August 2022 Newsletter
Interview with Rev. Dr. Alexander Sumo
written by Rev. Ryan Pusch
The Reverend Dr. Alexander Sumo recently joined the ministry leadership team of Pittsburgh Lutheran United Ministries in May of this year. He relocated here from his call in Columbus, Ohio, and is originally from the nation of Liberia in West Africa. We chatted on the phone about his call to ministry, his expansive work experience, and the differences between ministry in the United States and in Liberia.
When I asked him about his call, the story he told me was very interesting, and had many familiar themes of folks who are called to pastoral ministry. At first, he didn’t really give it much thought because as the eldest son, he was expected to follow his father’s wishes, which were that he would study medicine and become a doctor. He emphasized the strong cultural expectation in Liberia and West Africa to obey your parents’ wishes. So, he started out in premed at the University of Liberia but realized after 2 years that this was not what he wanted to do with his life.
Luckily, Pastor Sumo’s mother was a Sunday School teacher at St Peter’s Lutheran Church, and she sensed that her son might be called to ministry. He had already also become involved with High School Campus Ministry, had led worship for other students, and had even become the president of this student group after 2 years. He told me that the first time he led worship he read from the gospel of John 10: 10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” His mother told him that she would support him if God was calling him to seminary.
So, after 2 years Pastor Sumo switched to the African Methodist Episcopal University in Monrovia to study sociology and public administration. Then he continued his education at the Gbarnga school of Theology in Liberia, which became the United Methodist University, an ecumenical school with Methodists, Episcopalians, and Lutherans, to receive a Bachelor of Theology. It was at this point that he began his internship, and he served as a vicar for 2 years, first at the Lutheran Trinity Institute, and then, because of the Liberian Civil War, at St Matthews in Monrovia, which was a very large church with 10 different preaching points, and many thousands of members.
When Pastor Sumo was ordained in May of 2003 at the age of 29 he became the youngest ordained pastor in the Lutheran church in Liberia, since up until then the Lutheran church had only been ordaining pastors who were in their 40’s! Pastor Sumo talked about how there was tension between him and his father because of his choice to become a pastor. At his ordination, his father attended, but did not stay to celebrate afterwards. It was only after 3 years of ministry, when his father was at the end of his life, that reconciliation took place. Laying on his death bed, his father spoke to the whole family about how his life had been changed by his son’s call, which had reawakened his own faith. He also commended his son for his successful ministry in the church and for becoming the leader of their family.
Pastor Sumo and I talked about his extensive ministry experience in Liberia and in the United States. He was first called to continue his ministry at St Matthew’s, alongside 3 other pastors on staff and 15 lay ministers. It is obvious that this experience will be helpful as he begins his new ministry with PLUM’s 10 congregations. After 3.5 years, he served the Harrisburg Parish for 2 years in the suburbs of Monrovia, then when on to serve Lutheran Memorial Parish, across the St. Paul River, for another year.
It was then that Pastor Sumo was called to Grace Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio, first as a missionary as he went through the candidacy process here with our church, the ELCA, which took another year and a half, from 2008-2010. He was then called by the Southern Ohio Synod to a mission development site in Columbus specifically to serve the community of West Africans who lived there. This community he served for 9 years, until in 2020 he was called to also serve another congregation in the area, St Luke’s Lutheran Church. It was also during his ministry in Columbus that he continued his academic studies- receiving first a Master of Youth and Family Studies from Capital University in Columbus, then a Master of Sacred Theology at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, with a focus on pastoral leadership and church administration. Finally, after 5 years of study, he received his Doctor of Ministry with a focus on leadership for transformational change in 2020.
Pastor Sumo was excited to talk to me about how he will utilize these years of study in his new call with PLUM through strategies like “community mapping”-finding the resources and needs of a community and learning how churches can become more involved in sharing and meeting those needs. He also talked about the process of revisioning and rebranding the PLUM churches to ensure their thriving Lutheran presence in the community for years to come.
This was also when we got to talking about the differences between ministry in Liberia and the United States. In Liberia, Pastor Sumo talked about how the churches are the refuge of people from the corruption and poverty of society. There are many, many people in poverty in Liberia, so people go to church for a sense of hope, freedom, security, and to find their voice. Preaching and ministry in Liberia thus was always focused on uplifting the marginalized in society and a means of liberation. Much of this contrasts with the church in the United States, which is a country of affluence, even while we struggle with radical inequalities of our own. The challenges here, Pastor Sumo said, were that people need to work or just want to find recreation on Sunday, and they don’t see the church as a place where they can find their voice. Where in Liberia, the pastor is like the parent, the mother or father of a community, in the United States, the pastor is more of a role model. Key to every ministry, though, is listening and presence. This is what Pastor Sumo said he learned most from his mother- that to learn, you must listen.
When I asked Pastor Sumo about how he will engage with topics like racial justice in his new call, he talked about the importance of getting beyond slogans (like Black Lives Matter) and social statements to practicing what we preach. Understanding that we are agents of God’s grace, mercy, peace, and love to all others and all of creation. We are called to be God’s voice to every community we touch, and to ensure that everyone has a seat at the table. We are called to be Jesus wherever we go. Pastor Sumo also shared with me some of his and his colleagues’ frustrations with discrimination because of his West African accent. “What”, he asked me, “if the missionaries that were sent from the United States or other countries to Liberia had been rejected because of their strange accents?” Pastor Sumo was adamant that all it takes is 2 Sundays of listening to his accent to become more familiar with it. We both agreed that it is of the utmost importance that the folks in our churches be willing to learn to appreciate the wonderful gift of God that comes from listening to the voice of someone from a different part of the world who wants to share with us the love of Jesus! Pastor Sumo expressed a hope that churches in the United States and elsewhere would become more open to the leadership and participation of Liberians and West Africans in all aspects of our life together.
We thank God for sending the Reverend Dr. Sumo to our synod and to PLUM and are excited to see what the Holy Spirit will be working on through his ministry.
2022 ELCA Churchwide Assembly
The 2022 ELCA Churchwide Assembly was held August 8-12 in Columbus, Ohio. A few highlights:
Public apology to Iglesia Santa María Peregrina: Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton offered a public apology to Iglesia Luterana Santa María Peregrina and a made a public commitment to be an anti-racist church on behalf of the ELCA. Watch Video.
Additionally, worship on Tuesday afternoon was a service of Word and Prayer with a focus on lament. Reflections were shared by The Rev. Imani Olear, The Rev. Manuel Retamoza, Ms. Laura Sasaki Norton, and Mr. Sawyer J. Vanden Heuvel. Watch it here.
Assembly honors indigenous people: The Churchwide Assembly honored and celebrated Indigenous people through presentations and worship during the weeklong event:
Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton opened the assembly with a land acknowledgment noting that the gathering is taking place on the original and ancestral homelands of the Shawnee, Miami and Kaskaskia peoples.
A resolution was passed by the Churchwide Assembly—which began at our own Synod Assembly, brought by Pastor James West—calling for ELCA ministries and partners to engage in deeper collaboration with Indigenous partners, including incorporating land acknowledgments as part of public gatherings, exploring the creation of restorative justice programs, and studying funding needs and sources for ELCA Indigenous congregations and service ministries. Read the full action.
The American Indian and Alaska Native Lutheran Association invited assembly participants to wear red to recognize and publicize the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
The assembly recognized the Rev. Marlene Whiterabbit Helgemo, who died July 22. Helgemo was the first Native American woman ordained in the Lutheran church.
The assembly heard the first in-person pronouncement of "A Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to American Indian and Alaska Native People" and received an update on the work of the Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery Task Force.
The words and music for the service of Holy Communion were derived from a variety of Native American sources and designed with the help of Indigenous people who are leaders in the ELCA.
The worship offering will support the Pine Ridge Reservation initiative. ELCA Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations and ELCA World Hunger are partnering with the Oglala Sioux Tribe and local organizations to support the tribe as it addresses homelessness, housing, education, cultural preservation, livelihood opportunities, Two Spirit support and more on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Find daily summaries and additional highlights of the Assembly here.
Council of Three Rivers Annual Pow Wow
The Council of Three Rivers is hosting its 43rd Annual Pow Wow, September 24 from noon-9pm and September 25 from noon-7pm at Singing Winds (120 Charles St., Pittsburgh). See the flyer here.