July 2021 Newsletter
Celebrating Black clergy
by Rev. Ryan Pusch, from two interviews (6/2/21 and 7/14/21)
This ongoing series will lift up the ministry of Black clergy who have served or are currently serving in our synod. Highlighted this month is the Rev. Torrey Johnson.
Torrey Johnson
Pastor Torrey Johnson has been a minister of word and sacrament for nearly twenty years. Ordained in 2002 in the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA, he currently serves as the pastor of Holy Cross Episcopal church in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He also has served as a chaplain in the Air Force in different capacities (first as an IMA chaplain for 3.5 years, currently a traditional reservist) for over 7 years. In addition to both of these positions, he is also the president and chief executive officer of a non-profit organization named the “Episcopal Lutheran Alliance” (ELA) which is dedicated to serving the Homewood community through community engagement, promoting sustainable economic development, and mobilizing resources. And to top it all off, he is a dad!
Torrey has a wide spectrum of work experience on his resume, including working as the special assistant to the chief of staff in the Mayor’s office of Atlanta, and working in inter-governmental affairs to develop the city of Atlanta’s legislative package. His call to ministry came through his mentor, the late Dr. Wilson Arthur Lewis, who was a professor at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, as well as the Lutheran Theological Center in the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. Dr. Lewis’ emphasis on the importance of public theology called Torrey into pursuing ministry that is grounded in word and sacrament, but which takes the word and the meal into the community. Torrey told me that in his experience our church does a great job in writing statements and preaching good theology, but our trouble is in living it out the other 6 days of the week.
This is what led Torrey to revamp the “Homewood Development Organization” into the “Episcopal Lutheran Alliance,” which has been making an impact on the community since he started his call at Holy Cross 4 years ago. The ELA has spearheaded a number of community engagement programs, including a community Christmas tree-lighting event and touring drive, a “caravan of giving” with the zone 5 police department, drive-in movies, an urban farm of 14 raised beds and a youth program called “Act Your Best” which teaches farming and horticulture practices to youth participants, bringing in the Air Force’s “Thunderbirds” to provide a virtual flight training experience, and an MLK day gun buy-back program which garnered the ELA international attention! The ELA also provides cultural enrichment through emphasis on the arts music, dance, math science and agriculture.
Torrey has also faced opposition in his ministry work that seeks to engage the public sphere. Even in his formative training experience on internship, he encountered church leaders who were unwilling to see the connection between word and sacrament and community engagement. Torrey witnessed first hand how the overemphasis on worship and other church traditions became a tool of racism to resist efforts to promote the very justice and social transformation that Jesus’ ministry is all about. Torrey emphasized to me more than once that in his experience, it has been not the lay people, but the “gatekeepers” who serve with positions of authority, including pastors, that often become the worst opponents to justice work and change. He said this is because it is all too easy to fall into the patterns that are expected of us and thus losing the connection and tension between Sunday worship and the necessity of being public theologians the rest of the week.
As a chaplain in the Air Force, Torrey knows that it is not easy, but absolutely necessary to maintain the tension between Luther’s understanding of the two kingdoms (heavenly and earthly). Chaplains can’t always preach as prophetically as they’d like to without jeopardizing their role as servants to their fellow soldiers. Torrey spoke about how a chaplain wears both their rank and the cross, and that in these two symbols lies the tension and paradox of ministry: being part of and serving within a system of rules and order, but also knowing that ultimate authority lies in Christ’s cross, not in any system of unjust hierarchy. Chaplaincy is yet another dimension in which Torrey lives out his dedication to expanding what it means to be a minister of word and sacrament.
The Authentic Diversity and Justice team is deeply grateful for Pastor Torrey Johnson’s leadership and invites you to join us in giving thanks to God for his ministries with Holy Cross Episcopal church, the Episcopal Lutheran Alliance, and all the fellow soldiers under his care.
The ELA is currently reforming its board of directors and looking to involve more Lutheran partners in this important work. If you have interest in learning more about the ELA or even serving as a board member, you can visit their website or send your resume to Pastor Torrey Johnson at staff@elallianceinc.org.
Ministry photos provided by Rev. Torrey Johnson
Freedom: a reflection on what it means for me, a Caribbean African American Female
by Rev. Brenda Henry
This month as a nation we celebrated July 4th – Independence Day. A day in our nation’s history when we were freed from our servitude role to England. It is a day when we remember the sacrifices of our military who have fought over the years for this nation to retain the privilege of being known as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” It is a day of national pride filled with moments of celebrations, well wishes, family gatherings and spectacular fire work displays. Yes, it is indeed a privilege to be a citizen of this country and all that it offers. And I stand in solidarity with all those who have gone before me and will come after me to ensure that we are able to retain the privilege of being an American citizen.
This awareness of my American privilege also comes with the sadness for the many ways that I and those that look like me, brown and black skin citizens of this country, are not free. Though we celebrate this country’s independence as June 4th, 1776, the emancipation of slaves did not come until January 1st, 1863. And even then, not all slaves learned they were free until June 19th, 1865. And it was not until this year that we acknowledged June 19th as a pivotal and crucial moment in the healing of our country with the declaration of June 19th as a national holiday.
We continue to stand in the nexus of being a part of a country that does not always appreciate our presence and contributions to the building of this nation. Instead, we battle daily to receive the respect of being a valuable and instrumental part of this country we love. Unlike many white immigrants to this country who carry with them and treasure the stories told to them by their ancestors that allow them to name their heritage, and to mark when they arrived in this country and how they have thrived in this country, our stories - my stories are disrupted by the tragedy of lost heritage. An intentional stripping away of our past. And even today we continue to fight to have the history of our contribution be a part of the narratives taught in schools, to our children, to our nation. If for no other reason, that we who call ourselves citizens of this country will come to understand and appreciate the sacrifices of all those who have made it possible for us to call this the land of the free and the home of the brave. To acknowledge those from whom the land was taken, our native brothers and sisters; those who labored in the field, the mines, in the internment camps so we can experience the privileges we do today.
Yes I am mindful to say privileges because as an American citizen, with all the complexity that I experience as a person of color, I still recognize that there are many freedoms that I participate in. I know that my parents came to this country via the Caribbean lands of the United States Virgin Islands, because they dreamed of a better future for themselves and their families. They believed in the promise “of all men [persons] being created equal” and with hard work and dedication they could make a difference. I also know that we can do better. Until we can begin to see the beauty of God’s image in each other and to understand that we who are created in God’s image, who carry an essence of God within us, until we learn to love each other and seek justice for each other we cannot be truly free. I still have hopes that one day we can truly live into the vision that we state in the preamble of our Constitution:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture
The ELCA social statement Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture expresses the ELCA’s calling to celebrate culture and ethnicity. This calling commits the ELCA to confront racism, to engage in public leadership, witness and deliberation on these matters, and to advocate for justice and fairness for all people. The statement is grounded in the conviction that the church has been gathered together in the joyful freedom of the reign of God as announced by and embodied in Jesus. That reign has not come in its fullness, but the message of God's yes to the world breaks down all dividing walls as we live into that promise.
In daily life, cultural, ethnic and racial differences matter, but they can be seen and celebrated as what God intends them to be – blessings rather than means of oppression and discrimination. We are a church that belongs to Christ, where there is a place for everyone. Christ’s church is not ours to control, nor is it our job to sort, divide, categorize or exclude. This statement was adopted by the 1993 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
On Christian Freedom
In her April 2020 column in Living Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton offered the following reflection on Christian freedom:
"Luther’s understanding of Christian freedom is a rejection of and a corrective to the current cultural message of taking care of one’s self or one’s tribe first, even at the expense of others. We erect boundaries, though Christ’s love is boundless. And here is another paradox: in this boundless love God has bound us to God’s self in Christ. In the same way, we are servants to each other and bound to the neighbor."
Watch as Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton invites ELCA members to read and study Martin Luther’s essay “On Christian Freedom” in commemoration of its 500th anniversary in 2020. God liberates us in Christ to live generously and courageously in service of our neighbor’s liberation, confident that God’s mercy will free us all.
ELCA Advocacy Network
The ELCA Advocacy Network shared two upcoming events in a recent email.
Conference call: Including opportunity for question and answer time with policy staff, join the "ELCA Advocacy Network Conference Call: August Recess Possibilities" on Thu., July 22 from 1-1:30 p.m. EDT. Register here.
Summer School: Wondering about how advocacy fits into our Christian and Lutheran presence in policy discussions? Session 1 of ELCA Advocacy Summer School will paint a picture of what advocacy is and how advocacy is shaped with a faith foundation, especially as members and affiliates of the ELCA. With discussions, examples, and ways to connect, REGISTER for “What is faith-based advocacy?” today!