The Rev. Dr. Will Herzfeld

 In honor of Black History month. Photo from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America archives.

The Rev. Dr. Will Herzfeld was a pastor with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in the 1960s and active with Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement of that time. This picture shows him (fourth from the right) as a leader of a 20,000 person march through San Francisco commemorating the 20th anniversary of the March on Washington. So, that would have been 1983. In 1984 Rev. Herzfeld made history when he became the first African-American bishop to head a Lutheran denomination in the United States – the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in America – (which eventually joined in the merger of 1988 which formed the ELCA.)

The name “Will Herzfeld” lives in my childhood memory. Rev. Herzfeld and my father served together on the Wheatridge Foundation Board in the mid-1970s. I remember Dad coming home from a Board meeting once talking about (I think) Christmas seals the Foundation would be sending out with a thank you letter to donors. They were something like an 8”x10” perforated sheet of one large picture, which people could take a few stamp-sized pieces from to put on Christmas card envelopes or gifts. Anyway, the sheet had something of a global missions theme showing people from around the world doing whatever they were doing. (“Red and yellow, black and white; They are precious in His sight.” <g>) And then, because it was Christmas I guess, there were angels on clouds above all this ethnic diversity looking down upon them. Apparently, everybody on the Board received a complimentary copy of the stickers during their meeting and as they looked them over all of a sudden, Will said, “Why didn’t any of our guys make it into heaven?!”

All the angels were white.

Dad told the family this story in good humor, and Rev. Herzfeld is remembered by many for his joy and dry wit. However, both Rev. Herzfeld and my father were wont to scatter seeds of consternation into the hearts of uncritical little children. This particular planting has only matured and challenged me throughout my life. Why indeed?!

Thank you, Rev. Herzfeld, for being there for so many of us!

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