Wednesday, August 24, 2016
My ADLA-Chicago Constitution Task Force Meeting Notes of 7-15-16
Below are my mental notes from the ADLA-Chicago Constitution Task Force meeting held in the Refectory of Lutheran School of Theology Chicago, 7-15-16 at 10 AM.
Seminarian Fanya Berry convened and hosted the gathering. Additionally attending were: Pastor Booker Vance, Policy Director of Faith in Place, Deaconess Marsha Cherry-Washington, Reformation Lutheran Council President, & Pastor Joel Washington, Reformation Lutheran. Note: Valora Starr of Church-Wide's Women of the ELCA was absent due to a last minute scheduling conflict.
The meeting's purpose was to clarify questions raised at the ADLA-Chicago membership meeting of June 4th, 2016 regarding the Chapter's By-Laws as they related to the National ADLA Draft Constitution.
Although Fanya took detailed notes from our discussion around the Constitution, this writer made the following two mental notes:
First, whereas the ADLA'S National Draft Constitution serves primarily to regulate relations between the ADLA Assembly and its Officers on the one hand and ADLA Chapters on the other, the Chapter By-Laws exist to regulate relations within the Local ADLA body only. However, Local By-Laws cannot contradict the National Draft Constitution.
Second, whereas the ADLA National Draft Constitution requires monthly Chapter meetings between September and June of each year, its specifically suggested 2nd Saturdays of each month from 10 AM to 12 Noon remains subject to the Local Chapter's discretion. More, meetings during July and August are not prohibited.
This writer suggested that the ADLA-Chicago Constitutional Task Force remain active by transitioning into a Parliamentary Procedure Task Force. Said service was needed to insure and preserve Local Chapter meeting order. As an instance, we held that, technically speaking, the recent ADLA election of officers at the June 4th meeting past was out of order and should not have been held on the same date we met to adopt both the National Constitution and Local By-Laws. Elections should have been held instead, in our view, at a subsequent meeting scheduled at the pleasure of the voting membership. Indeed this was discussed and voted on at the prior membership meeting of April 2016 at Salem Lutheran.
More, nominations for officers by definition were suppose to be limited only to active dues paying members. This said, it was out of order to place the name in nomination of a person who had not yet joined the active ranks of the Chapter, let alone circulate their bio, as a candidate for the office of Chapter President mind you, prior to their membership registration, inclusive of dues payment, weeks in advance of a rushed election.
I concluded my suggestion that we constitute ourselves into a Parliamentary Procedure Task Force with the following observation that our purpose would be, to use the charge of all Parliamentarians, "to make the organization's President look good." This said our suggestion was adopted and we agreed to present ourselves to the Chapter accordingly. This blog entry, then, is a part of that presentation.
Finally, we also decided to explore the possibility of doing a special ADLA event at LSTC initially at the end of August. But this project fell through because of logistical self-doubt within the group and the time crunch. We subsequently proposed instead a fall-back suggestion for October, but I have decided to take it off the table and look at doing our proposed special event instead under another sponsoring group and at an alternative venue.
Stay tuned.
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chcago-ELCA ("Young Barack Obama's sanctuary for community organizing") 8-24-16.
My ADLA-Chicago Constitution Task Force Meeting Notes of 7-15-16
Below are my mental notes from the ADLA-Chicago Constitution Task Force meeting held in the Refectory of Lutheran School of Theology Chicago, 7-15-16 at 10 AM.
Seminarian Fanya Berry convened and hosted the gathering. Additionally attending were: Pastor Booker Vance, Policy Director of Faith in Place, Deaconess Marsha Cherry-Washington, Reformation Lutheran Council President, & Pastor Joel Washington, Reformation Lutheran. Note: Valora Starr of Church-Wide's Women of the ELCA was absent due to a last minute scheduling conflict.
The meeting's purpose was to clarify questions raised at the ADLA-Chicago membership meeting of June 4th, 2016 regarding the Chapter's By-Laws as they related to the National ADLA Draft Constitution.
Although Fanya took detailed notes from our discussion around the Constitution, this writer made the following two mental notes:
First, whereas the ADLA'S National Draft Constitution serves primarily to regulate relations between the ADLA Assembly and its Officers on the one hand and ADLA Chapters on the other, the Chapter By-Laws exist to regulate relations within the Local ADLA body only. However, Local By-Laws cannot contradict the National Draft Constitution.
Second, whereas the ADLA National Draft Constitution requires monthly Chapter meetings between September and June of each year, its specifically suggested 2nd Saturdays of each month from 10 AM to 12 Noon remains subject to the Local Chapter's discretion. More, meetings during July and August are not prohibited.
This writer suggested that the ADLA-Chicago Constitutional Task Force remain active by transitioning into a Parliamentary Procedure Task Force. Said service was needed to insure and preserve Local Chapter meeting order. As an instance, we held that, technically speaking, the recent ADLA election of officers at the June 4th meeting past was out of order and should not have been held on the same date we met to adopt both the National Constitution and Local By-Laws. Elections should have been held instead, in our view, at a subsequent meeting scheduled at the pleasure of the voting membership. Indeed this was discussed and voted on at the prior membership meeting of April 2016 at Salem Lutheran.
More, nominations for officers by definition were suppose to be limited only to active dues paying members. This said, it was out of order to place the name in nomination of a person who had not yet joined the active ranks of the Chapter, let alone circulate their bio, as a candidate for the office of Chapter President mind you, prior to their membership registration, inclusive of dues payment, weeks in advance of a rushed election.
I concluded my suggestion that we constitute ourselves into a Parliamentary Procedure Task Force with the following observation that our purpose would be, to use the charge of all Parliamentarians, "to make the organization's President look good." This said our suggestion was adopted and we agreed to present ourselves to the Chapter accordingly. This blog entry, then, is a part of that presentation.
Finally, we also decided to explore the possibility of doing a special ADLA event at LSTC initially at the end of August. But this project fell through because of logistical self-doubt within the group and the time crunch. We subsequently proposed instead a fall-back suggestion for October, but I have decided to take it off the table and look at doing our proposed special event instead under another sponsoring group and at an alternative venue.
Stay tuned.
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chcago-ELCA ("Young Barack Obama's sanctuary for community organizing") 8-24-16.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Toward a Vocabulary for Understanding & Dismantling Structural Racism Inside and Outside the ELCA
For our readers information, below are four contributions on defining race and racism from: Alicia Garza, Black Lives Matter; Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia; The Aspen Institute on Community Change; and Dr. Maulana Karenga's Introduction to Black Studies, Fourth Edition, 2010. The contributions serve as ADLA-Chicago food for thought in the process of moving the 2015 Baltimore ADLA Assembly resolution, dubbed: "African Descent Lutheran Lives Matter," to this summer's MCS/ELCA 2016 Assembly floor.
"In an alternative press video interview...(Alicia) Garza, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter (organization), discussed how 'changing Black Lives Matter to All Lives Matter is a demonstration of how we don't understand structural racism (our emphasis) in this country.' She went on to discuss how other lives are valued more than Black lives...and to take Blackness out of the equation is inappropriate." -Wikipedia on the Black Lives Matter Meme (like team) and organization-
"Societal racism...has been called structural racism, because society is structured in such a way that excludes substantial numbers of people from minority backgrounds from taking part in social institutions."
"According to Dr. Walter R. Allen, racism can be categorized into five types:
1. Overt racism, for example, when an individual says something racist;
2. Covert racism, which is also an individual phenomenon;
3. Institutional racism, which is when institutions treat people differently;
4. Societal racism; and
5. Civilizational racism." -Wikipedia/on societal and institutional racism-
"Structural Racism. A system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group iniquity. It identifies dimensions in our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with 'whiteness' and disadvantages associated with 'color' to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist." -The Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change-
"Racism is essentially a system of denial and deformation of a people's history, humanity, and right to freedom based exclusively or primarily on the specious concept of race (Karenga, 1981, 1985). Stripped of all its cultural and pseudo-scientific mystification, race is a socio-biological category designed to assign human worth and social status, using Whites as the paradigm. Racism, then, which begins with the mystification of race, is social thought and practice that expresses itself in three basic ways, i.e., as:
"1) imposition, i.e., conquest and oppression of a people, and interruption, destruction and appropriation of a people's history and productive capacity in racial terms;
"2) ideology, i.e., an elaborate system of pseudo-intellectual categories, assumptions and contentions negative to peoples of color and serving as justification of the imposition and reinforcement of the institutional arrangement; and
"3) institutional arrangement, i.e., a system of political, economic, and social structures which insure White power and privilege over peoples of color.
"Racism, thus, becomes a continuing problem, not only for social inquiry, but also for the equality of social life and the ongoing quest for human freedom and human flourishing. And it is a problem that tends to appear at every level and in every area of social life (Seltzer and Johnson, 2009)" -Dr. Maulana Karenga, Introduction to Black Studies, Fourth Edition, 2010, Sankore Press-
Respectfully submitted: Pastor Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Lead Pastor of Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barck Obama's sanctuary for community organizing") and Secretary Pro tem of ADLA-Chicago, 4-20-16.
"In an alternative press video interview...(Alicia) Garza, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter (organization), discussed how 'changing Black Lives Matter to All Lives Matter is a demonstration of how we don't understand structural racism (our emphasis) in this country.' She went on to discuss how other lives are valued more than Black lives...and to take Blackness out of the equation is inappropriate." -Wikipedia on the Black Lives Matter Meme (like team) and organization-
"Societal racism...has been called structural racism, because society is structured in such a way that excludes substantial numbers of people from minority backgrounds from taking part in social institutions."
"According to Dr. Walter R. Allen, racism can be categorized into five types:
1. Overt racism, for example, when an individual says something racist;
2. Covert racism, which is also an individual phenomenon;
3. Institutional racism, which is when institutions treat people differently;
4. Societal racism; and
5. Civilizational racism." -Wikipedia/on societal and institutional racism-
"Structural Racism. A system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group iniquity. It identifies dimensions in our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with 'whiteness' and disadvantages associated with 'color' to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist." -The Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change-
"Racism is essentially a system of denial and deformation of a people's history, humanity, and right to freedom based exclusively or primarily on the specious concept of race (Karenga, 1981, 1985). Stripped of all its cultural and pseudo-scientific mystification, race is a socio-biological category designed to assign human worth and social status, using Whites as the paradigm. Racism, then, which begins with the mystification of race, is social thought and practice that expresses itself in three basic ways, i.e., as:
"1) imposition, i.e., conquest and oppression of a people, and interruption, destruction and appropriation of a people's history and productive capacity in racial terms;
"2) ideology, i.e., an elaborate system of pseudo-intellectual categories, assumptions and contentions negative to peoples of color and serving as justification of the imposition and reinforcement of the institutional arrangement; and
"3) institutional arrangement, i.e., a system of political, economic, and social structures which insure White power and privilege over peoples of color.
"Racism, thus, becomes a continuing problem, not only for social inquiry, but also for the equality of social life and the ongoing quest for human freedom and human flourishing. And it is a problem that tends to appear at every level and in every area of social life (Seltzer and Johnson, 2009)" -Dr. Maulana Karenga, Introduction to Black Studies, Fourth Edition, 2010, Sankore Press-
Respectfully submitted: Pastor Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Lead Pastor of Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barck Obama's sanctuary for community organizing") and Secretary Pro tem of ADLA-Chicago, 4-20-16.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Reviving ADLA-Chicago Chapter, ELCA/MCS 2016 Assembly, & the Baltimore "Black Lutheran Lives Matter" Resolution-Part 1
1. As heaven and history would have it, effective Dr. Carter G. Woodson's Black History Month-I (General Focus) February 2016 just past, the ADLA-Chicago reorganizing committee reached and exceeded the critical mass of 10 registered and annual dues paying members needed to be officially recognized as a Chapter in good standing-albeit still reorganizing-(according to both the National ADLA Constitution and Executive Board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church America's (ELCA'S) ethnic specific multicultural ministries apostolate-denomination wide).
2. The ELCA'S Metro Chicago Synod Assembly is the collective governance body of the Synod and, according to its website, "is the highest legislative authority in the Synod and meets annually." MCS ostensibly understands its role as one of urban and suburban Chicago "support, facilitation, and partnership" both among the 190-200 ELCA congregations and worship communities of the City on the one hand and on the other a partner of the 65 Synods as well as the denominational head quarters that together constitutes the national structure of what has become the largest and most liberal national body (at 3.8 million members) of the Lutheran traditions within U. S. society.
3. Officially unfolding since February 15, 2016, this year's MCS assembly is being held June 10-11 at Tinley Park Convention Center. As heaven and history would have it, the MCS 2016 theme is "TRANSFORMED & TRANSFORMING (Metropolitan Chicago Synod-ELCA 29th Annual Synod Assembly)." More, its scripture reference is from the Apostle Paul's Book of Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God..." that was, incidentally, also a favorite passage of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
4. The Baltimore resolution-dubbed "African Descent Lutheran Lives Matter-" that ADLA-Chicago has been asked to shepherd to the floor of this year's MCS Assembly, does not fall from the sky. Rather, it is a part of the new ADLA national executive group's strategy to put the burning issue of African American/African descent equitable inclusion on the front burner of the ELCA agenda. It is a part of a strategy to systematically intervene in the denomination's network of synod assemblies that serve as the penultimate structure leading to the highest church-wide legislative body-the ELCA
church-wide assembly.
5. Finally, the Baltimore ADLA resolution we have been asked to shepherd (despite its obvious limits) dramatically raises in sharp relief the issue of institutional racism within the ELCA. More, it also advances three key suggestions on how to begin addressing said structural racism and move objectively to what this writer has learned to call an "Ethics of Sharing" resource (using the language and logic of the Kawaida Afrocentricity philosophical approach, founded and advanced by Seba (Moral Teacher) Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor & Chair of Africana Studies at CAL State U, Long Beach, that fully informs the writer's ministry and is referenced consistently throughout this blog).
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Lead Pastor of Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's sanctuary for community organizing") and Secretary Pro tem of ADLA-Chicago Chapter, 4-16-16.
2. The ELCA'S Metro Chicago Synod Assembly is the collective governance body of the Synod and, according to its website, "is the highest legislative authority in the Synod and meets annually." MCS ostensibly understands its role as one of urban and suburban Chicago "support, facilitation, and partnership" both among the 190-200 ELCA congregations and worship communities of the City on the one hand and on the other a partner of the 65 Synods as well as the denominational head quarters that together constitutes the national structure of what has become the largest and most liberal national body (at 3.8 million members) of the Lutheran traditions within U. S. society.
3. Officially unfolding since February 15, 2016, this year's MCS assembly is being held June 10-11 at Tinley Park Convention Center. As heaven and history would have it, the MCS 2016 theme is "TRANSFORMED & TRANSFORMING (Metropolitan Chicago Synod-ELCA 29th Annual Synod Assembly)." More, its scripture reference is from the Apostle Paul's Book of Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God..." that was, incidentally, also a favorite passage of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
4. The Baltimore resolution-dubbed "African Descent Lutheran Lives Matter-" that ADLA-Chicago has been asked to shepherd to the floor of this year's MCS Assembly, does not fall from the sky. Rather, it is a part of the new ADLA national executive group's strategy to put the burning issue of African American/African descent equitable inclusion on the front burner of the ELCA agenda. It is a part of a strategy to systematically intervene in the denomination's network of synod assemblies that serve as the penultimate structure leading to the highest church-wide legislative body-the ELCA
church-wide assembly.
5. Finally, the Baltimore ADLA resolution we have been asked to shepherd (despite its obvious limits) dramatically raises in sharp relief the issue of institutional racism within the ELCA. More, it also advances three key suggestions on how to begin addressing said structural racism and move objectively to what this writer has learned to call an "Ethics of Sharing" resource (using the language and logic of the Kawaida Afrocentricity philosophical approach, founded and advanced by Seba (Moral Teacher) Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor & Chair of Africana Studies at CAL State U, Long Beach, that fully informs the writer's ministry and is referenced consistently throughout this blog).
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Lead Pastor of Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's sanctuary for community organizing") and Secretary Pro tem of ADLA-Chicago Chapter, 4-16-16.
Friday, April 8, 2016
ADLA-Chicago Meeting Notes of April 2, 2016 at Salem Lutheran Church
What follows are our notes from the ADLA-Chicago general membership business meeting of April 2, 2016, 2-4:30 PM, at Salem Lutheran Lutheran Church, S. 74th & Calumet.
1. Treasurers Report. Treasurer Pro tem Fred Gittens reported that the promotional steering committee that organized the Black History Month special event of February 6, 2016, under the heading "Sankofa Gathering," started with $750 seed money (from the Metro Chicago Synod African American Strategy Team?).
1.1. Hospitality expenses (including "religious entertainment") totaled $905.00.
1.2. National and Metro-Chicago ADLA dues totaled $605.00 for 19 registered members (half of which went to National ADLA as required for official Chapter recognition).
1.3. Current ADLA-Chicago balance then totaled, after all disbursements, $450.00.
2. President Pro tem's Report. Pastor Maxine Washington gave an outline of the schedule of meetings (dating from the 2015 Metro Chicago Synod Assembly) that have culminated in the reorganization of the ADLA-Chicago Chapter.
3. Secretary Pro tem's Report. Pastor Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma) reported that, according to ADLA Midwest Regional Organizer, Pastor Lester White as well as the report of Treasurer Pro tem Fred Gittens, the February 6 special event recruited 19 registered members (9 over the critical mass of 10 needed to be recognized as an officially reorganized chapter in good standing-according to National ADLA).
4. Nominations Committee Report. Pastor Lawrence Clark reported that to date the business of the Nominations Committee (Pro tem?) has not gotten underway therefore no nominations for permanent ADLA officers have been received.
5. Organizational timeline decisions. It was decided that:
A) The Chapter Pro tem officer structure would stay in place for at least the next 60 days ('till either the scheduled June 4th meeting or 'till the June MCS Assembly).
B) That because the process of nominating permanent officers is contingent upon an established Chapter constitution, that said document is needed ASAP to advance the Chapter reorganization process.
C) Pastor Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma) volunteered to do a first ADLA-Chicago constitution draft, based on existing ADLA models, for further development by the the local re-grouping meeting process-due at the next scheduled meeting.
D) The next ADLA general membership meeting was scheduled on Saturday, June 4th, 2016 at Bethel West Lutheran Church, 2 PM.
E) Pastor Booker Vance joined Pastor Maxine Washington as Co-Convener Pro tem of the Chapter.
F. An agreed upon goal was set to get each of the 21 identified Black Lutheran congregations of Metro Chicago to register a minimum of 10 ADLA members that would bring the ADLA-Chicago general membership strength to 210 active partners in African descent ministries.
6. New Membership registrations. Seven (7) additional membership registrations, with appropriate dues payments, (added to the 19 reported above) were reportedly submitted to Pastor White (membership registrar) and Mr. Gittens, Treaurer Pro tem.
7. Oral Attendance Report. About 30 African Descent Lutherans were estimated to be in attendance (Pastor Maxine is cobbling together the official list).
After announcements and Good & Welfare, meeting was adjourned at 4:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma) of Historic Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's sanctuary for community organizing") and Secretary Pro tem of ADLA-Chicago Chapter, 4-13-16.
1. Treasurers Report. Treasurer Pro tem Fred Gittens reported that the promotional steering committee that organized the Black History Month special event of February 6, 2016, under the heading "Sankofa Gathering," started with $750 seed money (from the Metro Chicago Synod African American Strategy Team?).
1.1. Hospitality expenses (including "religious entertainment") totaled $905.00.
1.2. National and Metro-Chicago ADLA dues totaled $605.00 for 19 registered members (half of which went to National ADLA as required for official Chapter recognition).
1.3. Current ADLA-Chicago balance then totaled, after all disbursements, $450.00.
2. President Pro tem's Report. Pastor Maxine Washington gave an outline of the schedule of meetings (dating from the 2015 Metro Chicago Synod Assembly) that have culminated in the reorganization of the ADLA-Chicago Chapter.
3. Secretary Pro tem's Report. Pastor Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma) reported that, according to ADLA Midwest Regional Organizer, Pastor Lester White as well as the report of Treasurer Pro tem Fred Gittens, the February 6 special event recruited 19 registered members (9 over the critical mass of 10 needed to be recognized as an officially reorganized chapter in good standing-according to National ADLA).
4. Nominations Committee Report. Pastor Lawrence Clark reported that to date the business of the Nominations Committee (Pro tem?) has not gotten underway therefore no nominations for permanent ADLA officers have been received.
5. Organizational timeline decisions. It was decided that:
A) The Chapter Pro tem officer structure would stay in place for at least the next 60 days ('till either the scheduled June 4th meeting or 'till the June MCS Assembly).
B) That because the process of nominating permanent officers is contingent upon an established Chapter constitution, that said document is needed ASAP to advance the Chapter reorganization process.
C) Pastor Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma) volunteered to do a first ADLA-Chicago constitution draft, based on existing ADLA models, for further development by the the local re-grouping meeting process-due at the next scheduled meeting.
D) The next ADLA general membership meeting was scheduled on Saturday, June 4th, 2016 at Bethel West Lutheran Church, 2 PM.
E) Pastor Booker Vance joined Pastor Maxine Washington as Co-Convener Pro tem of the Chapter.
F. An agreed upon goal was set to get each of the 21 identified Black Lutheran congregations of Metro Chicago to register a minimum of 10 ADLA members that would bring the ADLA-Chicago general membership strength to 210 active partners in African descent ministries.
6. New Membership registrations. Seven (7) additional membership registrations, with appropriate dues payments, (added to the 19 reported above) were reportedly submitted to Pastor White (membership registrar) and Mr. Gittens, Treaurer Pro tem.
7. Oral Attendance Report. About 30 African Descent Lutherans were estimated to be in attendance (Pastor Maxine is cobbling together the official list).
After announcements and Good & Welfare, meeting was adjourned at 4:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma) of Historic Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's sanctuary for community organizing") and Secretary Pro tem of ADLA-Chicago Chapter, 4-13-16.
Monday, February 15, 2016
ON PUBLICLY INAUGURATING SANKOFA FORUM: ADLA-CHICAGO ELDER LIONS FOR AFRICANA STUDIES EDUCATION
This entry is a development of our 2/10/16 blog spot headed: MEET SANKOFA FORUM (ADLA-CHICAGO ELDER LIONS FOR AFRICANA STUDIES EDUCATION). This post should be read together with it.
More, this note presents our idea for publicly launching SANKOFA FORUM, as a part of the upcoming 2016 African American Holiday calendar observance, of Minister Malcolm X's (Al Hajj Malik Shabazz's) Kuzaliwa (birthday)-nationally celebrated this year from May 19th thru the 22nd.
This said we are in conversation with a developing coalition of concerned, faith-based, Africana forces, inside and outside the Metro Chicago Synod of the ELCA, that are interested in joining us in producing the following tentatively themed SANKOFA FORUM (ADLA-Chicago Elder Lions for Africana Studies Education) event:
"BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY:" Saba, Dr. Maulana Karenga on the Socio-Ethical Teachings of Minister Malcolm X (Al Hajj Malik Shabazz) & on Essays on Struggle (Position and Analysis-Second Edition-Black Power Series)
To date we have the offer of a presentation venue available to us from Afriware Books of Maywood, one of Chicago's leading sellers of Africana books.
We also have available to us the Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall of Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary").
Moreover, we are additionally seeking to secure either the Common Room of Chicago's McCormick Theological Seminary or the Chapel of Lutheran School of Theology Chicago.
We have also added the Library of Chicago State University and the Community Room of Englewood's Bethel Terrace Co-Op Senior Apartments (the latter of which we've recently reserved) to our venue prospects list for the planned SANKOFA FORUM public launch- marking the Kuzaliwa (birthday) of Minister Malcolm X (Al Hajj Malik Shabazz) to be keynoted by the internationally recognized activist-scholar Saba (Moral Teacher), Dr. Maulana Karenga.
For those that may not be aware, Dr. Karenga is currently Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at California State University-Long Beach, the Creator of Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba, as well as Executive Director of Us/African American Cultural Center, LA, now celebrating "50 years of work, struggle, service and institution building."
He is the author of over a dozen books and numerous scholarly articles-the most notable books being:
1) Introduction to Black Studies, 4th Edition. which is the most widely used introductory text of the discipline, 2010;
2) Maat: The Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt (A Study in Classical African Civilization), 2004;
3) Odu Ifa: The Ethical Teachings (Translation and Commentary, A Kawaida Interpretation), 1999;
4) Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, 1998;
5) Kawaida and Questions of Life and Struggle, 2008; and most recently
6) Essays on Struggle: Position and Analysis, Second Edition, Black Power Series, 2015.
Dr. Karenga holds two Doctoral Degrees-the first in Political Science from U. S. International University and the second in Social Ethics from the University of Southern California.
From 2006-to-date Dr. Karenga has been the contributor of "Dr. Karenga Speaks" a weekly OP-ED opinion column in the Los Angeles Sentinel, the largest circulating Black weekly newspaper West of the Mississippi River.
Dr. Karenga is the subject of the definitive intellectual biography, by Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, Temple University, titled "Maulana Karenga: An Intellectual Portrait" published by Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, 2009.
He is the author of a forthcoming work on: "The Liberation Ethics of Minister Malcolm X."
Note: The promotional organizing precedent within the ADLA Community for our proposal is the 2015 Dr. Cain Hope Felder set of Lent Season presentations in Chicago which was an outgrowth of cooperation between Afriware Books, The Pero Multicultural Center of LSTC, The Metro Chicago Synod, and the Synod's African American Strategy Team.
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's comunity organizing sanctuary") and for SANKOFA FORUM (ADLA-CHICAGO Elder Lions for Africana Studies Education)-Updated 3/12/16
More, this note presents our idea for publicly launching SANKOFA FORUM, as a part of the upcoming 2016 African American Holiday calendar observance, of Minister Malcolm X's (Al Hajj Malik Shabazz's) Kuzaliwa (birthday)-nationally celebrated this year from May 19th thru the 22nd.
This said we are in conversation with a developing coalition of concerned, faith-based, Africana forces, inside and outside the Metro Chicago Synod of the ELCA, that are interested in joining us in producing the following tentatively themed SANKOFA FORUM (ADLA-Chicago Elder Lions for Africana Studies Education) event:
"BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY:" Saba, Dr. Maulana Karenga on the Socio-Ethical Teachings of Minister Malcolm X (Al Hajj Malik Shabazz) & on Essays on Struggle (Position and Analysis-Second Edition-Black Power Series)
To date we have the offer of a presentation venue available to us from Afriware Books of Maywood, one of Chicago's leading sellers of Africana books.
We also have available to us the Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall of Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary").
Moreover, we are additionally seeking to secure either the Common Room of Chicago's McCormick Theological Seminary or the Chapel of Lutheran School of Theology Chicago.
We have also added the Library of Chicago State University and the Community Room of Englewood's Bethel Terrace Co-Op Senior Apartments (the latter of which we've recently reserved) to our venue prospects list for the planned SANKOFA FORUM public launch- marking the Kuzaliwa (birthday) of Minister Malcolm X (Al Hajj Malik Shabazz) to be keynoted by the internationally recognized activist-scholar Saba (Moral Teacher), Dr. Maulana Karenga.
For those that may not be aware, Dr. Karenga is currently Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at California State University-Long Beach, the Creator of Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba, as well as Executive Director of Us/African American Cultural Center, LA, now celebrating "50 years of work, struggle, service and institution building."
He is the author of over a dozen books and numerous scholarly articles-the most notable books being:
1) Introduction to Black Studies, 4th Edition. which is the most widely used introductory text of the discipline, 2010;
2) Maat: The Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt (A Study in Classical African Civilization), 2004;
3) Odu Ifa: The Ethical Teachings (Translation and Commentary, A Kawaida Interpretation), 1999;
4) Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, 1998;
5) Kawaida and Questions of Life and Struggle, 2008; and most recently
6) Essays on Struggle: Position and Analysis, Second Edition, Black Power Series, 2015.
Dr. Karenga holds two Doctoral Degrees-the first in Political Science from U. S. International University and the second in Social Ethics from the University of Southern California.
From 2006-to-date Dr. Karenga has been the contributor of "Dr. Karenga Speaks" a weekly OP-ED opinion column in the Los Angeles Sentinel, the largest circulating Black weekly newspaper West of the Mississippi River.
Dr. Karenga is the subject of the definitive intellectual biography, by Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, Temple University, titled "Maulana Karenga: An Intellectual Portrait" published by Polity Press, Cambridge, UK, 2009.
He is the author of a forthcoming work on: "The Liberation Ethics of Minister Malcolm X."
Note: The promotional organizing precedent within the ADLA Community for our proposal is the 2015 Dr. Cain Hope Felder set of Lent Season presentations in Chicago which was an outgrowth of cooperation between Afriware Books, The Pero Multicultural Center of LSTC, The Metro Chicago Synod, and the Synod's African American Strategy Team.
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's comunity organizing sanctuary") and for SANKOFA FORUM (ADLA-CHICAGO Elder Lions for Africana Studies Education)-Updated 3/12/16
Friday, February 12, 2016
Dr. Maulana Karenga's INTRODUCTION TO BLACK STUDIES-4TH EDITION Usage of Sankofa (Word Study Part 3 of 3)
In this entry we turn to the Sankofa usage of Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach, the Creator of Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba as well as the Executive Director of Us/African American Cultural Center, LA, now in its 50th year of "work, struggle, service, and institution building."
In discussing Black History as the central field of the multi field discipline of Black Studies Dr. Karenga observes: "Black History is engaged here as the first field of study in the introduction to Black Studies for several reasons. First, it is to emphasize the discipline's stress on the indispensability of the historical perspective in understanding social and human reality (Keto, 1994)."
Leading us to his usage of Sankofa, in the context of defining the relationship of Black History within Black Studies, Dr. Karenga writes: "Secondly, beginning with Black History stresses also the importance of the ongoing project of historical recovery in every field within Black Studies. This process is called sankofa."
Moving to his explanation of Sankofa Dr. Karenga writes: "sankofa (is an) Akan word which means 'to return and recover it.'"
More, Dr. Karenga teaches us: "this (sankofa) involves returning to the rich resource of the African past, or history, and using it as a foundation to improve the present and enhance the future."
Turning to the Akan symbol of Sankofa Dr. Karenga explains: "The idea of sankofa is depicted as a bird reaching back with its beak into its feathers. According to Niangorian-Bouah (1984 Vol. I:210), the sankofa bird 'is a symbol representing the quest for knowledge and a return to the source.'"
More, Dr. Karenga teaches us: "This (sankofa) process of returning to the source in the constant quest for valuable and diverse knowledge of African peoples and African culture has become the central concept and practice in all fields of Black Studies-history, religion, sociology, politics, economics, creative production, psychology, etc."
More still, Dr. Karenga teaches us: "It is from the ongoing process of sankofa that Black Studies scholars discover and recover some of the most important paradigms of African thought and practice. And these data are used not only to constantly develop and expand the discipline, but also as a critical resource to understand and address the major issues of our time." (Our emphasis in the context of reorganizing ADLA-Chicago and nationally-inside and outside the ELCA)
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary") and for SANKOFA FORUM: ADLA-Chicago's Elder Lions Round-Table for Africana Studies Education, 2-12-14
In discussing Black History as the central field of the multi field discipline of Black Studies Dr. Karenga observes: "Black History is engaged here as the first field of study in the introduction to Black Studies for several reasons. First, it is to emphasize the discipline's stress on the indispensability of the historical perspective in understanding social and human reality (Keto, 1994)."
Leading us to his usage of Sankofa, in the context of defining the relationship of Black History within Black Studies, Dr. Karenga writes: "Secondly, beginning with Black History stresses also the importance of the ongoing project of historical recovery in every field within Black Studies. This process is called sankofa."
Moving to his explanation of Sankofa Dr. Karenga writes: "sankofa (is an) Akan word which means 'to return and recover it.'"
More, Dr. Karenga teaches us: "this (sankofa) involves returning to the rich resource of the African past, or history, and using it as a foundation to improve the present and enhance the future."
Turning to the Akan symbol of Sankofa Dr. Karenga explains: "The idea of sankofa is depicted as a bird reaching back with its beak into its feathers. According to Niangorian-Bouah (1984 Vol. I:210), the sankofa bird 'is a symbol representing the quest for knowledge and a return to the source.'"
More, Dr. Karenga teaches us: "This (sankofa) process of returning to the source in the constant quest for valuable and diverse knowledge of African peoples and African culture has become the central concept and practice in all fields of Black Studies-history, religion, sociology, politics, economics, creative production, psychology, etc."
More still, Dr. Karenga teaches us: "It is from the ongoing process of sankofa that Black Studies scholars discover and recover some of the most important paradigms of African thought and practice. And these data are used not only to constantly develop and expand the discipline, but also as a critical resource to understand and address the major issues of our time." (Our emphasis in the context of reorganizing ADLA-Chicago and nationally-inside and outside the ELCA)
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary") and for SANKOFA FORUM: ADLA-Chicago's Elder Lions Round-Table for Africana Studies Education, 2-12-14
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.s' Usage & Sankofa Word Study-Part 2 of 3
According to Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright Jr., writing in the introduction to his 2013 work: A Sankofa Moment (The History of Trinity United Church of Christ), "The Akan people have an important symbol known as Sankofa. It is expressed in the Asante Adinkra symbols whose body is heading in one direction, but whose head is turned in the opposite direction."
More, Rev. Wright takes us into Sankofa's meaning with: "What the symbol is teaching is that we cannot go forward without first going back to our past to understand how it is we got to where we are."
Pastor Wright goes on to write: "Put another way, Sankofa means that if we do not know from whence we came, we will forever be heading in the wrong direction. The African concept of recognizing the past, honoring the past, knowing our past, embracing our past and learning from our past is found not only among the Akan people. It is found all across the Continent of Africa."
Turning to an anecdotal Sankofa illustration story Pastor Wright says: "In Chancellor Williams' book, Destruction of Black Civilization, Dr. Williams tells the story about the young traveler in Africa who asks the old man, 'Whatever happened to the people of Sumer? Legend has it that the ancient people of Sumer were Black!'"
Rev. Wright further unfolds the Dr. Chancellor's anecdote with: "The old man stopped and thought for a moment. Then he softly said to the young traveler, 'Ah! They forgot their story and so they died!'"
Dr. Wright drives home the meaning of his usage of Sankofa with: "Any people who forgets their story, any people that does not remember their history; any people who ignores their past, are people who are on their way to death. Psychologists call it social death. Theologians call it spiritual death."
More, Rev. Wright takes us into Sankofa's meaning with: "What the symbol is teaching is that we cannot go forward without first going back to our past to understand how it is we got to where we are."
Pastor Wright goes on to write: "Put another way, Sankofa means that if we do not know from whence we came, we will forever be heading in the wrong direction. The African concept of recognizing the past, honoring the past, knowing our past, embracing our past and learning from our past is found not only among the Akan people. It is found all across the Continent of Africa."
Turning to an anecdotal Sankofa illustration story Pastor Wright says: "In Chancellor Williams' book, Destruction of Black Civilization, Dr. Williams tells the story about the young traveler in Africa who asks the old man, 'Whatever happened to the people of Sumer? Legend has it that the ancient people of Sumer were Black!'"
Rev. Wright further unfolds the Dr. Chancellor's anecdote with: "The old man stopped and thought for a moment. Then he softly said to the young traveler, 'Ah! They forgot their story and so they died!'"
Dr. Wright drives home the meaning of his usage of Sankofa with: "Any people who forgets their story, any people that does not remember their history; any people who ignores their past, are people who are on their way to death. Psychologists call it social death. Theologians call it spiritual death."
MEET: A WORD STUDY SERIES ON THE AFRICAN CONCEPT/CATEGORY/TRADITION OF SANKOFA-Part 1 of 3
This is the first of a three part word study series on the idea of SANKOFA as a key Africana Studies concept, category, and tradition.
According to Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, then:
"Sankofa is a word in the Twi language of Ghana that translates into 'go back and get it' (san- to return; ko- to go; fa- to fetch-to seek and take) and also refers to the Asante Adinkra symbol represented either by a bird with its head turned backwards taking an egg off its back; or as a stylised heart shape."
More, the Wikipedia entry adds: "Sankofa is often associated with the proverb...which translates as: 'It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.' " (Source: The Spirituals Project at University of Denver; African Tradition: Proverbs and Sankofa).
More still, the online encyclopedia informs us: "The Sankofa symbol appears frequently in traditional Akan art, and has also been adopted as an important symbol in an African American and African Diaspora context to represent the need to reflect on the past to build on the future. It is one of the most widely dispersed Adinkra symbols, appearing in modern jewellery, tattoos, and clothing."
Turning to AKan African tradition and philosophy the encyclopedia further tells us: "(The Sankofa sign) symbolizes taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress through benevolent use of knowledge. Adinkra symbols are used by the Akan people to express proverbs and other philosophical ideas."
Finally, the online reference work says: (The Sankofa symbol) functions to foster mutual respect and unity in tradition."
Current and past popular uses of the Sankofa symbol as a defining symbol are reported as that on New York City's African Burial Ground Memorial installation, as a symbol on the website of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., as the title of 1993 iconic film by filmmaker Haili Garima as well as in the graphic title of the film 500 Years Later, by Owen 'Alik Shahadah.
Note: This writer plans to present the two films above as part of the launching of SANKOFA FORUM.
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary"), and for SANKOFA FORUM: ADLA-CHICAGO Elder Lions' Round-Table on Africana Studies
According to Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia, then:
"Sankofa is a word in the Twi language of Ghana that translates into 'go back and get it' (san- to return; ko- to go; fa- to fetch-to seek and take) and also refers to the Asante Adinkra symbol represented either by a bird with its head turned backwards taking an egg off its back; or as a stylised heart shape."
More, the Wikipedia entry adds: "Sankofa is often associated with the proverb...which translates as: 'It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.' " (Source: The Spirituals Project at University of Denver; African Tradition: Proverbs and Sankofa).
More still, the online encyclopedia informs us: "The Sankofa symbol appears frequently in traditional Akan art, and has also been adopted as an important symbol in an African American and African Diaspora context to represent the need to reflect on the past to build on the future. It is one of the most widely dispersed Adinkra symbols, appearing in modern jewellery, tattoos, and clothing."
Turning to AKan African tradition and philosophy the encyclopedia further tells us: "(The Sankofa sign) symbolizes taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress through benevolent use of knowledge. Adinkra symbols are used by the Akan people to express proverbs and other philosophical ideas."
Finally, the online reference work says: (The Sankofa symbol) functions to foster mutual respect and unity in tradition."
Current and past popular uses of the Sankofa symbol as a defining symbol are reported as that on New York City's African Burial Ground Memorial installation, as a symbol on the website of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., as the title of 1993 iconic film by filmmaker Haili Garima as well as in the graphic title of the film 500 Years Later, by Owen 'Alik Shahadah.
Note: This writer plans to present the two films above as part of the launching of SANKOFA FORUM.
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary"), and for SANKOFA FORUM: ADLA-CHICAGO Elder Lions' Round-Table on Africana Studies
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
MEET SANKOFA FORUM: ADLA-CHICAGO ELDER LIONS FOR AFRICANA STUDIES EDUCATION
1. As we have mentioned before the field of multiculturalism and diversity is what progressive sociology calls "contested terrain."
There are multiple competing and colluding top-down and bottom-up approaches within both.
2. At the risk of oversimplification, the top-down approach works to contain multiculturalism and diversity within the established order.
More, the top-down approach, then, tends to reduce multiculturalism and diversity to gatherings of food, fun, and fashion on the one hand and on the other the inclusion of multicultural and/or people of color faces in highly visible places without making significant changes in the lop-sided distribution of wealth, power, social status, and other resources.
The bottom-up approach, by contrast, seeks to break out of the containment of the established order toward a new social arrangement characterized by multicultural and people of color forces striving for an equitable distribution of all social premiums. This said our multicultural and diversity approach seeks to emphasize the latter bottom-up approach over the former.
3. Clearly, the African Descent Lutheran Association (ADLA) is a multicultural and/or diversity project within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). However, even within ADLA the project is contested terrain with competing, contending, and colluding approaches despite the tendency of some to have God, God's Self, endorse their particular approach-often to the exclusion of others.
4. What is needed within ADLA (locally and nationally) is operational unity in the organizing process i.e. unity without enforced uniformity, unity in diversity-of organizing approaches. In a word we need multiculturalism and diversity within ADLA.
5. More still, this blogger's basic approach is to use Black or African culture as a resource and not merely as a reference. By which we mean consistently dialoging with (studying, learning from etc.) and building on African culture and not simply making a reference to it while quickly following in the ways of the dominant culture or established order.
6. We therefore take the concept and tradition of SANKOFA seriously. And because we understand it as an essential ongoing or continuing education project in the field of Africana Studies, we are creating SANKOFA FORUM: ADLA-CHICAGO ELDER LIONS FOR AFRICANA STUDIES EDUCATION.
7. The objective of SANKOFA FORUM is to bring Africana Studies to the local and national ADLA community and the local and national ADLA community to Africana Studies. More, SANKOFA FORUM is our contribution to evaluating the recent February 6, 2016 Sankofa Gathering Special Event at Lutheran School of Theology-Chicago. We advance it as a much needed bottom-up multiculturalism and diversity approach and thereby social corrective.
Respectively submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary") and for SANKOFA FORUM, 2-10-16
There are multiple competing and colluding top-down and bottom-up approaches within both.
2. At the risk of oversimplification, the top-down approach works to contain multiculturalism and diversity within the established order.
More, the top-down approach, then, tends to reduce multiculturalism and diversity to gatherings of food, fun, and fashion on the one hand and on the other the inclusion of multicultural and/or people of color faces in highly visible places without making significant changes in the lop-sided distribution of wealth, power, social status, and other resources.
The bottom-up approach, by contrast, seeks to break out of the containment of the established order toward a new social arrangement characterized by multicultural and people of color forces striving for an equitable distribution of all social premiums. This said our multicultural and diversity approach seeks to emphasize the latter bottom-up approach over the former.
3. Clearly, the African Descent Lutheran Association (ADLA) is a multicultural and/or diversity project within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). However, even within ADLA the project is contested terrain with competing, contending, and colluding approaches despite the tendency of some to have God, God's Self, endorse their particular approach-often to the exclusion of others.
4. What is needed within ADLA (locally and nationally) is operational unity in the organizing process i.e. unity without enforced uniformity, unity in diversity-of organizing approaches. In a word we need multiculturalism and diversity within ADLA.
5. More still, this blogger's basic approach is to use Black or African culture as a resource and not merely as a reference. By which we mean consistently dialoging with (studying, learning from etc.) and building on African culture and not simply making a reference to it while quickly following in the ways of the dominant culture or established order.
6. We therefore take the concept and tradition of SANKOFA seriously. And because we understand it as an essential ongoing or continuing education project in the field of Africana Studies, we are creating SANKOFA FORUM: ADLA-CHICAGO ELDER LIONS FOR AFRICANA STUDIES EDUCATION.
7. The objective of SANKOFA FORUM is to bring Africana Studies to the local and national ADLA community and the local and national ADLA community to Africana Studies. More, SANKOFA FORUM is our contribution to evaluating the recent February 6, 2016 Sankofa Gathering Special Event at Lutheran School of Theology-Chicago. We advance it as a much needed bottom-up multiculturalism and diversity approach and thereby social corrective.
Respectively submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary") and for SANKOFA FORUM, 2-10-16
Thursday, February 4, 2016
NEEDED: ELDER LIONS ON DIVERSITY & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT (ADLA-Chicago Global Elders Center on Racial & Social Justice)
"Let envoys come out of Egypt; let Ethiopia hasten her gifts to God"-Psalm 68:31
"SOS
"Calling all black people
"Calling all black people, man woman child
"Wherever you are, calling you, urgent, come in
"Black people, come in, wherever you are, urgent, calling you,
"Calling all black people
"Calling all black people, come in, black people, come on in."
Amiri Baraka, Circa 1967-Black Arts Movement Period
Just in case no one has noticed it, the need of rebuilding, maintaining and developing the African Descent Lutheran Association (ADLA) inside and outside the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is an urgent one.
Note: the ELCA currently holds the dubious distinction of being the 2nd least diverse "mainstream" national Christian church denomination in the USA.
This said, the ELCA houses a meager 4% membership of Africans in America and other peoples of color combined.
This ice cold fact creates a sense urgency for concerned Black Lutheran self-organization today as the need of Black social movement organization appeared to author Amiri Baraka in the referenced 1960s Black Arts Movement poem above.
To address today's Black Lutherans concerned sense of urgency we are:
1) fundamentally committed to participating in reviving ADLA nationally as the best possible hope for significant African Descent and other people of color inclusion within the ELCA.
2) fundamentally committed to making a significant contribution to reorganizing the ADLA-Chicago Chapter itself tragically dissolved in recent years and in need of the Good Samaritan intervention and restructuring-now underway.
3) fundamentally committed to convening, within ADLA-Chicago, a much needed sub-structure or an affinity grouping of ADLA seniors-operating under the working banner of ADLA-CHICAGO ELDER LIONS FOR DIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT.
More, the goal of ELDER LIONS is to establish, strengthen, and expand an African Global Elders Center at Lutheran School of Theology Chicago (LSTC) for Racial and Social Justice Understanding inside and outside the ELCA.
More still, ELDER LIONS will also seek to organize a series of educational forums, on current and ongoing critical issues, out of the Community Room of South Side Englewood's Bethel Terrace Co-op Senior Apartments, at the hub of S. 63rd & Halsted, that has been the residential base of this proposal writer for the past ten years.
The working organizing slogan of ADLA-Chicago ELDER LIONS is: "Act III for Kwanzaa Holiday Grounded Simba Wasais-elder lions. Note: Simba Wasais is Swahili for elder lions.
We hope our readers are ready for it. Because the time for ADLA-Chicago ELDER LIONS is now.
Respectfully submitted: Pastor Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary"), and Convenor of ADLA-Chicago ELDER LIONS, 2-4-16
"SOS
"Calling all black people
"Calling all black people, man woman child
"Wherever you are, calling you, urgent, come in
"Black people, come in, wherever you are, urgent, calling you,
"Calling all black people
"Calling all black people, come in, black people, come on in."
Amiri Baraka, Circa 1967-Black Arts Movement Period
Just in case no one has noticed it, the need of rebuilding, maintaining and developing the African Descent Lutheran Association (ADLA) inside and outside the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is an urgent one.
Note: the ELCA currently holds the dubious distinction of being the 2nd least diverse "mainstream" national Christian church denomination in the USA.
This said, the ELCA houses a meager 4% membership of Africans in America and other peoples of color combined.
This ice cold fact creates a sense urgency for concerned Black Lutheran self-organization today as the need of Black social movement organization appeared to author Amiri Baraka in the referenced 1960s Black Arts Movement poem above.
To address today's Black Lutherans concerned sense of urgency we are:
1) fundamentally committed to participating in reviving ADLA nationally as the best possible hope for significant African Descent and other people of color inclusion within the ELCA.
2) fundamentally committed to making a significant contribution to reorganizing the ADLA-Chicago Chapter itself tragically dissolved in recent years and in need of the Good Samaritan intervention and restructuring-now underway.
3) fundamentally committed to convening, within ADLA-Chicago, a much needed sub-structure or an affinity grouping of ADLA seniors-operating under the working banner of ADLA-CHICAGO ELDER LIONS FOR DIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT.
More, the goal of ELDER LIONS is to establish, strengthen, and expand an African Global Elders Center at Lutheran School of Theology Chicago (LSTC) for Racial and Social Justice Understanding inside and outside the ELCA.
More still, ELDER LIONS will also seek to organize a series of educational forums, on current and ongoing critical issues, out of the Community Room of South Side Englewood's Bethel Terrace Co-op Senior Apartments, at the hub of S. 63rd & Halsted, that has been the residential base of this proposal writer for the past ten years.
The working organizing slogan of ADLA-Chicago ELDER LIONS is: "Act III for Kwanzaa Holiday Grounded Simba Wasais-elder lions. Note: Simba Wasais is Swahili for elder lions.
We hope our readers are ready for it. Because the time for ADLA-Chicago ELDER LIONS is now.
Respectfully submitted: Pastor Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Reformation Church-Chicago ("Young Barack Obama's community organizing sanctuary"), and Convenor of ADLA-Chicago ELDER LIONS, 2-4-16
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