"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.