By Professor Mark Swanson

On March 31^st, the ELCA Church Council adopted “A Declaration of the ELCA to the Muslim Community,” uplifting our commitment to friendship and solidarity with our Muslim neighbors.

The idea that the ELCA should develop “A Declaration to the Muslim Community” has been around for some time, especially since the Reformation commemorations of 2017, when there was renewed focus in a variety of forums on Luther’s attitudes toward the religious Other. After the adoption at the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly of “A Declaration of Inter-Religious Commitment,” the Lutheran-Muslim Consultative Panel began in earnest to discuss the need and possibility of such a document.

At the Panel’s last in-person meeting on February 22, 2020, we decided that the time was right: Muslim friends were asking for such a statement; the LWF Assembly in 2017 had committed itself to working towards a statement on Lutheran-Muslim relations, but had encouraged the ELCA to develop its own and to offer it to the LWF as a contribution; and, of course, acts of discrimination against Muslims (e.g., the so-called “Muslim ban”) and violence (think of the Christchurch mosque shootings of 2019) were heavy on our hearts and minds. Even then, we were wondering what the 2022 US election season might bring (remembering the ”Ground Zero Mosque” and Qur’an burning controversies of 2010, and the “Muslim ban” of 2016).

Work on a preliminary draft of a statement continued into the pandemic but stalled for a time. But last October (2021) we made a fresh start, asking Panel members and a few Muslim friends and colleagues to name just two or three things that should be included in a possible Declaration. The collected responses provided a remarkably coherent roadmap, and a series of focused Panel meetings led to the statement that you now have before you.

I would like to make a few comments about this Declaration:

• We tried to keep it short and simple, resisting the natural inclinations of the scholars in the group to write excurses and lengthy footnotes.
• We decided to keep the focus on North America and our relationships as ELCA members with our friends, neighbors, and inter-religious partners here. In just one paragraph do we broaden out (partly at the request of LWF and Muslim colleagues), to speak of projects of the LWF and of major inter-religious initiatives by Muslim leaders and scholars.
• We were challenged to speak a word about how we view Muslims, and not just how we think or theologize about them – and the language that seemed right was that of love, respect, esteem, and friendship (and certainly nothing that could be read as simply toleration).
• In speaking about Luther we walked a tightrope, or several at once: acknowledging his painful rhetoric while not going into unnecessary detail about it; avoiding making an apologetic for Luther while at the same time honoring the one from whom our denomination takes its name.
• We build on earlier Declarations of the ELCA, especially the “Declaration of Inter-Religious Commitment” and also “A Declaration of the ELCA to the Jewish Community.”
• And we conclude the Declaration with two remarkable quotations from bishops of this church, from Bishop Eaton and from Bishop Hanson, which point to the “journey” or the “pilgrimage” that ELCA members and our Muslim friends and neighbors are on, together.

The final draft of the document was reviewed by several of our Muslim partners, by Bishop Eaton, and by the Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Committee of the Conference of Bishops and by other key partners within the ELCA.

Over the coming month, during the holy season of Ramadan, we will be sharing this declaration with our Muslim partners and neighbors, and invite you to join us in this effort.

I want to close by acknowledging the members of the ELCA’s Consultative Panel on Lutheran-Muslim relations, which was entrusted with the development of this Declaration: panel members Prof. Jonathan Brockopp; Dr. Carol LaHurd; Prof. Paul Rajashekar; and Prof. Nelly van Doorn-Harder; ecumenical representative Dr. Peter Makari; and churchwide staff: Dr. Kathryn Lohre, along with the Rev. Dr. Carmelo Santos and Ms. Kristen Opalinski. It’s been an amazing team: intellectually stimulating, passionate, unafraid of disagreement, every one with extraordinary experience and contacts among Muslims and others.

Professor Mark Swanson is chair of the ELCA Consultative Panel on Lutheran-Muslim Relations. He serves at the Lutheran School of Theology as the Harold S. Vogelaar Professor of Christian-Muslim Studies and Interfaith Relations and  Associate Director of A Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice.

By Kristen Opalinski

For the first time in decades we are witnessing a confluence of significant religious holy days and cultural traditions during the month of April.

As Christians move through Holy Week, we do so knowing that many of our neighbors of other religions are also journeying through their holy days, including Vaisakhi, Mahavir Jayanti, Passover, Ramadan, and Theravada New Year. For Muslims, Jews, Christians, Baha’is, Sikhs, Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and others, this moment of convergence serves as a reminder of our interconnectedness.

As members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America this is also a time to remember the commitments we have made as a church through “A Declaration of Inter-Religious Commitment: A policy statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America/ Declaración de compromiso interreligioso: Una declaración de política de la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en América” which was adopted at the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.

We lift up the first of these commitments (p.10) in this moment of holy confluence:

1. The ELCA will pray for the well-being of our wonderfully diverse human family, including our neighbors of other religions and worldviews (ELW, Prayer for the Human Family, p. 79)

Prayer for the Human Family 

O God of all, with wonderful diversity of languages and cultures you created all people in your image. Free us from prejudice and fear, that we might see your face in the faces of people around the world; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

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We invite you to read about the ways our partners and others are reflecting upon this time:

Spring 2022 Messaging Campaign — The Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign

This April, Chicago has a rare opportunity for interfaith cooperation – Chicago Sun-Times (suntimes.com) 

The Confluence of Holy Seasons: An Opportunity to Grow Together (nationalcouncilofchurches.us)

Home – Religions for Peace (rfp.org)

Kristen L. Opalinski serves as the Manager for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations for the ELCA

By Dr. Shanta Premawardhana 

More than 50 years ago, Dr. Mary Nelson (founder of Bethel New Life in the westside of Chicago) marched with Dr. Martin Luther King and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in Chicago. For several decades, Dr. Nelson was a faculty member of OMNIA Institute’s predecessor organization SCUPE (Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education) and she continues as an Advisory Board member of the OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership. In an OMNIA podcast, Dr. Nelson talked about the Beloved Community as God’s vision for the city. It is that same vision that animated the founders of SCUPE to prepare pastors to break down all barriers to the flourishing of community. At the beginning of Black History month, it is fitting that we remember the power of this vision.

SCUPE was formed in 1976 with 12 member seminaries (including LSTC in Chicago and Luther Seminary in St. Paul) to teach seminary students an alternative method of doing theology and pastoral ministry. Rather than start from received traditions, SCUPE taught them to begin their theologizing from the questions and struggles that arise from the context of the city. This meant that they needed to get out into the streets and neighborhoods to talk to people in places like bus stops, coffee shops, police stations, emergency rooms, churches and expressway underpasses. Thousands of pastors learned from SCUPE to “listen to, learn from and live in solidarity with those in the margins” (our motto) and to have those questions stimulate their sermon preparation and their pastoral ministry.

Five years ago, SCUPE expanded its mission. Rather than serve only seminary students, it expanded to also include clergy and lay leaders who were already working in the field. Rather than serve only Christians, expanded to include those from multiple religious traditions. Rather than only focus on Chicago, it expanded to include many countries. As we sought a name that demonstrated our commitment to the inclusivity of Dr. King’s Beloved Community, the Latin word OMNIA (meaning “all”) came to us. Click here to a video of its unveiling in 2017.

Among those delighted with the choice of that name was one of our treasured advisory Board members at the time, Dr. Martin Marty. After that unveiling, Dr. Marty went home, and the first thing he did, he said, was to open his Latin Vulgate Bible and do a word search. He wrote to me his musings on the several bible verses in which the word “omnia” occurs. Out of all these, one clearly stands out, he wrote, which he recommended that we use as a charter: omnia enim vestra sunt, “All belong to you, you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God” (1 Corinthians 3:22,23). “All belong to you,” he said, “claim it!”

Perhaps it is our way of claiming “All” but immediately after that, we decided that our commitment to Beloved Community requires us to go to those places in the world where community is most fragile. Our expertise and experiences in interfaith relations and our global relationships allowed us to explore this widely. It took us first to Northeastern Nigeria where we sought to equip religious leaders and people of faith to counter religious extremism and religion-based oppression, domination and violence. Click here for a video on our work in Nigeria.

Decades-long animosity between Muslims and Christians in Northeastern Nigeria created conditions for the rising of the terrorist group Boko Haram. Even though the entire region, including Muslims, suffered from Boko Haram’s brutality, since Christians were their primary target, Boko Haram gained sympathy from many in the large Muslim population. This, and other social conditions made it possible for them to recruit young people more easily for their dastardly cause. Military options proved futile since Boko Haram operatives were embedded within local communities. OMNIA introduced an alternative strategy, developing the conditions necessary for a cultural shift to occur, that reduces people’s tolerance of extremism and increases their affirmation of pluralism.

OMNIA has convened a few thousand Muslims and Christians, some of the toughest, most courageous, women and men, and organized them into Interfaith Peacemaker Teams (IP Teams). They come together, not because of some obligation, but because they are outraged by their suffering. OMNIA trains them to collaborate with each other across religious differences, listen to those in the margins, build power, and act strategically. They learn to have a clear-eyed and hard-nosed evaluation of the power they have, to cut (like a thin slice of a large cake) an issue that is urgent, relevant and winnable. Each small victory leads to larger victories and eventually to a peace-movement. Disciplined peacemakers, they exemplify what it means to be Beloved Community today.

In Gombe State, two women, a Muslim and a Christian had a one-on-one conversation and decided that they would get other women in their village to do the same. Three months later, 11 pairs of women came to see me. I encouraged them to continue their one-on-one conversations. Ten months later, 120 women crowded into a room to plan their next steps. In four months, Nigeria would hold a general election and that invariably meant that there would be election violence. The women decided that there will be no election violence in a village. They held a community feast, and 2000 women turned up. All of them made a commitment that day that they would put pressure on their husbands and sons from engaging in election violence. If they didn’t, “we will strike,” they said. There was no election related violence in that village.

Public admiration for what these women achieved was remarkable. That Muslim and Christian women came together to make it happen was astonishing. But it is precisely that kind of action that produces cultural shifts that reduces people’s tolerance for extremism, making it more difficult for Boko Haram to recruit from their communities.

From Nigeria to Uganda, from Sri Lanka to Bangladesh, in just five years OMNIA has built 181 IP Teams in these countries. We also have three Teams that meet virtually, on Zoom, addressing systemic racism, patriarchy and climate change. There are many inspiring stories that we can tell. Please click here for a Compilation of IP Team Stories, documents about OMNIA’s organizational information, and links to several recent articles published in Nigeria’s major newspapers. Today’s Beloved Community is interfaith, global and contextual. This is what Dr. Mary Nelson and the founders of SCUPE had in mind about how to build Dr. King’s beloved community. OMNIA continues that struggle.

Here’s the good news! You too can participate. Since the pandemic began, we have started to do our trainings online. The next cohort begins on Saturday, February 19^th. There will be seven 90 minute-long sessions on a day of the week that the group agrees to meet on. Your requirements are that you have a passion for justice and peace, that you attend all the sessions and you agree to participate in a virtual or local IP Team or help build one. If you would like to participate, please email me or sign up on our website.

Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana is president of OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership. he has also served as the director of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation at the World Council of Churches and Associate General Secretary for Interfaith Relations at the National Council of Churches, USA. He can be reached at shanta@omnialeadership.org

By Kristen Opalinski

The first time I met Archbishop Desmond Tutu was in the lead up to COP 17, the United Nations climate change conference (the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties). The conference took place in Durban, South Africa, November 28 – December 9, 2011. I was in my second year serving as the communications officer for the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa and I attended the conference on behalf of The Lutheran World Federation’s regional office. I was part of an interfaith delegation that was finalizing the first Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change in order to present it to United Nations leadership. Faith leaders from across the globe had gathered and united for one goal – to advocate on behalf of all people, for the protection of resources, and to ensure a healthy and equitable future for our planet and all its inhabitants.

The day before the meetings were to begin, we were gathered with hundreds of people at a pre-conference rally. Various people took the stage throughout the afternoon to build morale and encourage those in attendance to dig down deep for what would be a difficult two weeks of deliberation. Just as the afternoon was drawing to a close, one final speaker remained. It was Archbishop Tutu, or simply the Arch as he was affectionately known in his native South Africa. He stepped up to the podium with a warm smile, a smile that quickly turned into a steely gaze. “Do not remain quiet!” he implored, “Do not waste a single moment. This is a critical moment in human history, one that requires each and every one of you, of us, to be fully engaged – the clock is at zero!” The crowd fell silent, we were hanging on his every word as he pressed on. He condemned the sins that brought us to this point, the greed and hyper consumerism that led us to this moment. He didn’t paint any rosy pictures that day or offer any jovial laughs for which he was well known. Instead, he used the moment to shower us with the unvarnished truth of the fight that laid before us.

My first encounter with Archbishop Tutu was with Tutu the rabble rouser, the man who decades earlier led marches through the streets of South African cities with calls for justice in the face of the apartheid machine and emerged as the nation’s moral compass. He would become a moral compass for the world in the years that followed and on that afternoon in late November 2011, I learned my first lesson from the Arch – Do not remain quiet, do not waste a single moment.

A photo I took of  Archbishop Tutu at the COP17 rally in 2011

Our role as faith leaders at COP17 was to provide a moral framing for the conversations and to remind the negotiators that they represented people and the environment, not just government interests. Tutu helped us build a foundation to stand upon in the following weeks, enabling us to deliver a unified declaration to UN leadership, to lead a civil society march through the streets of Durban, to push back against corporate powers who threatened to derail establishing the framework for the Green Climate Fund. I knew I was in the midst of a transformative figure and enveloped in a historic moment. But this was just one of the many moments Tutu helped to transform, one of the many battles he was waging on behalf of the vulnerable and oppressed. His entire life was centered upon a life of advocacy and action on behalf of those in need because that is what Christ calls us into. That was the second lesson I learned from the Arch – Strive to live out Christ’s love in action in all you do.

After our time together in Durban our paths would cross a few more times before I left South Africa in 2014. Over the course of three years, I learned more from Tutu the rabble rouser, but also from Tutu the thoughtful theologian, Tutu the agitating conversationalist, and Tutu the humble host. There were many layers to him and many lessons to learn from each aspect of his personhood.

A few months after our first meeting in Durban I was in Cape Town for a conference and decided to stop by St. George’s Cathedral, where Tutu had served as the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996. The morning of my visit Tutu was leading a Eucharist service, as he often did. His face immediately lit up when he saw me and after the service, he invited me to join him for breakfast along with a group who was visiting from New York. What followed was a lively conversation about the role of church in the public sphere. He urged us to reclaim faith-based public witness as Americans, to lean into the margins in order to help lead our society away from the individualism that was plaguing us. He urged us to publicly embrace the gospel, namely the Sermon on the Mount, so that society would look to us and see that we were created for interdependence, that there is hope in the midst of all we face if we face it together. That day I learned my third lesson from the Arch – Embrace the gospel in such a public way, so that others might see that hope is alive when we embrace each other’s humanity.

The next time I was in Cape Town my family was visiting from the US. My father and I went to St. George’s for the Friday morning Eucharist, which Tutu was again leading. After the service I introduced him to my father and they were thrilled to meet each other. He told us we should get a photo together. I remember my father and I standing on either side him. He looked at me with a scowl and said, “What are you doing? You must be in the middle my dear, you are the rose between these two old thorns.” We all laughed as the photo was snapped. Afterwards, Tutu invited us to breakfast. He arrived at the café below St. George’s wearing a shirt that read “This is What Old Looks Like” – a perfect reflection of his humorous, joy-filled disposition. Many jokes were shared that morning and I learned my fourth lesson from the Arch – Laugh often, live a joy-filled life, and don’t take yourself too seriously.

A rose between two old thorns

My final in-person encounter with the Arch came in late 2013, just months before my return to the United States. Again, I was in Cape Town for a conference and decided to stop by St. George’s. Tutu was there, and immediately invited me to join him for what would be our last breakfast together. This time though it was just he and I, and plate of delicious pumpkin fritters. What unfolded in that final conversation felt like a culmination of the previous three years of lessons. He asked me about my work, my family, and what brought me joy. We dove deep into theological musings, about incarnational theology and Ubuntu theology. It was as if we covered everything and yet only scratched the surface. I did not know that it would be my last time with the Arch, but the lessons he shared with me that day will last a lifetime. He reminded me to never loose sight of how I am connected to every other person on earth, every other living thing, that we are all part of God’s tapestry. That my thread in that tapestry is as important, but not more important, than every other thread. His parting words to me will forever be engrained in my mind, “Stay well my dear and keep getting into trouble, the kind of trouble that changes the world.” That was the final lesson I learned from the Arch.

A photo from our final breakfast together in 2013

In the early morning hours of December 26^th, 2021, text messages poured in from friends in South Africa letting me know that the Arch had passed. I was flooded with emotions – sorrow at the realization that the world had lost one of its great lights paired with gratitude that God had gifted us with his light for over 90 years. Tutu represented the very best of our humanity. He was a staunch advocate for equitable justice, the kind of justice that doesn’t simply seek to right the wrongs of our society, but to do so by digging deep into the nature of our wounds, of our sin, in order to reveal the many truths that connect us. Tutu understood that any path forward must be rooted in our humanity. From HIV and AIDS advocacy, to standing up for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, and being a global voice for the Palestinian people in the face of Israeli occupation – Tutu knew that we were made for goodness, but that peace and reconciliation are ongoing journeys, not finite destinations.

It was an honor to have had the opportunity to spend time with him, to learn from him, to receive the Eucharist from him, and to break bread with him. Our conversations were always lively, passionate affairs from which I emerged feeling like I could truly transform the world. He had an indescribable presence about him, the kind of presence that gave you a glimpse of God’s inbreaking kingdom and audacious humor in a singular moment. I will cherish the lessons I learned from the Arch, but more importantly, I will find ways to share them so that they may be carried forward and cultivated by others.

I invite you to learn your own lessons from the Arch by reading his books, including No Future Without Forgiveness, God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time, and God is Not a Christian: And Other Provocations. A full list can be found on his Goodreads page. Additionally, there are a few excellent biographies on Tutu, including John Allen’s Rabble-Rouser for Peace and Michael Battle’s Desmond Tutu: A Spiritual Biography of South Africa’s Confessor.

You’re invited to celebrate Tutu’s legacy this month by hosting a free screening of the film Mission: JOY, a new documentary that follows the friendship of Archbishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama. Register between now and February 28^th to host your screening at your congregation or through a digital gathering. This opportunity is being graciously provided by Roco Films and the film’s producers, through an invitation from The Episcopal Church.

Kristen Opalinski serves as manager for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations for the ELCA.

Faiths4Vaccines are asking its partners to get the word out about federally distributed COVID-19 tests, which began distribution this week. The following message comes from the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers:

On January 19th home COVID-19 tests became available through the federal government, we need to ensure that stakeholders, especially the most vulnerable, have access to the testing resources they need in order ensure equitable testing distribution.

Help spread the word!

We need the support of the faith community to share this critical information at a local level.

Please share this information across your networks to ensure proliferation of testing and vaccine resources to our hardest-hit and highest-risk communities. Information on how to order COVID-19 tests and how to educate your community about this opportunity are found below. Bring your community peace of mind by sharing this information today!

How to order COVID-19 Test Kits 

• Access the test kit ordering form hosted by the White House from the NACHW site to begin placing orders: https://nachw.org/covidtests/
• One package of four COVID-19 rapid test kits can be ordered per household
• Assist community members in placing an order for their household
• Include with your order an optional email address if you would like to track your package
• Orders on the 17th will be screened based on a social vulnerability and COVID-19 risk factor ZIP Code list required by the White House. Orders placed after the 19th can be placed directly on the White House site when it goes live.

Four Ways to Help People Get Free Rapid At Home COVID-19 Tests

The following is an invitation from the Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute (GEII). All content and images are shared with the permission of GEII.

January 18-25, 2022

For more information visit the GEII website by clicking on the linked image below: