"My Soul Looks Back": a personal tribute to Albert P. Pero, Jr.

In 1982, Dr. Albert P. Pero Jr. marked his seventh anniversary of service at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago as the first African American Lutheran to hold a full-time faculty appointment at a North American Lutheran seminary. In that same year (as I began my teaching ministry at a sister Lutheran seminary), Dr. James H. Cone of Union Theological Seminary in New York City published a book titled My Soul Looks Back. As noted in the introduction, Cone's book intended to be more testimony than autobiography, an account of his spiritual and intellectual development from his childhood in Arkansas to his tenure at Union. (1)

Now, in 2004, after twenty-nine years of effective teaching and scholarship at LSTC and over forty years of ordained ministry, Pete, as he is affectionately known in many circles, is retiring. Retirements always invite us to remember, and remembrances always yield a mixture of thanksgiving for what has been as well as grieving over what will no longer be. It is in the spirit of remembrance that my soul looks back and welcomes the opportunity to give testimony regarding this gifted saint of God. It is also in this same spirit that I invite your soul to look back and remember Pete's impact on you and the church.

Before my soul knew him

There are many people who have known Pete for much longer periods of time, people whose testimonies could be far more comprehensive and insightful than this one. In Black Christians: The Untold Lutheran Story, Jeff G. Johnson wrote:

The 1968 urban riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. underscored some of the inadequacies of Missouri's [Lutheran
Church--Missouri Synod's] policy of integration. With impetus from Dr.
Albert Pero, an urgent meeting of Black Lutheran pastors was called to
begin the process of taking their lives and destiny within the church
into their own hands. For the first time in history, Blacks did not ask
for the church's permission, official status, or recognition.
    When the black pastors in the ALC and LCA heard about Pero's
proposed meeting, they wanted to join the brothers in Missouri.
Together, in 1968, black pastors from all three Lutheran groups formed
the Association of Black Lutheran Clergymen [sic]. (2)

While I have heard Pete and his contemporaries talk about the turmoil of the 1960s and their ministries as Lutheran clergy and laity, I had not yet met him then. But it is clear that his prophetic ministry of organizational activism regarding race and racism since the 1960s has had a significant impact upon the Lutheran Church in North America.

My first distant acquaintance with him occurred during the 1976-77 academic year, when Dr. Richard J. Perry, Jr., now Associate Professor of Church and Community & Urban Ministry at LSTC, and I shared an internship placement site at Grace Lutheran Church in Philadelphia. A native of Detroit, Richard had previously encountered Pete as a parish pastor in that city and later served on the search committee that recommended that Pete be called to the seminary's faculty. And so it was during the mid-1970s that, through Richard Perry, I "virtually" met Pete. While I have never taken a seminary course from him, I've heard many express deep appreciation for their learning experience. And my own experiences with him have led me to be his student.

When my soul really met him

In the 1980s I had the privilege of personally getting to know Pete. My soul remembers our presence together on a panel at the October 1981 conference of the Association of Black Lutherans. At that time, we were helping the organization develop a theological rationale for its existence. (3) In that same month, although I was not present, Pete's visionary leadership had brought together in a "Transcultural Seminar" held at LSTC one hundred Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and White representatives from the AELC, ALC, and LCA to explore the theological dimensions and dynamics of a church for all people. (4)

And my soul remembers our collaboration and that of others in producing the April/May 1984 edition of Partners magazine, an edition that was substantially devoted to African American Lutheranism in the Lutheran Church in America (LCA). (5)

Through these encounters, I came to know an individual of deep faith in Jesus Christ, strong conviction about God's truth and God's church, righteous indignation regarding injustice and oppression, personal warmth toward and love of God's people, and an incredible sense of humor! In all of these encounters, Pete led the way in articulating and clarifying the challenge of "indigenizing" the Lutheran tradition in African American and other communities of color.

My soul will never forget the communication that I received from Pete and several others in November 1985. The letter began this way: "Dear Professor Echols, We are inviting you to participate in a consultation on 'The Meaning of the Lutheran Heritage and the Black Experience' in Africa and the Americas, to be held September 5-12, 1986, at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare." This conference was the dream of Pete and Dr. Ambrose Moyo, at that time a Lutheran pastor who served as Professor of Theology at the University of Zimbabwe. During Moyo's 1984 sabbatical leave taken at LSTC, he and Pete had recognized the need for Lutheran theologians of African descent to meet and articulate their own understandings of the Lutheran tradition in light of their own experiences. Together, they challenged global Lutheranism to make provision for such a gathering, and, with the assistance of individuals such as former LSTC President William E. Lesher, their dream became an unfolding reality.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Except for our Native American sisters and brothers, the rest of the United States population carry hyphenated identifications, our ancestors or perhaps we ourselves having emigrated to this country, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. Because of this, we immigrants often seek to visit, at some point, our continents and countries of origin in order to more fully understand who we are. I therefore both welcomed and was overwhelmed by the prospect and rich experience of setting foot on the African continent for the first time, paradoxically acknowledged by some as the place where human life and civilization began and by others as the "Dark Continent." Following the conference, the opening words of my October 1986 letter to Pete were these:

Dear Brother Pete:
This is to express to you my deep gratitude and appreciation for your
dream and the hard work which brought to fruition the Harare Conference.
For me personally, it was a mountaintop experience; being in Africa,
fellowshipping with the sisters and brothers, reflecting on the meaning
of the faith, worshipping with the saints of God and serving communion
to them. The trip and its memories will always be with me and as I think
of them, I will remember that you made it all possible. Many thanks!

While the Harare Conference had an incredible impact on me, its impact upon global Lutheranism was far more profound, yet another testimony to Pete's visionary leadership.

The 1986 Harare Conference yielded "A Message From Harare," a document partially authored by Pete that set forth the perspectives of Lutherans of African descent on the Lutheran tradition and that was read by the global Lutheran and ecumenical community. In the United States, African American Lutheran theologians visited various Lutheran seminaries to share the results of the conference and to engage in conversation. And in 1988, "A Message From Harare" as well as the conference papers were edited by Pete and Moyo and published in Theology and the Black Experience. (6)

For many, this seminal volume represented the determination of Lutherans of African descent to participate seriously in the church's theological dialogue about both the historical character and contemporary meaning of the tradition. Pete's essays in that volume, "On Being Black, Lutheran, and American in a Racist Society" (pp. 150-70) and "Worship and Theology in the Black Context" (pp. 227-48), were and remain provocative and insightful contributions to the conversation.

While Pete advocated tirelessly for the publication of Theology and the Black Experience, his organizational activism led him, at the Harare conference, to propose that the meeting become a movement. As a result, the Conference of International Black Lutherans (CIBL) was formed, an organization committed to

* bridging the gap between Black Lutherans in diaspora in the Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa;

* involving Black Lutherans in theological discussions and dialogue at domestic and international levels;

* facilitating the spiritual and physical liberation of all people;

* developing contextual theological education programs that foster ministerial formation; and

* promoting an appreciation of the Black contribution to Lutheranism.

Since the original Harare conference, the movement known as CIBL has continued to unfold. In 1996, the organization gathered in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, to address the reality of "Poverty & Plenty." More than anyone at the meeting, it was Pete who urged the importance of understanding that God is a God of abundance and of plenty while human hoarding produces poverty and scarcity. Thus, in "A Message From Bulawayo," CIBL called upon all Christians, all churches, and all governing authorities to work to share God's abundance with all God's people and to close the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots." (7)

The most recent CIBL conference took place in 2000 in Wittenberg, Germany, under the theme "Confession for the Third Millennium: Black Lutheran Experiences." Meeting in the town that is the cradle of the Reformation, conference participants both looked back to the sixteenth century and forward into the twenty-first century. Ultimately, the belief that God seeks both human liberation from all forms of oppression and reconciliation led conference participants to adopt Thirty-Eight Theses. (8)

Both the Conference of International Black Lutherans and the former Association of Black Lutheran Clergymen [sic] owe their ministries and accomplishments, in large measure, to the vision and vigor of Pete. Among other things, these organizational movements have allowed African American Lutherans and Lutherans of African descent to claim as well as critique the Lutheran Church and its theological tradition, to declare "Here we stand," to shape a tradition that is authentically Lutheran and authentically African American/African, while recognizing that all are one in Christ. Just so, Pete has led the way in helping all of us understand the relationship between God's gifts of our unity and diversity.

My soul carries "Peroisms"

Today, after nearly twenty years of having personally known Pete, including the last seven during which I have been privileged to serve with him at LSTC, I regard him simultaneously as colleague, elder, friend, and mentor. We have met with many church officials; traveled together to the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe; played golf together on numerous occasions with Ralph Klein, Richard Perry, and others; shared various birthday celebrations; and shared hopes and dreams over drinks in his home. Throughout these years, my soul has carried key comments that Pete has made, "Peroisms" that have illuminated the truth of the gospel as well as the challenge of the church's witness.

My soul remembers his stunningly clear statement at the 1986 Harare conference that to be Lutheran was to be committed to "the faithful confession, in every age, that Jesus Christ is Lord." Such a confession led Martin Luther in the sixteenth century to take his stand on the primacy of justification by grace through faith, and Pete has always celebrated and witnessed to the Reformation's recovery of God's Good News.

Simultaneously, he has maintained that Lutherans and other Christians who, in the twentieth century, stood against apartheid were also engaged in the faithful confession of Jesus Christ. For Pete, God's reform of the church's faith and life is dynamic, and that has led him to be an agent of reform throughout his life and witness.

My soul remembers Pete's magnificent turn of a phrase in order to affirm the identity of God's people in the midst of racism. Given the commonplace assertion that "blood is thicker than water," Pete has consistently stated that "water is thicker than blood," drawing the attention of God's people to the reality and meaning of baptism. For Pete, while God's people can claim and celebrate their respective racial/ethnic and cultural identifications, these become demonic when they obscure and deny the deeper truth that our identities as sisters and brothers have been established in creation and confirmed in baptism.

My soul remembers the Peroism that has challenged what constitutes ultimate reality. As Pete has encountered those who wield power arrogantly in church and society, his spirit has led him to declare that such persons "are not in charge of life and death." More than anything, this statement is a confession of the truth that God is real and that, ultimately, God is in charge. It also hearkens back to a verse in Luther's hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" that proclaims that the killing of the body does not and cannot kill God's abiding truth. Pete's belief, in this regard, has freed him to speak truth to power in ways that few of us are prepared to do.

Finally, my soul remembers laughter erupting within me when Pete declared for the first time in my hearing that "the church has a way of answering questions that no one is asking." Although the way he said it was quite humorous, the comment represented a serious call for the church to be relevant, to proclaim the gospel in ways that speak compellingly to the diverse contemporary human situations. It is a Peroism that I will never forget and have frequently cited in theological discourse.

Even if these Peroisms may not have originated with Pete, this does not diminish the power of them. Moreover, I hope that your soul carries a Peroism or two. For me, they embody and express the faith and witness of an extraordinary servant of Christ.

LSTC's soul has been marked by Pete

LSTC's strategic plan for 2001-2006 sets forth and celebrates the seminary's five "marks." It declares that LSTC has urban, ecumenical, university-related, global, and multicultural commitments.

For almost thirty years, Pete has helped to shape the ministry and mission of the seminary in each of these areas. Yet, my soul testifies that LSTC's soul has been especially marked by Pete in the area of the seminary's multicultural commitments.

Before I came to the seminary, Pete had been instrumental in the establishment of a Black Scholars Program at LSTC. The program intended to expand the number of African American Lutheran seminary faculty and ultimately led to the appointment of Dr. Richard J. Perry, Jr., to LSTC's faculty. Moreover, my own coming to the seminary was, in no small measure, due to Pete. For I am convinced that his prophetic ministry regarding race and racism greatly contributed to an institutional atmosphere in which a person of color could not only be considered for the seminary's presidency but actually called to it.

Since coming to the seminary, I have witnessed firsthand Pete's advocacy, along with that of other colleagues, literally change the face of the faculty, increasing its cultural diversity on many levels while maintaining its excellence. And his efforts on the institution's curriculum committee led to the inclusion of a Communities of Color requirement in LSTC's new curriculum.

My soul knows there is much more that could be told. Yet what is told above makes it crystal clear that, in a distinctive way, LSTC's soul has been marked by Pete.

Our souls will always carry Pete

While I have shared my own remembrances and thanksgivings for the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Albert P. "Pete" Pero, Jr., my hope is that these reflections will both honor him and invite your soul to remember and give thanks.

In Strength to Love, a collection of sermons by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the first sermon is titled "A tough mind and a tender heart." (9) In this homiletical masterpiece based upon Matthew 10:16, King declared:

Jesus recognized the need for the blending of opposites .... So he said
to them [the disciples], "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst
of wolves." And he gave them a formula for action: "Be ye therefore wise
as serpents, and harmless as doves." It is pretty difficult to imagine a
single person having, simultaneously, the characteristics of the serpent
and the dove, but this is what Jesus expects. We must combine the
toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and
a tender heart. (10)

In my mind and experience, Pete has done just this. As a serpent, he has prophetically called, challenged, and pushed the church to be faithful to the gospel on matters of race, gender, sexual orientation, and economic justice. And he has done so with great wisdom, careful analysis, the use of political skill, and power, always recognizing that the cost of discipleship can be very expensive.

Simultaneously, he has displayed a tenderheartedness that is second to none. I've personally seen it manifested through his generosity extended toward his family and friends, colleagues, students, and staff; his acceptance of and graciousness toward those who were intent upon being his enemies; and his care and concern for all people. In many ways, Pete's tenderheartedness is such that, if he could, he would invite all to gather with him in the "soul hole," the lower level of his residence that has been a place of fellowship for so many over the years.

It's hard to believe that Pete is retiring. At a certain level, my soul is grieving for what will no longer be in quite the way that it has been. Yet, it is filled to the brim with gratitude to God for the gift that Pete has been to all of us. In this sense, our souls will always carry Pete, and we will be the better for it!

1. James H. Cone, My Soul Looks Back (Nashville: Abingdon, 1982), 15.

2. Jeff G. Johnson, Black Christians: The Untold Lutheran Story (St. Louis: Concordia, 1991), 203.

3. See W. Kent Gilbert, Commitment to Unity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988), 398-99.

4. See Catching A Star: Transcultural Reflections on a Church for All People, ed. Lily R. Wu (New York: Lutheran Council in the USA, 1985).

5. LCA Partners VI:2 (April/May 1984).

6. Theology and the Black Experience, ed. Albert Pero and Ambrose Moyo (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1988).

7. "A Message From Bulawayo" (Chicago: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 1997).

8. Nelson T. Strobert, Confession for the Third Millennium: Black Lutheran Experiences, Participant Guide (Chicago: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 2001), 32-36.

9. Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981), 9-16.

10. King, Strength to Love, 9-10.

James Kenneth Echols

President

Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago