Lucille “CeCee” Mills was elected Aug. 1 to serve a six-year term as secretary of the ELCA. The election took place during the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly being held July 28–Aug. 2 at the Phoenix Convention Center.
Mills was elected on the fifth ballot. There were 782 ballots cast, with 392 votes needed for an election. Mills received 404 votes to 378 votes for Matthew Riegel, bishop of the ELCA West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod. Mills will be the first Black secretary of the ELCA.
“I have to echo our newly elected presiding bishop [Yehiel Curry] and say, I’m the product of you. I’m also a TEEM candidate,” Mills said to the assembly following her election. The Theological Education for Emerging Ministries (TEEM) program prepares individuals for ordained ministry in the ELCA, with a focus on emerging ministry contexts such as ethnic-specific, multicultural, and urban and rural settings.
“I do believe it’s a new season for our church,” Mills said. “I do believe that the reason why I, an African American woman, [can stand] before you with no degrees in a church that loves to have people who are educated, is because you saw the gifts and potential in me. I celebrate with you that we listen to God’s call and that we will become God’s beloved community.”
Mills has served as an assistant to the bishop in the North Carolina Synod since 2019. Previously she served as an interim pastor, as program associate for ELCA African Descent Ministries, and as pastor of Rejoice Lutheran Church, Chesapeake, Va. She received a TEEM certification from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C., in 2002.
