Living
Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Volume 12, Number 1
Pentecost 2007
Hispanic-Latino Theology and Ministry
“Be ready to preach to
the parade.” That was the counsel of my mentor
and colleague, Pr. Dimas Planas Belfort (of blessed memory), as I began a
bilingual ministry of Word and Sacrament in the 1980’s in Chicago’s West
Humboldt Park community. This was Pastor
Planas-Belfort’s concise way of preparing a younger colleague for the
relentless waves of change experienced in the area’s neighborhoods.
The pastor’s pithy
phrase was in part tongue-in-cheek – of course there were members of the parish
(Incarnation Lutheran Church, a.k.a. Encarnación) who had lived in the
area for decades, or who had roots there from birth or baptism. Others had arrived more recently, but were
very much at home in the community.
But the “parade” image
was not unfounded. Transition and change
were ongoing (not unlike most urban communities). West Humboldt was a type of demographic fault
line in those days, approximately dividing the Latino population to the north
and east from the African American communities to the west and south. The northwest side congregation’s valiant
effort to persevere amidst that change is evident in the fact that, since my
years there (through 1991), the ELCA parish has been the host site for merged
ministries that have had two additional names (Spirit of Joy and Mission of
Christ). As I write these lines, the
people of God at Karlov Avenue and Kamerling Street are preparing to pursue
ministry at a new site (the former North Austin Lutheran Church) under yet
another name, “United Mission of Christ Lutheran Church.”
In the opening decade
of a new century, the public consideration of Hispanic-Latino mobility is
focused primarily on immigration. Not
lost on Lutherans, whether of “blue” or “red” state persuasion, is the fact
that their historic congregations bear the signature of earlier immigrant
waves, etched in the stone and stained glass of their sanctuaries. Is it a parade… or a pilgrimage? We who have here “no lasting city” are in
fact all migrants, journeying toward a heavenly home.
With this issue, Let’s
Talk begins a two-part focus on ministry and theology in the Hispanic-Latino
context. We open with a question posed
by Julio Cruz-Natal based on his article, “What the Lutheran Church
Offers to Hispanics.” Any Lutheran
seriously engaged in the Hispanic-Latino ministry context in the United States has often heard one quick response to this query, effectively answering, “Nothing,
really. Aren’t they all Catholic?” A native of Puerto Rico, Pastor Cruz-Natal
represents a generation of life-long Latino Lutherans. He dispels the false premise of a totally
Roman Catholic Latin America. In
his thoughtful “Pastoral Perspective,” our campus ministry colleague from
Augustana College couches his response in both personal and communal terms. The
availability and genuine welcome of Lutheran congregations can be
transformative for Latinos. The care of
souls (Seelssorge to generations of German immigrants) and catechesis of
the believer are hallmarks of Lutheran ministry for Hispanics… and for people
of all cultures and languages. “What do
we offer?” It is a provocative inquiry. Let’s Talk awaits your response. We’ll include letters in the second issue
addressing our theme, to be published later this year.
A sustained and
substantive ministry with and to the Hispanic-Latino people will require
Lutherans to commit to and invest in parish ministries, resources, programs,
curricula and training for the long term.
To invoke a sports image: we need
to think of a distance run, not a sprint.
Lydia Rivera-Kalb highlights one such commitment, as the newly appointed
director of the Multicultural Center of the Lutheran School of Theology at
Chicago. In her synopsis, “Preparing for
Ministry in Hispanic-Latino Settings,” Pastor Rivera-Kalb highlights an
initiative which builds on preceding efforts by our Southside Chicago seminary,
including the seminal Hispanic Ministry Program directed by the Rev. Roberto
Navarro in the late 1970’s and 1980’s.
Diaconal ministry
training is another resource through which the saints are equipped for
ministry. An essay on “Diakonia” by Mike
& Carol Bennett enriches “the
read” offered by Let’s Talk this time around, with application to the
whole church, not just to our issue theme.
Once ordained, the
challenge of 21st century ministry can fatigue the most vigorous of
parish pastors. How are they sustained
and refreshed? A ministerium – the
collegial community of pastors drawn together for mutual encouragement, study,
conversation and prayer – can be a life-line of support. Pedro Suarez describes one such
group, the Cofradia Catolica Reformada, which has developed in recent
years from Midwestern, Lutheran Hispanic-Latino grassroots.
An ELCA pastor and
liturgical scholar at Notre Dame University, Maxwell Johnson, reminds us
that the faith is shared in the cultural context of Christian community. “Popular religiosity” runs parallel at times
to the church’s doctrine and practice, at times supplying at the grassroots
level perceived inadequacies and at times intersecting the church’s official
teaching. Dr. Johnson’s paper on “Religiosidad
Popular, The Virgin Mary and Lutherans” was first presented at a gathering
of the Cofradia minis-terium last fall.
Antonio Cabello also addresses this theme in his paper, “Mary, Mother of
God: A Confessional and Patristic Reading from a Hispanic Pastor.” He cautions against an “easy way” of
dismissing Mary in our theology and liturgical practice by waving her off as
being “too Catholic for us” as Lutherans, and he questions the exclusion of the
Marian day of Our Lady of Guadalupe from North American Lutheran liturgical
festival calendars. A parish pastor
serving at Iglesia Luterana San Esteben Martir, Carpentersville, and a
hospice chaplain, Pastor Cabello has years of experience as a mission developer
in Hispanic-Latino communities. He
boldly asserts that “Lutheran doctrine about Jesus Christ is so strong that
veneration to the Mother of God only adds to the glory and place already given
to the second person of the Trinity.”
How can Lutherans
attune themselves to the growing Hispanic-Latino communities in their midst? When it comes to addressing the need for
outreach to communities of color and of languages other than English, we have a
demonstrable fondness for “strategies.”
I once heard these mission plans compared to a baseball catcher setting
a glove just so, providing a pitcher with a target. Dozens of ELCA synods have developed such
documents, many of them addressing the Hispanic-Latino context. There’s a place for planning, but finally,
the work has simply to be done. The “pitch” must be delivered. Otherwise, a paralysis-of-analysis can set
in. At best, any written directives will
flow from extended relationship, prayer and study by those who actually are in
the Hispanic-Latino communities. And
even then, such documents are only a snapshot from a given time and place.
A
preliminary strategy written for the Northern Illinois Synod has been received
by that synod’s outreach committee as a foundational document for doing
Hispanic-Latino ministry in their portion of the Land of Lincoln. A task force has been formed which has begun
to implement some elements of this strategic vision. Your issue editor is the lead writer for
these notes, here titled, “Great Commission Imperatives for Hispanic-Latino
Ministry.”
Our regular columnists
haven’t lost their touch. They, too,
enrich this edition, writing without thematic restriction. Frank Senn’s As I See It viewpoint on
“The Social Dimension of Marriage,” offers food for thought en route to
weddings this summer. Benjamin J. Dueholm’s On the Way piece entitled:
“High Church, Low Church, ‘Long Tail’ Church?” ruminates on the inclusive
intent of Evangelical Lutheran Worship to embrace the disparate
worshipping communities and pieties of the church called “ELCA.”
Our theme will continue
next time around. We will include a
retrospective on pioneering Lutheran Latino ministry leaders of the Chicagoland
area. First hand accounts of current
ministry partnerships linking Illinois Lutherans with Latin American
communities are anticipated. And of
course, we’ll have readers’ responses, such as Thelma Megill-Cobbler to Maxwell
Johnson… and your letters.
As this issue goes to
press, preliminary plans are being made for a festive banquet in honor of the
first twelve years of Let’s Talk. Watch
for details about this autumn ’07 event.
On behalf of all the members of the Editorial Council, the invitation
will soon be extended: Let’s Celebrate!
Pastor Keith Forni, STS
Issue Editor