Title: Arab Lutherans to Affiliate With ELCA
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 15, 1996

ARAB LUTHERANS TO AFFILIATE WITH ELCA

The Association of Lutherans of Arab and Middle Eastern Heritage
(ALAMEH) was approved for affiliation with the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America at the March 2-3 meeting of the
Commission for multicultural Ministries (CMM).  The steering
committee recommended to the ELCA Church Council that CMM "be
given the necessary additional funding to assist and support
ALAMEH by 1997." ALAMEH's constituting assembly was in July 1993.
This is a matter of justice, said Audrey T. Russell,
Philadelphia.  "This decision should not be based on money."  In
other business, the steering committee directed its chair, the
Rev. W. Arthur Lewis, to write to Augsburg Fortress, the ELCA's
publishing house, in response to a letter the committee received
about the lack of resources available from Augsburg during Black
History Month.  The committee voted down a recommendation that
would have had each of the ethnic associations -- African
American, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American -- nominate four
people from their community to serve on the commission's steering
committee.   Currently, steering committee members are nominated
by division boards, ELCA Church Council and the ethnic
associations.  The steering committee nominated the Rev.
Frederick E.J. Rajan for re-election as the commission#s
executive director at the ELCA Church Council's April meeting.

For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia
Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956