ELCA NEWS SERVICE November 16, 2005 ELCA Council Elects Hicks to Lead ELCA Multicultural Ministries 05-222-MRC CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) on Nov. 11 elected the Rev. Sherman G. Hicks to serve a four-year term as executive director of ELCA Multicultural Ministries effective immediately. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the church, nominated Hicks. The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The council met here Nov. 11-13. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is here Aug. 6-12, 2007. "Pastor Hicks comes to this position with exceptional leadership experience, theological wisdom and a vision for the ELCA's commitment to becoming an increasingly multicultural and intentionally anti-racist church," said Hanson. "Hicks' extensive relationships through the ELCA as synod bishop, parish pastor and staff of the former ELCA Division for Outreach prepared him well for his new call. Pastor Hicks is highly respected for his collegial style of leadership and for his ability to interpret with clarity God's call for us to be a church in mission," said Hanson. Hicks, 59, served as mission director for the ELCA Delaware- Maryland Synod, Baltimore, and ELCA Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod. He was senior pastor at First Trinity Lutheran Church, Washington, D.C., from 1995 to 2003; bishop of the ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod from 1988 to 1995; associate executive director of the former ELCA Division for Outreach and ELCA director of mission support from 1987 to 1988; and assistant to the bishop of the Illinois Synod of the former Lutheran Church in America from 1979 to 1987. Hicks served as co-pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, East Orange, N.J., and pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church, Buffalo, N.Y. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Hicks graduated from Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, and Hamma School of Theology, Springfield, Ohio. Wittenberg is one of 28 colleges and universities of the ELCA. Hamma merged with the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, to form Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, one of eight seminaries of the ELCA. Multicultural Ministries is a new unit in the churchwide organization. It coordinates, educates and holds accountable churchwide efforts and programs with synods, regions, institutions and agencies of the church as they identify, develop and strengthen the multicultural dimensions of their work. The unit coordinates churchwide implementation of ethnic-specific ministry strategies and reviews and monitors all churchwide programs to maintain and enhance the ELCA's commitment to become an antiracist, multicultural church. - - - Information about ELCA Multicultural Ministries is available at http://www.ELCA.org/cmm on the Internet. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news