Plantation, Florida – – – The Florida-Georgia District (FL/GA District) of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) seeks to engage and showcase the ethnically and racially diverse communities in which their Lutheran churches are located as well as the diversity of its US church congregations. For this initiative, the LCMS FL/GA District President Dr. Gregory S. Walton recently established a Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force. Although LCMS Worldwide has church plants and ministries in 25 African countries plus in Latin America and the Caribbean Islands, the impetus for this is notable in his statement that “Nation-wide the membership in LCMS churches is 98 percent White Anglo-Saxon,” states Dr. Walton. He continues “This is unreflective of a U.S. population that is 40 percent people of color.”
Considering the current US nation-wide picture of diversity of the LCMS church membership, one of the goals of President Walton’s concept of a Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force is to raise awareness in the district.
To carry forward the stated goals, the Rev. Tony Durante, Pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church & School Plantation, Florida has been appointed by Dr. Walton to chair the Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force (MEDTF). Currently other members of the task force include Rev. Dr. Victor Belton, Rev. Frank and Rebecca Marshall, Deaconess Ligia Morales and Rhoda Reilly.
“Our hope is that the task force can identify any obstacles the ministries might have in connecting with other multicultural people and ethnic groups in the neighborhoods that surround Lutheran churches within LCMS’s Florida-Georgia district and provide some insights on what can be done,” Pastor Durante stated.
The list of President Walton’s goals in establishing the Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force are:
- · Raise awareness in the Florida-Georgia district of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
- · Understand the scope of issues
- · Provide positive stories for website/district publications
- · Discover ways to make congregations sensitive to issues without legalism/judgment
- · Discover ways to encourage congregations to consider diversity when building teams
- · Provide worship resources for a potential day of repentance
- · Provide a list of resources for congregations to consider
Members of the LCMS Multicultural and Ethnic Task Force have developed resources to be used by congregations in efforts to create awareness about multicultural relations and for personal reflection about attitudes toward other races. These include a recorded theatrical drama, and a confession and absolution liturgy specific to racism.
Last summer the MEDTF conceived a “Multicultural Church Award” as a center piece of its efforts. Some of the task force’s goals by inviting congregations to compete for the recognition of their efforts/achievements in multicultural outreach/awareness. “The inspiration for the idea is the All-America Cities Award,” Durante explained, “a community recognition program in the United States given by the National Civic League. The award recognizes the work of communities in using inclusive civic engagement to address critical issues and create stronger connections among residents, businesses and nonprofit and government leaders. Once called by the organization the “Nobel Prize for Constructive Citizenship” – it has been awarded to more than 500 communities across the country.”
Similarly, the MEDTF seeks to present the Multicultural Church Award to a FLGA District
congregation that demonstrates a multicultural approach to mission and ministry in following aspects in in-reach and outreach:
1. Education
2. Engagement
3. Improvements
4. Legacy
About Pastor Tony Durante, Appointed Chair of the LCMS FLA-GA Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force:
Prior to becoming an ordained Lutheran minister, Tony Durante served as a Christian missionary for LCMS in Hokkaido, Japan and he is fluent in Japanese. Upon his return from Japan, Tony Durante was recruited by and joined the Police Department in year 1995 in his hometown of Delray Beach, Florida. In year 2001, he was recruited by and joined the ministry staff at his hometown Lutheran church in Delray Beach. His position at that Lutheran church was that of Director of Discipleship. He also pursued certification in theology to earn his pastoral ordination from Concordia Seminary. After receiving the pastoral ordination, he then became the Assistant Pastor and Pastor of Outreach at that same Lutheran church in Delray Beach. In year 2013, Pastor Durante was asked by theDelray Beach Police Department if he would also serve with them as a volunteer police chaplain to which he agreed and he still does so. In year 2018, Pastor Tony Durante was Called, offered and accepted the position as Pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church & School in Plantation, Florida where he currently serves. Our Savior Lutheran is microcosm of cultures with church members and/or school families from Haiti, Jamaica, US Virgin Islands, Trinidad, Venezuela, South Africa, Sweden and Scotland, to name a few.
Pastor Tony Durante is a native of Delray Beach, Florida and was raised in a historic Black neighborhood in Delray Beach and grew up as a member of the Lutheran church in Delray Beach. His parents are natives of and grew up in Alabama (his mother’s home State) and North Carolina (his father’s home State) where they were raised in the historically Black Baptist church tradition during the Jim Crow era. Both of his parents participated in the Civil Rights Movement events of the 1960s. Pastor Durante’s parents did not know of each other at the time of the Civil Rights Movement and they were involved in the Movement in different States.
The parents of Pastor Tony Durante decided to join the Lutheran church in Delray Beach in 1972 after the birth of both of their children – Tony Durante and Lori Durante. The Durante family was the second Black family (the other family was native of the Caribbean) to join the local Lutheran church that was established by German settlers in year 1904. The Durantes are the longest continually serving Black family of a LCMS church in Palm Beach County, Florida.
The other reason Pastor Tony Durante brings a unique qualification to the LCMS Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force, is because his father participated in the Civil Rights Movement and attended the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. in year 1963, where Dr. King made the “I Have A Dream” speech. In year 1965, Pastor Tony Durante’s mother attended the rally for the Selma to Montgomery March with fellow students from the historically black Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University). What’s more, on the maternal side of Pastor Tony Durante’s family who originates from Greene County, Alabama was the first-born nephew of Pastor Durante’s mother who is the late Rev. Dr. Thomas Gilmore of Greene County, Alabama who served as an aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and became the first Black Sheriff of Greene County, Alabama. The effective style of Rev Gilmore’s reign as Sheriff and his work in the Civil Rights Movement has been profiled in documentaries and there are also photos of him at the Smithsonian Museum and at Stanford University. In addition to Rev. Gilmore’s work as Sheriff, he was also a Biblical based Baptist minister that inspired the production of an excellent rated movie about him wherein the actor Lou Gossett, Jr. played the role of late Sheriff Thomas Gilmore.
Black Pioneers within LCMS during Jim Crow in America:
While a current picture is being presented of diversity of (Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) LCMS church membership in the USA, LCMS has not been ignoring or not ministering to people of other nationalities because LCMS has many ministries of church plants in predominantly Black nations which include several countries in the continent of Africa, in Haiti and in Caribbean Islands. Additionally, LCMS has available the Rosa J. Young scholarships to support African American church work students attending LCMS Concordia Universities. This scholarship is so named to honor the legacy of Rosa Young an African American who traveled to various locations in Alabama in the early 1900s teaching African American children who were not allowed to attend public schools. Because LCMS was known for its mission work among African Americans in the South, it was suggested to Ms. Young by Booker T. Washington that she should contact LCMS for some help and LCMS was immediately impressed with Ms. Young’s faith and love of education. With the support of LCMS and the work of Ms. Young, this resulted in over 30 historically Black schools in Alabama. The Rosa J. Young scholarships is one of the ways today that LCMS reaches out to the African American community. According to the documents for the Rosa J. Young scholarship foundation, LCMS will provide significant support to African American students wanting to become pastors, teachers, directors of Christian education and other church work vocations in the ministries of LCMS.
The Two Martin Luthers:
Lutheranism comes from Martin Luther, the German cleric who resisted the Roman Catholic Church for charging indulgences to gain forgiveness of sins when Luther posted the 95 Thesis on their church door in 1517. Essentially, Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 Thesis was one of the first Civil Rights Movement and non-violent protests at the advent of modern technology, the printing press. He sparked the Protestant Reformation. Luther was up against a global power of that day, the Roman Catholic Church. Luther was ostracized, ex-communicated from the Roman Catholic Church and branded an outlaw. Fast forward to 1899 to the birth of an African American named Michael King in Stockbridge, Georgia who changed his name to Martin Luther (the father of Martin Luther King, Jr.). Michael King became Reverend at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. During a trip to Germany, he learned about the German theologian Martin Luther, his non-violent protests and the Protestant Reformation that Luther led. Reverend Michael King was inspired by the German cleric and changed his name to Martin Luther King, Sr. and the name of his son to Martin Luther King, Jr. which is the Civil Rights namesake celebrated with his own holiday. The same way the German Martin Luther was outspoken against a global power and the unjust denial of people’s free Christian right to salvation, so were both the Reverend Kings of the Baptist denomination with the denial of African Americans civil rights in the United States of America. Similarly, in his advocacy for freedom for his people, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was branded an outlaw just like the German monk. There are many parallels between the German Martin and the African American one
Who:
The Florida-Georgia District (FL/GA District) of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) seeks to engage and showcase the ethnically and racially diverse communities in which their Lutheran churches are located as well as the diversity of its US church congregations. For this initiative, the LCMS FL/GA District President Dr. Gregory S. Walton recently established a Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force. Although LCMS Worldwide has church plants and ministries in 25 African countries plus in Latin America and the Caribbean Islands, the impetus for this is notable in his statement that “Nation-wide the membership in LCMS churches is 98 percent White Anglo-Saxon,” states Dr. Walton. He continues “This is unreflective of a U.S. population that is 40 percent people of color.”
Considering the current US nation-wide picture of diversity of the LCMS church membership, one of the goals of President Walton’s concept of a Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force is to raise awareness in the district.
To carry forward the stated goals, the Rev. Tony Durante, Pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church & School Plantation, Florida has been appointed by Dr. Walton to chair the Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force (MEDTF). Currently other members of the task force include Rev. Dr. Victor Belton, Rev. Frank and Rebecca Marshall, Deaconess Ligia Morales and Rhoda Reilly.
“Our hope is that the task force can identify any obstacles the ministries might have in connecting with other multicultural people and ethnic groups in the neighborhoods that surround Lutheran churches within LCMS’s Florida-Georgia district and provide some insights on what can be done,” Pastor Durante stated.
What:
The Florida-Georgia District (FL/GA District) of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) seeks to engage and showcase the ethnically and racially diverse communities in which their Lutheran churches are located as well as the diversity of its US church congregations. For this initiative, the LCMS FL/GA District President Dr. Gregory S. Walton recently established a Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force. Although LCMS Worldwide has church plants and ministries in 25 African countries plus in Latin America and the Caribbean Islands, the impetus for this is notable in his statement that “Nation-wide the membership in LCMS churches is 98 percent White Anglo-Saxon,” states Dr. Walton. He continues “This is unreflective of a U.S. population that is 40 percent people of color.”
Considering the current US nation-wide picture of diversity of the LCMS church membership, one of the goals of President Walton’s concept of a Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force is to raise awareness in the district.
To carry forward the stated goals, the Rev. Tony Durante, Pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church & School Plantation, Florida has been appointed by Dr. Walton to chair the Multicultural & Ethnic Task Force (MEDTF). Currently other members of the task force include Rev. Dr. Victor Belton, Rev. Frank and Rebecca Marshall, Deaconess Ligia Morales and Rhoda Reilly.
“Our hope is that the task force can identify any obstacles the ministries might have in connecting with other multicultural people and ethnic groups in the neighborhoods that surround Lutheran churches within LCMS’s Florida-Georgia district and provide some insights on what can be done,” Pastor Durante stated.
Where/Contact:
Pastor Tony Durante of Our Savior Lutheran Church & School is located at 8001 NW 5th St Plantation, FL 33324. (954) 473 6888. oslplantation.church
