2007
David William Eisenhuth
The Lutheran Church of the Holy Comforter: A Biracial Congregation on the Cusp
Like many urban congregations, the Lutheran Church of the Holy Comforter, Baltimore, Maryland, faces the challenge of dwindling membership and stretched budgets. Yet it has a resource it has hardly tapped—it is a biracial church and has been so for close to fifteen years. The membership is one-third African/American and two-thirds White. This diversity is reflected in weekly worship attendance. Despite the presence of such racial diversity—a thing to be celebrated in and of itself—little attention has been paid to cultural differences and systemic structures in the church which, if addressed, could enhance life together and bring to reality that community of harmony envisioned in Isaiah 11. This thesis will seek to explain how Holy Comforter became such a racially diverse congregation. It will explore the issue of White ethnocentrism. It will discuss the issue of power and the need for its equitable sharing. Finally, it will address key areas of the congregation’s life including: worship, mission, teaching and structure. Here the focus is on ways to make incremental changes which will address inequities in power-sharing, thus helping the congregation embrace its diversity and perhaps grow in numbers so as to face a more certain future.