FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1.Just as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration invaded Ukraine February 24, 2022 past, so too has Bishop Yehiel Curry’s administration of Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (MCS/ELCA) recently sought to illegally violate our autonomy (independence) as a Free African American Lutheran Congregation by its so-called “DEMAND FOR POSESSION AND NOTICE OF TERMINATION-30 NOTICE” Re: 11310 S. Union Avenue, Chicago IL 60628 -our congregation’s parsonage property.
2. Just as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, according to CNN, “Russia is trying to annihilate us” Re: President Putin’s Russian administration’s currently unleashed (10/10/22) barrage 0f 80-100 missiles against 9 Ukrainian cities, including Kiev, so too do we say MCS/ELCA, by its 9/14/22 action(s), that is/are illegally seeking to annihilate our ministry as an active African American Lutheran Free Kusanyiko/Congregation of Chicago Voice & Contrarian Press.
3. By annihilate we mean, according to our online reference, “to reduce to ruin or nonexistence, destroy utterly.”
4. Just as Putin’s Russian invasion of Ukraine is a denial of its right to nation-state self-determination, so too is the Curry administration’s attack on our local Black Church an attempted denial of our authentic, Christian Church Universal, right to African American Lutheran Congregationalist autonomy (independence) with regard to our distinct identity, purpose and direction -versus resisting outside episcopal and/or connectional denominational church controls.
4A. Note: Even MCS/ELCA’S own Congregational Dissolution Guidelines support, in principle, our Congregation’s autonomy (independence) up to and including either discerning dissolution or new Congregation directions going forward. Headed “Steps to Dissolution” -as linked again below here: Steps for Dissolution guidelines of MCS/ELCA here: https://mcselca.org/wp-content/uploads/Steps-for-Dissolution-of-a-Congregation-ELSA-MCSELCA.pdf
5. More, it would appear that the Synod’s Curry administration was taken in by the shananaghens of two disgruntled former members masquerading as spokespersons of our local Congregation from which they had long since previously defected.
6. We conclude Part 3 of “We Will Be Heard” with the following quote from our updated email message to MCS/ELCA lawyer Mr. Beattie regarding this matter -cut and pasted for our readers below.
Dear Mr. Beattie,
FYI, appended is the Cook County Jail & CPD profile of the case of Derek Terry who, along with his mother, Jenola Terry-Ward, masqueraded as legitimate active members of our Congregation to your client.
Meanwhile, Mr. Terry was committing statutory rape with a mentally challenged young female visitor to our vacant local church building. Said young female lives with a clinically certified adolescent mind. She was a volunteer ostensibly recruited by Mr. Terry, and his mother, for our vacant church building’s maintenance services without our authorization.
Because the teenager’s mother and legal guardian surprisingly caught them both in the act at her home, she posted formal charges against Mr. Terry with CPD whereupon he was subsequently arrested and since jailed pending trial.
Please Note: The dating of Mr. Terry’s criminal offense coincides with the very same period in which he was in active conversation with your client posturing, along with his mother, as aggrieved members of our Congregation from which they had long since voluntarily defected.
Question? Why would your client take the words of Mr. Terry and his mother, despite the position of this writer, serving as one of their rostered leaders, that the two disgruntled defectors were no longer active Congregation members and therefore were neither qualified, authorized, nor delegated to legally speak for the Congregation?
Could it be, your client, illegally coveting our Congregation’s property, sought to rush to errant judgement?
We invite your client’s reply.
Advance thanks,
Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Bi-Vocational Pastor/Council President, DECIDED TO FOLLOW JESUS: Reformation African American Lutheran Free Kusantiko/Congregation of Chicago Voice & Contrarian Press -VOLUNTARILY MCS/ELCA
Again Please Note: Even MCS/ELCA’S own Congregational Dissolution Guidelinessupport, in principle, our Congregation’s autonomy (independence) up to and including either discerning dissolution or new Congregation directions going forward. Headed “Steps to Dissolution” -as linked again below here: Steps for Dissolution guidelines of MCS/ELCA here: https://mcselca.org/wp-content/uploads/Steps-for-Dissolution-of-a-Congregation-ELSA-MCSELCA.pdf
ADDENDA
A. Link to CPD/Cook County Jail profile of the case of Mr. Derek Terry here: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#search/Beattie/FMfcgzGqQmWhPFDKBCqPLRKXQMmDzZdF
B. Link to: “DEMAND FOR POSSESSION AND NOTICE OF TERMINATION -30 DAY NOTICE:” https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgzGqRQCxxkmFngbVcKbHNbVmXqrT?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1
TO BE CONTINUED
Respectfully Curated & Submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Bi-Vocational Pastor/Council President & Co-Convener, Sankofa Chicago (Preserving The Black Church Teaching Moments Blog/Teleconference/Podcast}, Voice of Reformation African American Lutheran Free Kusantiko/Congregational of Chicago Voice & Contrarian Press (REFPRESS).
Ordained and Commissioned August 28, 2011 by then MCS/ELCA Bishop Wayne N. Miller and endorsed by the then African American Strategy Team, Pastor Washington (Sangoma) voluntarily serves as an African-Centered, African American pastor on the leadership roster of MCS/ELCA.
Pastor Washington (Sangoma) regards his August 28, 2011 ordination date as significant A) because it marked the 48th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom which he attended as a young man and B) because it also marked the 2011 unveiling of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. statue of the King Memorial Park, Washington D.C., thereby giving special significance to Pastor Washington’s (Sangoma’s) distinct African American Lutheran Free Congregationalist ministry. -Updated: 11/4/22
EPILOGUE
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
NEW DIRECTIONS: Reformation African American Lutheran Free Congregation Chicago's Legal Defense Fund Saving Black Churches 