Herzfeld, Will Lawrence, 1937-

Will L. Herzfeld, pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Oakland, California since 1973, was the first African-American bishop to head a Lutheran denomination in the United States. Born in Mobile, Alabama, Herzfeld was enrolled in Lutheran schools beginning at the elementary level and attended the Alabama Lutheran Academy in Selma and graduated with an Associate degree in Arts in 1957 from Immanuel Lutheran College of the Missouri Synod in Greensboro, North Carolina. He further pursued his education to obtain a Masters of Divinity in 1961 at Immanuel Lutheran Seminary in Greensboro. Twenty years later, while combining duties as pastor, professor and social activist, he found time to obtain a Doctorate of Divinity from the Center for Urban Black Studies, Berkeley, California in 1984.

Herzfeld was a pastor at the Christ Lutheran Church in the Tuscaloosa chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference when he became involved in the 1964 Tuscaloosa boycott of downtown businesses. In the 1970's, he served as director of the National Conference of Black Churchmen and was on the Board of Directors of the Black Theology Project.

In 1976, the church Herzfeld pastored, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, was one of the first to break away from the Lutheran Church in America and join the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC), an organization of which Herzfeld assumed the vice presidency. Herzfeld was instrumental in merging the AELC, the Lutheran Church in America, and the American Lutheran Church to form the Evangelical Lutheran Churche in America in 1988. Among many other humanitarian, civic, and educational activities, he is adjunct professor of Urban Ministry at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California.

Will Lawrence Herzfeld was born on June 9, 1937 in Mobile, Alabama. He was enrolled in elementary Lutheran schools there and was a member of the Faith Lutheran Church. He attended the Alabama Lutheran Academy in Selma and graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in 1957 from Immanuel Lutheran College of the Missouri synod in Greensboro, North Carolina. He further pursued his education to obtain a Masters of Divinity in 1961 at Immanuel Lutheran Seminary in Greensboro and did some post-graduate work at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri. Almost twenty years later, while combining duties as pastor, professor, and social activist, he found time to obtain a doctorate of divinity from the Center for Urban Black Studies at Berkeley in 1981 and another doctorate from Christ Seminary-Seminex in St. Louis in 1984.

Herzfeld's clerical career began in the Southern District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) during the Civil Rights era. He was a pastor at the Christ Lutheran Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from 1960-1965. He also participated in organizing the Tuscaloosa chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and was its first president in 1963. The following year he became president of the Alabama State SCLC. His involvement in this organization led to his close association with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While pastoring, he was a member of the Southern Districts's Stewardship Committee for three years, and chairperson of the Family Life Committee for two years. Moreover, from 1964 to 1966 he acted as vice-president of the Lutheran Human Relations Association of America, and throughout the decade of the 1960s he was trustee of the Walther League, a youth organization of the LCMS.

Rev. Herzfeld's clerical career shifted from the South to the West after he moved to Oakland, California in 1965. From 1965 to 1973 he served as urban minister in the California-Nevada-Hawaii District of the LCMS. During this time he also performed duties as regional mission executive of the Lutheran Council in the United States and was the first African American on the executive staff there. In 1969, he was the first African American to be elected to the Board of Mission Services of the Lutheran Council in the USA, resigning in 1973. Never one to abandon his political activism, Herzfeld joined the “Soledad Brothers Defense Committee” in 1971, to the displeasure of some of his superiors who frowned on his political involvement.

While living in Oakland, California, Herzfeld assumed the pastorate of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church there in 1973. This predominantly African-American congregation, founded in 1929, was a member of the Missouri Synod until 1975. The following year it was one of the first to break away from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and join the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC). Herzfeld remained pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church until December 30, 1992 whereupon he left to become Director for Global Community and Overseas Operations of the Division for Global Mission/Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, located in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1976 Herzfeld assumed the post of vice president of AELC as the first African American to be elected to the presidium of a Lutheran churchbody in the United States. In addition he was, and remains, adjunct professor of urban ministry at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California.

Rev. Herzfeld's career during the 1970s and 1980s illustrates a dedication to Lutheran affairs, church-related concerns (local, national, global and African-American), and a capacity to expand his activities to include educational, civic, and humanitarian matters. In addition to teaching, Herzfeld was also secretary-treasurer of the Center for Urban Black Studies--Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley from 1979 to 1989. In the African-American clerical community he was vice president of Alamo Black Clergy from 1970 to 1989, on the board of directors of the National Conference of Black Churchmen for almost the entire decade of the 1970s, sat on the board of directors of the Black Theology Project in 1978 to 1979, and chaired the Martin Luther King Committee of the San Francisco Bay Area from 1981 to 1982. In 1979 to 1982 he served on the World Community Commission of the formerly USA National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation and was a member of the board of the Center for Participation in Democracy from 1982 to 1984. Moreover, he participated in the Second Vienna Dialogue International Conference-Dialogue for Disarmament and Detente in 1983. He sat on the Council for Christian Medical Work from 1970 to 1972, was a board member of Evangelical Lutherans in Mission from 1978 to 1983, and was a member of the Committee on Lutheran Unity in 1981.

In addition to his involvement in educational, global, clerical and denominational concerns, Herzfeld showed an interest in the welfare of his home base as a member of the board of directors of the Oakland Citizens Committee for Urban Renewal from 1973 to 1975, treasurer of the Oakland Urban Renaissance Society, a minority development corporation, in 1981, and chairperson of a subcommittee of the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Crime in Oakland in 1986 to 1987. He maintained an already strong record of humanitarian concern when he became county commissioner for Alameda County Human Relations Commission from 1970 to 1972 and a member of the California Attorney General's Commission on Racial, Ethnic, Religious and Minority Violence in 1987. As a community-oriented person he had a seat from 1974 to 1978 on the board of directors and executive committee of the Wheat Ridge Foundation which funds church-related community organizing efforts. Combining religion and his interest in sport, he was named chaplain for the Golden State Warriors professional basketball team from 1984 and remained in that position until 1991.

In 1984, Rev. Herzfeld made history when he became the first African-American bishop to head a Lutheran denomination in the United States. He succeeded Rev. Dr. William Kohn, bishop of the AELC to become this church body's first African-American bishop. Simultaneously, Herzfeld was a member of the Commission for a New Lutheran Church which worked toward merging the AELC, the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) and the American Lutheran Church (ALC) to form the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in America (ELCA) in 1988. He played a key role in the merger.

Included in Herzfeld's full career was extensive travelling. In 1969 he went to India to represent Rev. J.A.O. Preus during the 75th anniversary of the LCMS's India Mission at its seventh biennial convention in Nagercoil, India. Twenty years later he returned to India as vice president of Lutheran World Relief. In 1973 he travelled to Dar Es-Salaam, Tanzania, where he attended the Lutheran World Federation Assembly. He visited Haiti in 1975 and, as a result of this trip and his efforts there, Bethlehem Lutheran Church sponsored sixteen Haitian refugees. In 1986, he journeyed to Harare, Zimbabwe where he attended the World Council of Churches emergency meeting to discuss the South African situation. At the end of the meeting he signed the Harare Declaration which called for the resignation of the South African government as the only viable way to achieve peace and bring about constructive change. It also urged churches of the Western world to support sanctions against South Africa and aid Africa liberation movements.

Rev. Herzfeld visited the Bahamas in 1988 where he was an official guest at an independence celebration. In 1989 he was part of the first group of visitors from the United States (a delegation of four clergy) to legally enter the Democratic People's Republic of Korea since the Korean War. Other countries he visited include China, Germany, Ghana, Ethiopia, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, Korea, and Nigeria; all places where he served in his capacity as an international clergyman.

Rev. Herzfeld has received numerous honors and awards, supplementing his professional attainments. Aside from several city and state awards, individual groups have acknowledged the energies he invested as a citizen, humanitarian, and clergyperson. From 1961 to 1966 he was honored for Outstanding Citizen by the Tuscaloosa Businessmen's League and received three Service to Youth awards from the Benjamin Barnes branch of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 1976 The Mother's for Equal Education chose him as Man of the Year.

Merritt College and United East Oakland Clergy paid tribute to him in 1986 by honoring him with an award symbolizing recognition of the power for positive change in communities which churches and church leaders represent.