(RNS) — The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elected its first Black leader on Wednesday (July 30) at its churchwide assembly meeting in Phoenix.
The Rev. Yehiel Curry, bishop of the ELCA’s Metropolitan Chicago Synod since 2019, will serve a six-year term as the denomination’s presiding bishop, the top leadership role. He succeeds Elizabeth Eaton, who has served two terms as presiding bishop.
The 2.7 million-member Protestant group also passed a strongly worded resolution calling on members “to petition U.S. leaders to recognize and act to end the genocide against Palestinians, halt military aid to Israel used in Gaza, and support Palestinian statehood and U.N. membership.”
Other Protestant groups have weighed in with statements calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide. The United Church of Christ, which met earlier this summer, passed a resolution for an end to genocide. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) last year wrote a pastoral letter that said, “What Palestinians are experiencing is nothing less than genocide.”
The ELCA has sister groups in the embattled region: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, and the World Council of Churches/Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. The Lutheran World Federation operates Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem, which provides care for Palestinians in the West Bank. One of the strongest critics of Israel’s assault on Gaza is Palestinian pastor Munther Isaac of the Evangelical Lutheran Christma …