Largest U.S. Lutheran denomination installs first Black leader at ceremony in Minneapolis

Bishop Yehiel Curry looked out at the hundreds of leaders and parishioners of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America who gathered Saturday in Minneapolis to celebrate his installation as the ELCA’s first Black presiding bishop.

They had come from around the country to join Curry in the soaring Gothic sanctuary, now almost a century old and home to a congregation founded in 1919 by 12 Norwegian Americans. Among them were his wife and three daughters.

“My siblings in Christ,” Curry began, his voice catching as the weight of the moment sank in.

A parishioner hollered: “You’ve got this, bishop!”

Curry, 53, in July was elected the fifth presiding bishop for the ELCA, the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination. Previously bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, one of 65 regional centers in the ELCA, he succeeds the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, who was elected as the ELCA’s first female presiding bishop in 2013.

The ELCA was founded in 1988, the result of a merger of three Lutheran churches, and currently has 2.7 million baptized members in the United States and the Caribbean. In Minnesota, there are 977 ELCA congregations and more than 500,000 members.

Eaton’s election led to a rise in the ranks of female bishops, and Curry said he hopes his election to a six-year term will do the same for people of color. Saturday’s event reflected that hope: a swirl of ethnicities and nationalities, dotted with the bright red and blazing white robes of the gathering bishops.

Bishop Jen Nagel, who leads the Minneapolis synod of the ELCA, said Curry’s installation will be looked upon as a before-and-after moment for the church. She said it was an honor for Minnesota to host the ceremony.

“Going forward, we will be a different church,” Nagel said. “Are we all, the Lutherans of Minnesota, Wisconsin, all of the ELCA, ready to live into that call in a bigger way? That’s the bigger thing.”

Saturday’s service incorporated multiple languages that crossed continents. A choir from Curry’s Chicago congregation joined with the National Lutheran Choir to sing a mix of traditional psalms and hymns along with bluesy renditions of gospel songs.

At the center of the service was a blistering sermon by the Rev. Kevin Vandiver, senior pastor at Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington, D.C. He focused on the call that comes from God to the people — not a pinging cellphone, he joked, but something deeper.

“The truth is that whether we are clergy or lay, all of us have wrestled with this concept of call,” Vandiver said. “When does God call me? Does God call me when things get rough and tough? Do I keep saying yes over and over again? The truth is that everybody gets a call. Even Jesus is not exempt.”

“Bishop, you are your ancestors’ wildest dreams,” Vandiver said.

Vandiver spoke of the Black church, of call and response, and of the biblical story from Luke that tells of citizens in Nazareth threatening to throw Jesus off a cliff. The call, Vandiver said, is not to push anyone off the cliff but to lift each other up. Curry, he said, has been called time and time again to carry out a role that has posed challenges of race and theology.

“There is a call coming from the portals of heaven,” Vandiver said. “It’s for you.”

The congregation rose to its feet as Curry moved to the center of the altar. Eaton asked if he accepted the position to carry out the mission of the church. “I will, and I ask God to help me,” Curry responded.

As hymns from the choir rose and fell, leaders from various church bodies laid hands on Curry as a sign of the church’s unity. Eaton took off her pectoral cross, placed it around Curry’s neck and introduced him as presiding bishop.

“May we rejoice in the many gifts enriching the life of our church and be strengthened to proclaim the good news of Christ in the world,” he said.