New ELCA Service and Justice Director Starts Monday: Introducing Rev. Khader El-Yateem
Friends of LAMA, we are pleased to introduce you to the new Executive Director of ELCA Service and Justice, Rev. Khader El-Yateem!
The ELCA Service and Justice home area oversees several interconnected ministries, including Witness in Society (advocacy!), AMMPARO, Lutherans Restoring Creation, Ecumenical Relations, and many more. This home area exists to help the ELCA include, serve, and authentically minister to ALL of our neighbors and members.
Rev. El-Yateem’s resume includes work from several areas of the ELCA, most recently serving as the assistant to the bishop and Director of Evangelical Mission (DEM) for the Florida Bahama Synod. He has also worked as a clergy liaison with the NYPD, in patient relations at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, and as the president of the Association of Lutherans of Arab and Middle Eastern Heritage. Most notably, Rev. El-Yateem served as the pastor and mission developer at Salam Lutheran Church in Brooklyn for over two decades.
El-Yateem was born and raised in Beit Jala in Bethlehem, Palestine. This area has a rich history of Christianity, and sits near many of the Bible’s holiest sites. El-Yateem received his Bachelor of Theology from Bethlehem Bible College in 1989 and his Bachelor of Theology and World Religions from the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo in 1991. He received his Master of Divinity degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (now United Seminary) in 1996.
In 1992, the Lutheran authorities in Jerusalem sent El-Yateem to attend seminary and to launch an Arabic-speaking church for Brooklyn’s growing Arab Christian population. In 1995, Pastor El-Yateem founded the an Arabic-speaking Lutheran congregation at the Salem Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church. The church had been in decline as the area’s demographics shifted, and the congregation reached out to the neighborhood’s Arabic-speaking community to join them in worship. As Pastor El-Yateem tells it, the congregation of Salem Lutheran wanted to pass the torch on to their neighbors. Eventually, as care of the church was transfered to Rev. El-Yateem’s congregation, the church was renamed Salam Lutheran Church—both names translate to “peace.”
Rev. El-Yateem shepherded the church until 2018, turning the congregation into a community staple. After the September 11th attacks, El-Yateem organized services for grieving families, and school escorts for Muslim and Arab children facing hostility. Salam Lutheran has ministered to youth, immigrants, refugees, and neighbors of all kinds. It has become a place that Arab Christians from all over the world have found community.
Rev. Khader El-Yateem became a U.S. citizen in 1996, and registered to vote the same day, and in 2017, he made a historic run for his local city council seat. The reverend has spoken at length about his commitment to service and the value of civic engagement as a tool to share the Good News. Of his appointment, he said, “My deep faith commitment is to help advance the mission of our church in making disciples and loving and serving our neighbor. We as the ELCA are uniquely positioned and called to make a difference in this broken world, both locally and globally. The Service and Justice team and I will embark on this journey together, trusting in the incredible gifts of the Holy Spirit that will guide our work and ministry.”
We at ELCA Advocacy are beyond excited to have Rev. Khader El-Yateem as our new leader—join us in welcoming him to his new position!
Read the original ELCA Press Release on Rev. Khader El-Yateem’s appointment here.
Find a 1998 New York Times article on the early days of Salam Lutheran Church here.
