ELCA sabbaticals go global
How theologians are serving, learning abroad By Anne Basye D
emon possession. Discerning real prophets from false. Dancing in church: yes or no? Tough questions abound in Kathryn Schiffer-
decker’s classes at the Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Through the ELCA Global Sabbatical Awards program, the professor from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., has spent a semester teaching in the master’s program in practical theology, while husband Doug Steinke serves at the nearby International Lutheran Church. Schifferdecker’s students have bachelor’s degrees in theology and years of experience as pastors and evange- lists in the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. The fastest-growing Lutheran church body in the world, the EECMY recently broke off relations with the ELCA and the Church of Sweden over questions of sexuality. In Ethiopia, awareness of the reality of Satan and evil is acute, and all of Schifferdecker’s students have done exorcisms. “I’ve been challenged to address questions that would never come up in an American classroom, like how to preach the gospel of reconciliation in traditional cultures,” she said.
Everything she encounters, from exorcisms and heal- ings to development projects aimed at poverty, is evidence of the Spirit moving in the EECMY, she said. “I see it as ministry to the whole person—about help-
ing people live an abundant life now,” Schifferdecker added. “Classroom discussions have enlarged my vision of ministry and taught me again how broad and deep is the body of Christ around the world. “Even though the EECMY disagrees with the ELCA on sexuality, laypeople and leaders continue to pray for us. We are still brothers and sisters in Christ.”
A short course in transformation Launched in 2007, the Global Sabbatical Awards program responds to requests for short-term faculty from interna- tional seminaries. Enriching U.S. faculty is a second goal of the program, which is co-sponsored by ELCA Global Mission and the eight ELCA seminaries. “Teaching outside the U.S. expands faculty aware- ness of the character, vitality and courage of the Lutheran church around the world,” said Roland Martinson, aca- demic dean of Luther. “It also helps them recognize that some of how they understand Lutheranism is cultural rather than explicitly theological.”
Rafael Malpica Padilla, executive director of ELCA Global Mission, said, “Cross-cultural teaching forces theologians to open their own cocoon to analysis, observation, thoughts and critiques from others. When those perspectives challenge, talk to and dance with one another, they begin to make a whole. It’s like the four
Basye, a freelance writer living in the Pacific Northwest, is the author of Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal (ELCA, 2007). 34 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
COURTESY OF KATHRYN SCHIFFERDECKER
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