffirmation of the 1960s when, as Dr. Karenga points out, we returned to both our social justice tradition and to our African identity.
African American Lutherans and ADLA, rightly understood, are "heirs and custodians" of all three periods. More, it is important that the last period be understood as a single social movement which we, then and now, properly call the Black Freedom Movement. More still, this movement included two phases i.e., a civil rights phase and a Black Power, Black consciousness, or Black liberation phase. ADLA is especially emergent out of both phases of the Black Freedom Movement.
We propose to discuss how this is so in our future posts.
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma) for Reformation Church-Chicago and the Reorganization of ADLA-Chicago, 11-19-15 Updated.
