relationships and that committee conveyed to Muslims that ‘We love you.’ ”
Sayeed praised
ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson for
“saying truth to the [powerful about] “
‘Peace be with you’ I
n the words of Jesus Christ, as docu- mented for us in the New Testament
… a salaam aleikum,” said Sayyid M. Sayeed (above), offering the first- ever official greeting from an Islamic leader to an ELCA Churchwide Assembly. After a surprised pause, the assembly replied: “And also with you.”
Sayeed, general secretary of the Islamic Society of North America, said jokingly, “a Lutheran loved his wife … and he was about to tell her.” When the assembly finished laugh- ing over this example of Lutheran shyness, he added, “The ELCA broke that stereotype when they established a committee on Muslim-Lutheran
An invitation to chaplaincy B
rig. Gen. Howard
Stendahl (left), ELCA chaplain in the U.S. Air Force based at the Pentagon, reminded the Churchwide Assembly of the men and
women who give from four to 40 years to serve our nation’s defense, and of the ELCA chaplains who pro- vide them with a ministry of word and sacrament, teaching and pastoral care.
28 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
difficult issues,” from peace in the Middle East to “anti-Muslim bigotry in America.” Relationships between Lutherans and Muslims were born out of standing “against the veil of anti-Muslim sentiment that we have experienced together,” he said. “Lutherans have played a major role in educating Americans about the suffering of Palestinians ...,” he added. “God’s desire is to promote justice and peace [everywhere], including the Holy Land. “We are together shaping the
new millennium. Mountains of hate and discrimination have been built. Our job is to see those mountains removed. … No particular church, no particular religious community, no nation on earth can fight those moun- tains of misunderstanding alone. … We pray for God almighty to bless us, strengthen us and inspire us, so that
we can together deliver this mission that is ours.”
In response, Hanson said Sayeed had come during the Muslim season of Ramadan “as a prophet and as a friend.”
Over applause, Hanson continued, “I hope you hear our response to you being here, and beneath it, our com- mitment to walking together.”
‘Time to come together’ G
eorge W.C. Walker Sr. (below), senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, thanked his Churchwide Assembly lunch table for its fellowship and “warm table talk.” He added, “I’ve never felt as much at home in a deliberative setting as I’ve felt today.” An AME
He spoke of “great American heroes” serving in the armed forces, including an Air Force staff sergeant who lost an arm and part of his face because of a detonated explosive. The sergeant asked Stendahl: “Is there any way I can go back to my unit?”
Stendahl invited ELCA pastors into military chaplaincy. He also asked the church to join with the prayers of those in active service and reserves because he said no one’s prayers for peace are more ardent than those who have seen the absence of peace.
Zion institution, Hood Theological Seminary, adjoins the headquarters of the ELCA North Carolina Synod in Salisbury. “What a relationship we have developed through our experience of being neighbors,” Walker told the assembly, including his friendship with Leonard Bolick, synod bishop. In dialogue for four years, the
ELCA and AME Zion Church have a joint mission statement that was “unanimously approved and genuinely embraced by our board of bishops and the entire AME Zion Church,” Walker said. He shared an excerpt from the statement: “[We] believe it is time that our churches come together as communities of faith ... in order that we might be more effective as people of God.”
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