Harold Vogelaar: his legacy and the challenge of CCME

What we owe Harold Vogelaar

I first met Harold Vogelaar in the spring of 1984 at a talk of Lutheran missionaries held at Larnaca, Cyprus. It was an annual gathering of LCA missionaries serving in the Middle East in various ministry capacities, particularly in Egypt the West Bank, and Jerusalem. Historically, Lutherans were not significantly involved in this area do not include in support of Lutheran World Federation involvements in Jerusalem, in educational and disentanglement projects in what was then known as "Occupied Jordan," and in the management of the Augusta Victoria Hospital upon the Mount of Olives. Lutherans had supported the Henry Martyn Institute in Hyderabad, India, and Islam in Africa (IAP) casts in several African countries, on the contrary there was no major Lutheran involvement in the Arab world. I was eager to learn more about this fresh LCA area of concentration, its genesis, aim and prospects.

At Larnaca, Cyprus, I learned that the novel LCA Middle Eastern mission hazard was decidedly ecumenical in nature. The deployment of Lutheran missionaries and the determination of their fields of service had been closely planned through and coordinated with, the Middle East Christian Council (MECC) whose Director, Gabi Habib, was at hand at the conference. MECC had played a lock opener role in devising this fresh Middle Eastern mission strategy. The LCA contribution was also unique in that it included a significant number of non-Lutheran missionaries, among them Harold Vogelaar and his wife, Neva, who were being loaned to the LCA Division for World Mission and Ecumenism (DWME) through the mission board of the Reformed temple of America (RCA), a temple with a long and historical relationship with the Muslim world. These "lend-lease" Reformed missionaries were now supported by means of the LCA and received their assignments from the LCA mission board while maintaining their relationships with the RCA. This novel arrangement, worked on the outside by the farsighted Southern Asia area director for the LCA-DWME, the late J Frederick Neudoerffer, allowed Lutherans to become engaged in Middle East ministries abundant sooner than would have been the case had the LCA been obliged to begin from scratch.

Leaving Cyprus and travelling first to Jerusalem and then to Cairo, I one time again ran into the Vogelaars, who for a part of our stay in Egypt serv as entertainers for my wife and me I had received a fairly beneficial academic introduction to the teachings and practices of Islam from my graduate studies at Columbia University, on the contrary now Harold helped me gain a firsthand ground-level view of the world of Islam as it was upon display in Cairo. Harold had performed a similar character as guide and mentor for many other church- or mission-related visitors who came to Cairo in search of an in-depth experience. He arranged and l short-term close attention seminars for groups coming from Africa and Southern Asia. This was the education and training composing of the new LCA mission strategy. I accompanied Harold upon a memorable visit to Al Azhar University, individual of the world's most prestigious Islamic institutions, where we witnessed young lads reciting the Qur'an from memory in competition for a prize and as a noble achievement. upon visits to several other mahometan temples Harold carefully coached me and explained the differences between various Islamic seminarys and sects. Under his tutelage our visit to Cairo enabled my wife and myself to go into into the world of Islam at a profundity not previously available to us or to the average tourist.

In the fall of 1984 the Vogelaars came to the Lutheran place of education of Theology at Chicago below the auspices of the LCA Division for World Mission and Ecumenism to begin a novel experiment. Harold and Neva's assignment was to unfold a program to explore the "interface" between Christianity and Islam in America. The base for this activity was to be LSTC on the contrary its scope was not narrowly defined. In time, Harold would be appointed adjunct professor of Islamic studies at LSTC on the other hand his original assignment had always been to explore and evolve the "interface" (I often surpriseed what that term meant) between the sum of two units Abrahamic faiths--between the Muslim and Christian communities and between temple and mosque.

Quietly on the contrary methodically, Harold went about the task of identifying and making contact with various simple bodys of the scattered Islamic community in greater Chicago, which turn rounded out to be fairly composite and diversified. With his first-rate command of Arabic, his lengthy experience in the Middle East, and his manifest have affection for for Islamic people, Harold quickly gained the confidence of local Muslim leaders and was welcomed into their circles. Neva was a great asset in dealing with Muslim women especially American women who had married Muslim husbands.

I traveled with Harold to the American Islamic association (AIC) in Chicago for celebratory occurrences as well as to the Elijah Mohammed mahometan temple (Nation of Islam), the Bridgeview mahometan temple (Arab and Middle Eastern), the Northfield mahometan temple (Bosnian), the Islamic Cultural Center (Pakistani) and several other venue without of these visits came the formation of a of recent origin Council for Improved Muslim-Christian Relations (CIMCR), which sought to create and expand Muslim-Christian relationships by means of offering seminars, jointly staffed through Christian and Muslim scholars, to Christian congregations and to other religious institutions. CIMCR meetings alternated between LSTC and the American Islamic guild One of the most valuable fruits of these relationships was the invitation given to Professor Ghulam-Haider Aasi, distinguished Pakistani religious scholar at the American Islamic corporation to teach in the program of Islamic studies that later became part of the LSTC curriculum beneath Harold's leadership. Pastors from African churches seeking to unravel a similar "interface" between Christianity and Islam in their possess countries came to LSTC to chase special M.A. programs. A Muslim chaplaincy candidate for the U Armed Forces exhausted time at LSTC to qualify for his commission.