Lutherans in the Middle East and in the United States: A Story of Partnership

By Fred Strickert

It has been estimated that the number of Arab-American Christians may be as high as a million and a half. Most of these have their roots in those parts of the Middle East where Christianity has flourished: Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. As would be expected, most of these Christian Arab Americans adhere to Catholic or Orthodox Christian traditions.

Among the smaller number of Arab-American Protestants, however, there is an interesting connection between traditional Lutherans in America, Lutherans in the Middle East, and Arab-American Christians. Most likely the story could be repeated among other Protestant groups with Middle Eastern communicants, including Presbyterians, Methodists, Anglicans, Quakers, Baptists and others. What follows, therefore, is an example of success in partnership across ethnic and religious lines.

ALAMEH

When the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was founded in 1987 as a merger of older German and Scandinavian churches, the 5.2 million members set a goal of attaining 10 percent minority membership within the first decade. A Commission for Multicultural Ministries thus set priorities among several ethnic groups, including Arab Americans. As a result, the first assembly of the Association of Lutherans of Arab and Middle Eastern Heritage (ALAMEH) was held in 1993. Three years later, the ELCA adopted the organization as an officially related body which would be given support and assistance. Rev. Bassam J. Abdallah, a Lutheran pastor in Hammond, Indiana was named special consultant for Arab and Middle Eastern Ministries in ELCA’s main office in Chicago.

“There is a large Arab Lutheran community in this country that has gone unnoticed for so long,” said Fuad Nijim, current ALAMEH president. Because European Lutherans sent missionaries to the Middle East long ago, there is a strong connection between the two cultures.

There currently are five Arab-American pastors within ELCA, and thriving Arabic mission congregations in Chicago, Detroit and Brooklyn. Many other Lutherans of Middle Eastern descent are scattered among congregations throughout the United States.

ALAMEH’s third biennial assembly will be held from July 9 to 11, at Salaam Arabic Lutheran Church, 718 Ovington Ave., Brooklyn, NY. The theme of the assembly is “Telling Our Story: 2,000 Years of Arab and Middle Eastern Christianity.” Guest of honor will be Bishop Munib Younan, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan. Panels, discussions and presentations will focus on the role of ALAMEH within American Christianity and on the two millennia of Christian presence in the Middle East.

For information about the assembly or about ALAMEH in general, contact: Rev. Khader El-Yateem, phone: (718) 748-4024; e-mail: <salamch@aol.com> or Fuad Nijim, association president, at 3257 Benton St., Santa Clara, CA 95051; e-mail: <fbnijim@ucdavis.edu>.

Salaam Arabic Lutheran Congregation in Brooklyn

A fascinating story concerning the development of Arab-American ministries is that of Salaam Arabic Lutheran Congregation in Brooklyn—the site of this summer’s ALAMEH assembly.

On May 17, 1999, this congregation will celebrate its first birthday. To be more precise, the congregation’s founding was a rebirth. A year ago 10 remaining members of the century-old Salem Danish Lutheran Church handed over the deed of property and a gift of $110,000 to this fledgling congregation under the leadership of Pastor Khader El-Yateem.

The Salem church, as it formerly was known, was founded in the 1800s when the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn was home to Danish immigrants who founded a congregation similar to the one they had left behind in Europe. Today most of the descendants of those first members have moved on and the neighborhood has become home to more recent Middle Eastern immigrants.

With a dwindling membership, the Danish congregation had the foresight three years ago to call Pastor Khader El-Yateem to provide outreach to the community. Thus the century-old membership registry now contains many Arabic names alongside those of European heritage.

The new congregational name reflects an appreciation of that heritage. The old name “Salem”—common to many churches—is derived from the Latin word for peace. The Latin, of course, goes back to the beautiful Semitic Shalom and Salaam. Thus the congregation has come full circle: born on Palestinian soil; grown to maturity in a European setting; brought to the Americas by immigrants; and reborn as an Arabic church which offers wholeness and peace.

The congregation has come full circle.

The congregation is doing quite well. There are 40 regular members for Arabic-language services, and attendance on Easter reached nearly 100 this year. No less than nine Middle Eastern ethnic groups are represented. For example, Adnan Nuam, church council president, comes from the Chaldean Catholic tradition in Iraq.

The church has had a busy calendar throughout the week. It operates its own community food bank and provided a neighborhood Thanksgiving dinner with American turkey and dressing alongside Arabic hummus and tabouli. The church also operates a pre-school. On Tuesday nights, the church is open for counseling; on Wednesdays, there is women’s Bible study; Thursdays, family Bible study; on Friday afternoon, junior high youth gathering; and on Saturday nights, an active youth group.

“We need to reach out to those in the more-educated, stable Arab community who came to the U.S., got busy and lost their church connections,” Pastor Khader El-Yateem said. “But our strongest challenge is with the different age groups. The older people want to speak Arabic; the younger don’t. They say, ‘We are American. We speak English.’”

El-Yateem is trying to balance the two desires. “We will do whatever it takes to keep the younger ones in church. If we can’t hold them now, they are gone, and they are the future.”

Partnership ELCA and ELCJ

Lutherans in the United States have a long history of partnership with the Lutheran Church based in Jerusalem.

It’s more than just the similarity of their names: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (ELCJ). The latter name reflects the changing political landscape in the Middle East and is a reminder of the struggle they face.

As a sign of the close relationship between the two churches, Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson of ELCA led a delegation of 15 persons to participate in the installation of Bishop Munib Younan in Jerusalem in January 1998. Several months later, Bishop Younan reciprocated by installing two ELCA pastors, Rev. Michael and Rev. Susan Thomas, at the historic Church of the Redeemer on Muristan Road in old city Jerusalem.

The American church has also offered its support through periodic public statements on the plight of Palestinians in the Holy Land. In 1996, the ELCA Church Council formally issued a call for a Jerusalem shared among Christians, Muslims and Jews—a statement that was promoted in ecumenical circles throughout the United States. In February of this year, Bishop Anderson signed letters opposing Israeli policies that led to confiscation of Jerusalem residency cards from Palestinians. “The impact this policy has on the Christian communities in Jerusalem is alarming,” Anderson said.

Thus it was timely that Bishop Younan of Jerusalem was the invited guest of ELCA’s Division of Global Mission at their semi-annual meeting in Chicago in March. According to an ELCA news release, he discussed enduring financial hardships and bureaucratic obstacles imposed by the Israeli government that lead to emigration and thinning of the ranks of the Palestinian Christians who have lived in the Holy Land since the time of Jesus. “We at the moment are an endangered species,” Younan stated. “We have maintained our faith for the last 2,000 years and we want to do the same over the next 2,000 years.”

Younan noted the small size of the ELCJ, but underscored the important voice it has throughout the world in promoting efforts for peace and justice. Two thousand members make up six congregations in Jerusalem and Amman, as well as in the West Bank towns of Ramallah, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour and Bethlehem.

Younan expressed gratitude for the kinship that has developed between the churches, a relationship he hopes will continue to grow as the ELCJ faces its challenges. “As we the Palestinian Christians are carrying a heavy cross at the moment, we appeal to you as American sisters and brothers, as Christians, not to leave us alone,” said Younan.

The American Lutherans made it clear they would do no such thing. The board approved a sweeping resolution noting ELCA’s continued concern about the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and reaffirming the work of Younan’s church and pledging ELCA to deepen its support and assistance wherever possible.

In efforts to further this partnership, Bishop Younan will be returning for the ALAMEH assembly in July.

Dr. Fred Strickert is professor of religion at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.

SIDEBAR

Two Stories: Palestinian Christians and the American Church

Dina Tannous, sophomore student at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, fondly remembers those occasions when her father would bring home visitors after church on Sunday as she was growing up in Ramallah in the West Bank. “It was especially exciting when the visitors were Americans,” explains Dina, “because then I could practice my English.”

Dina’s parents had lived for a time in Florida and her father had served in the U.S. Army, but they returned to raise their family in Ramallah in order to better understand their own cultural heritage. Dina enjoyed participating in the activities of the Hope Lutheran Church and singing in the Jerusalem Bach Choir. Yet even that became nearly impossible during the Palestinian intifada when travel was prohibited and schools were forced to close.

It was a perfect match, then, when Dina was offered a scholarship to study music in the U.S. “My dream is some day to attend seminary and become a pastor,” remarks Dina, recalling the times when Pastor Younan would let her accompany him to church functions in Jerusalem. “For now, my plan is to return to Ramallah where I can share my gift of music with the church.”

In the meantime, Dina is providing an education to her classmates about the Middle East. “How fortunate we were at our Christmas candlelight service,” stated campus pastor Larry Trachte, “to have a young Palestinian read the Christmas story and to sing in the Chapel Choir.”

Khader El-Yateem, pastor of Salaam Arabic Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, was born and raised in Beit Jala in the Bethlehem District of the West Bank. “It’s only natural that I became a pastor,” he says. “There have been 47 Greek Orthodox priests in my family.” While growing up in Beit Jala, he attended both the Lutheran Sunday School and the Greek Orthodox Church. By his last year of high school, he found a calling to serve his people, understanding the needs and concerns of people suffering under occupation.

After receiving his B.A. degree in Egypt, he returned home to work with youth and to teach at Bethlehem Bible College. Then he was offered the opportunity to attend Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia. “I was assigned to work in a congregation with a woman pastor—something that gave me a whole new perspective.” Pastor Ramona Bouzard has only words of praise when speaking of this experience. Upon graduation from seminary, Khader was ordained as an ELCA pastor and began his work in Brooklyn. He met his wife, Grace, a nurse, when she was volunteering her time with Operation Smile in the West Bank. They have two young daughters. —F.S.