The Rev. Dr. Will Herzfeld

A leader in urban ministry, The Rev. Will Herzfeld was a Lutheran pastor who for nearly two decades pastored in Oakland, CA. A former presiding bishop of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, which merged to become the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), he was the first African American to serve as the national leader of a Lutheran church body. Rev. Herzfeld was most recently the associate executive director of the ELCA Division for Global Mission, where he served with distinction.

Rev. Herzfeld had just returned from a consultation in the Central African Republic and Cameroon, where he contracted cerebral malaria. As the president of Church World Service and Witness and vice president of Lutheran World Relief, he brought a great love of and respect for many cultures and a deep and abiding faith which provided a bridge between them.

A native of Mobile, AL, Rev. Herzfeld was one of the organizers of the Tuscaloosa chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and served as its first president. He also became president of the Alabama SCLC and was a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during those years.

Rev. Herzfeld cared deeply about peace in the Middle East and was a passionate advocate on behalf of a Palestinian homeland. Just this year he was lending leadership in putting together a delegation of African American faith leaders to go to Palestine later this year and meet with their counterparts there.