“Father K” The Movie and the Man – Luther Memorial Lutheran Church 2019 Visiting Theologian Series

Luther Memorial Lutheran Church 2019 Visiting Theologian Series presents Father K: The Movie and the man. Saturday April 27th @ 3pm.

This is open to the public at no charge.

A Palestinian-American Lutheran pastor who made news as a political candidate in Brooklyn two years ago is the subject of this award-winning documentary film. Rev. Khader El-Yateem (Father K) worked to bring peace and unity to a divided America. The movie will be followed by a presentation, Q & A and wine and cheese reception.




Film about Arab-American Pastor’s
Social and Political Activism
to Be Shown at Lyric on April 27

A Palestinian-American Lutheran pastor who made news as a political candidate in Brooklyn two years ago is the subject of an award-winning documentary film that will be shown at the Lyric Theater in Blacksburg on the afternoon of Saturday, April 27.
Admission is free and open to all. A conversation with the Rev. Khader El-Yateem, profiled in the film “Father K,” and a reception will follow the 3 p.m. showing.
The presentation is co-sponsored by Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, The Well (Lutheran Campus Ministry at Virginia Tech), the Virginia Tech Department of History, and the Lyric Theater.
The 32-minute documentary follows Father K’s campaign in 2017 in the Democratic primary race for a Brooklyn district seat on the New York City Council. He finished second to the Democrat who went on to win the seat. But the film also looks at his wider activism and influence in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge community, where he founded a Lutheran congregation.
El-Yateem “is somebody who represents an alternative way of framing differences to find common ground,” the film’s director, Judd Erhlich, says. “We need more people like him right now in our politics, and in our public discourse.”
As Luther Memorial’s visiting theologian, El-Yateem also will take part on Sunday, April 28, in the church’s 9 a.m. Forum Study group and will preach at the 10 a.m. worship service. Sunday afternoon he will meet with students at the Luther Memorial Campus Ministry Center.
Born in the West Bank, El-Yateem came to the United States in 1992 and became a U.S. citizen in 1996. Two years later he founded Salam Arabic Lutheran Church in Bay Ridge, to serve recent immigrant Arab Christians, many of whom fled unrest in the Middle East.
Last year he moved to Florida to become assistant for evangelical mission to the bishop of the Florida-Bahamas Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Before emigrating to this country, El-Yateem was arrested and imprisoned for a time in Israel. There, he says, “I committed myself to understand the other, and understand why they do what they do” and to build bridges with them.
“Brooklyn has the largest Israeli population outside Israel and has the fastest-growing Arabic community next door,” he notes. And after 911, “imams, rabbis, priests and pastors all got to know one another.”
The night of the attacks, a neighborhood meeting took place in his church basement. Interfaith walks to a neighborhood park to pray were organized, attracting hundreds of participants. Non-Arabic mothers organized to take Arabic kids to school safely and pick them up. These were “visible signs that we are willing to work together,” he said.
“Father K” was shown at a number of U.S. film festivals last year, winning the grand prize for Best Documentary Short at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, and both the Best Documentary Jury Award and the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival.
For more information, contact Luther Memorial by calling 540-951-1000 or e-mailing luther@lmlc.org.