Gettysburg Seminary Blog

Trips Not Taken and God's Way with Time

2011-06-20T11:32:00.001-04:00

· From the Gettysburg P.O.
A volcano in Chile changed the seminary president's schedule for the last 9 days; read about the trip not taken in his latest from the Gettysburg PO
by Michael Cooper-White, President

As I suspect is the case for most of us, there have been times in my life when a long-anticipated trip could not be made as planned. During my years in California, a thrice-postponed trip to Israel finally evaporated altogether when the tour company that held my fairly substantial deposit went out of business. Shorter trips have been cancelled or postponed as a result of illness, family circumstances or weather. Most recently, a nine-day sojourn in Argentina, where I have been doing some consulting with the United Lutheran Church over the past several years, became impossible as a result of the ash cloud that closed Buenos Aires International and many other major southern hemisphere airports for several days following a major volcanic eruption in Chile.

To be sure, there was a measure of disappointment when it finally became clear that the window had closed for me to deliver a keynote address and conduct several leadership development workshops. Hours of preparation came to naught, though perhaps I can use some of my “material” for future events (not many invitations come to speak and facilitate group work in Spanish!) While my hosts down south insist they want to schedule a future time for me to again be in their midst, calendar challenges being what they are suggest that’s not likely to occur any time soon.

It felt strange returning to Gettysburg from Dulles airport, with eight days totally unscheduled suddenly on the horizon. While I knew plenty of catch-up work awaited me, I did not want the gift of unscheduled time to just be filled with business as usual. I quickly scheduled a couple of visits with Seminary supporters who have become wise mentors and confidantes; and what a gift it was to spend some leisurely hours in their presence! Remaining stateside in mid-June also allowed me to be present when the news broke that Pennsylvania’s new governor finally released the $4million grant committed by his predecessor, the cornerstone funding for our Schmucker Hall rehabilitation project that has been in the planning stages since I became president eleven years ago. Being on the turf also provided me the opportunity to make an unplanned drop-in visit at the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod assembly, thereby making connections with a number of the synod’s leaders and many of our Seminary alumni. Finally, the gift of time at home resulting from the South America trip cancellation provided some extra family time and the chance to catch up on some long-deferred personal projects as well.

Despite Jesus’ assurance that the very hairs of our head are numbered (Matthew 10:30) I have trouble with the kind of theology that points to a God who micromanages the universe. Some who subscribe to this brand of divine providence believe that everything is a direct result of God’s direction or intervention. My problem with those who say it was God’s doing when a loved one missed a flight on an airliner that crashed is the implication that it was therefore somehow God’s will that all those who made the trip perished. When the Cypress freeway structure in the San Francisco Bay area collapsed after the Loma Prieta earthquake, just 20 minutes or so before I would have been on its lower deck, I did not attribute my fortunate timing to divine planning. While I am not of the opinion that God micromanages the timing of events good or bad, and to whom they happen, I do nevertheless believe that all time, events, and all people are held in God’s loving embrace. I think that’s what St. Paul was saying when he declared in Romans 8 that “neither life nor death, nor things present nor things to come . . . nor anything in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” St. Paul, of course, experienced his own travel interruptions, including at least one shipwreck and several times when his departures were delayed due to being held in prison as a result of his faithfulness. To the oft-heard suggestion that, “it’s the journey, not the destination, which matters,” there may be a rejoinder, “sometimes neither journey nor destination are possible; remaining faithful just where you are may be the most important thing.”

As always, I am eager for some “reader feedback,” hoping to hear from a few of you out there in cyberspace about your own trips, both taken and untaken. What did you learn when your travel plans went awry? If you’re on the road or rails or especially the airways this summer—for work, vacation or time with those close and dear to you—stay away from ash clouds, tornadoes, thunderstorms and other perils. And always and everywhere that your travels may take you, ¡Vaya con Dios!

Some Folks I Admire

2011-04-04T10:22:00.000-04:00

From the Gettysburg PO by
The Rev. Michael Cooper-White, D.D., President

mcooper@ltsg.edu

As I walk along in life’s journey, I am often in awe and admiration for all sorts of fellow travelers. I take this occasion to simply share a starter list, which does not even begin to convey my deep admiration for a longer roster that would go on page after page. I admire:

· The many who are unemployed and seeking work, and who bear their plight with such grace and determination.

· Parents of small children, especially little ones with special needs and challenging circumstances.

· Long-distance drivers, air crews, military personnel and all whose occupations require them to be away from home for long stretches of time.

· Teachers who exercise their professions in all sorts of classrooms, especially ones who work in impoverished areas with few resources and under enormous stresses.

· Highly skilled workers upon whose precision and accuracy (when things simply must be done right the first time) others’ lives depend—surgeons, air traffic controllers, 911 operators, nuclear plant operators—to name just a few.

· Those who do the “dirty work” in every society—trash collectors, pest control workers, those who clear roadways after horrible accidents, and clean-up crews who work the night shift.

· Scholars who pore over obscure texts in search of truths long ignored, and those who do cutting-edge research and then head backstage, leaving their successors to get the credit.

· Government workers, especially ones in the welfare and child protection services, who exercise their callings for decades with dedication and a servant’s posture.

· All my colleagues in this Seminary community—and by “colleagues” I mean everyone—students, staff, faculty, trustees, alumni and all who lend a hand in our great adventure of learning and formation!

As is the case every year in these weeks leading up to commencement, I invite each of the graduating seniors to share the names of two or three persons who have been most influential and supportive of them during their time as seminarians. Then I send those supporters a letter, thanking them on behalf of the Seminary and a grateful church about to be richly blessed by another of our graduates. It’s one small measure of expressing our profound admiration for a few of our FrOGS—“friends of Gettysburg seminarians.”

As you look around from your life station, whom do you admire? Have you made the effort, taken the time to let them know? If you have a bit more time after you do so, I’d love to see the list of your own “most-admired.”

CAIN HOPE FELDER TO DELIVER 2011 MLK LECTURE AT GETTYSBURG SEMINARY APRIL 13

2011-03-23T08:15:00.000-04:00

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LTSG-11-24
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010 jspangler@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu/news
________________________________________

CAIN HOPE FELDER TO OFFER MLK LECTURE APRIL 13TH

The Rev. Dr. Cain Hope Felder will offer lecture and commentary as the 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg April 13, 2011 at 11:45 am.

Making the announcement for the seminary was the Rev. Dr. Nelson T. Strobert, Professor of Religious Education and Director of Multicultural Ministries. The annual lecture program is free and open to the public.

Felder is Professor of New Testament Language and Literature and Editor of The Journal of Religious Thought at the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, DC. He currently serves as Chair of the M.Div. program at the School of Divinity, where he has been a faulty member since 1981. Dr. Felder, an ordained Methodist minister once affiliated with the United Methodist Church, now serves as the Resident Biblical Scholar for the District an Elder in the Second Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church where he has been appointed by Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson as.

Dr. Felder holds a Ph.D. and a Master of Philosophy degree in Biblical Languages and Literature from Columbia University in New York; a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York; a Diploma of Theology from Oxford University, Mansfield College in England; a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Greek & Latin from Howard University in Washington, DC; and a Diploma from the Boston Latin School.

A prolific writer, his publications include the newly published commentary True to Our Native Land (Augsburg Fortress, May, 2007), the first African American commentary on the New Testament; Troubling Biblical Waters: Race, Class, and Family (Orbis Books, 1989) – 16^th printing; Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation (Fortress Press, 1991) – 10^th printing, and many more publications.

Hanging On to Old Sermons

2011-03-17T08:35:00.000-04:00

Hanging On to Old Sermons
From the Gettysburg PO by President Michael L. Cooper-White
March 17, 2011
mcooper@ltsg.edu

Flipping through a file of old Lenten sermons the other day, I came upon my “farewell sermon” preached at Angelica Lutheran Church in Los Angeles in mid-Lent 1981. It’s hard to believe that three decades have passed since I preached that message entitled, “Clean and Blind or Dirty and Whole?” on the Gospel for Lent III. I can still recall the mixed emotions of the occasion: excitement as I embraced a new call, which I anticipated would be a brief hiatus away from parish ministry (I haven’t gotten back yet); and deep sadness at saying goodbye to this community of God’s faithful that I had served and come to love.

Running across that memory-sparker manuscript (I’ve always found it works best for me to write out a sermon, and then try to deliver it without too much dependence on the text) made me glad I’m in the clergy camp of the sermon-filers-and-hoarders. Others—like those who have toted file boxes each time I’ve moved my office and household—might wish I were in the other camp of sermon-shredders (or now the growing cadre of recyclers). I have always respected, and been a bit in awe, of colleagues who periodically jettison all their already-preached sermons, in part lest they be tempted to avoid the hard work of encountering pericopes anew and just reach for something “in the barrel.” While I won’t profess that I’ve never drawn some material from old sermons, the constantly changing contexts in which I have preached for three decades as a synodical and churchwide staffer, and now seminary president, always seem to force me to start afresh on an old familiar set of texts.

I suppose as much as anything, my drawers full of sermons from across the years constitute a kind of pastoral journal, with some personal memorable moments recorded therein as well. Sermons preached on the occasions of my son’s baptisms remind of those special celebrations. Funeral homilies recall the Godly saints over whom I was privileged to pronounce a final benediction. Sermons preached in the aftermath of great tragedies—congregational or societal—bring back to life the pathos of the moment-in-time when they were delivered. There are the sermons from my internship in Chile and homilies given in El Salvador during the war years. And ones preached after the great Oakland fire and on the Sunday after 9-11. Another retells the courage of a California congregation on the Sunday they confronted the sudden death of their pastor whose bicycle hit the rear of a truck when its driver suddenly slammed on the brakes. Still other sermons remind me of the challenge as a bishop’s assistant in revealing to a trusting congregation that their pastor was guilty of sexual misconduct or had suffered a nervous breakdown. There’s the sermon of a brash young pastor in San Francisco who preached to all the church’s bishops and admonished them to pay more attention to God’s beloved who are gay or lesbian (that one “got some legs” beyond the sanctuary and generated some pretty sharp letters!)

After her freshman year in college, daughter Macrina volunteered for several weeks in the Seminary library. Her assignment was to catalogue the sermons of one of our distinguished alumni, The Rev. Robert Koons, who in his 90’s now still proclaims God’s word with his every breath and smile. Expecting a boring task of archiving old yellowed manuscripts in manila folders, Macrina would come home some evenings talking excitedly about the content of Bob’s sermons. “He was preaching about civil rights,” she was impressed to discover. “He raised questions about how Christians should regard the war in Viet Nam,” she noted after cataloguing some of Pr. Koons’ sermons from the early 1970’s. Bob’s sermons constituted a kind of written “oral history” of how a pastor engaged the Word and struggled to let it live among God’s people in times turbulent and triumphant over the course of a half-century or so.

Here at the Seminary we have the privilege of making at least some small contribution to the preachers of tomorrow, who from their first year are also today’s proclaimers as they anxiously approach a pulpit on their maiden homiletical voyages. We also have an amazing talent pool of preachers among the Seminary’s faculty and staff, seasoned craftswomen and men who model what this chapel attender regards as some mighty fine preaching. That the voices we hear in the Church of the Abiding Presence are equally divided between the higher and lower registers signals an exponentially enriched preaching cadre from the days when the preachers’ voices were all male.

As far as I recall, no seminarian has ever asked me about whether or not to hang on to sermon manuscripts, outlines or worksheets once a preaching moment has passed and the homily has been delivered. But I’ll offer my unsolicited advice nevertheless: Yes, keep them! Bother to move the files with you when you may go from one call to a new one (it’s a lot easier these days when you can just keep them on your computer or a flashdrive). On your bad days, go in search of some old sermons that remind you of your happiest times in ministry. When your ego gets inflated, go back and reread some that bombed, just to be reminded that a good preacher is like a fine pianist who can never rest on her/his laurels but must open up the keyboard day after day and practice, practice, practice what you preach!

Peter the Repeater and Other Public Theologians

2011-03-02T13:01:00.000-05:00

From the Gettysburg PO
by Michael L. Cooper-White, President

March 1

Several events in recent days have caused me to ponder anew a phrase that readily rolls off our tongues in this place that we say sends forth into Church and society public theologians and mission leaders.

Among those heroic public figures I have been privileged to meet in person was the Rev. Peter Gomes, whose unexpected death at age 68 brought back fond memories of when he came to campus a few years back for a special lecture. In both his public presentations and private lunch conversation with a few of us, Gomes was gracious and engaging. As an African American, he seemed particularly interested in the Lincoln legacy at Gettysburg and our description of how the Seminary’s founder Samuel Simon Schmucker was among the small band of prominent Civil War era religious leaders who accepted the call to speak out against slavery.

One cannot be Minister of the Memorial Church at Harvard for four decades and avoid a certain public prominence. But Peter Gomes’ influence was not limited to Harvard or broader lecture circuits and campus ministry circles. As the years went by, he came to be counselor and confidante to prominent public figures in this country and around the world. Often provocative and always prophetic, his sermons and books circulated in ever-widening circles. As a Black man who contended lifelong with racism, and particularly after he “came out” as a gay man, Gomes faced frequent criticism and verbal threats against his person. Rather than cower in the face of opposition, he became emboldened in preaching the gospel’s constant call for a greater measure of God’s justice.

Another named Peter—Bishop Rogness of the ELCA’s St. Paul Area Synod—recently published an op-ed piece in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, in which he based a call for public civility on Christian principles. Amidst all the publicity surrounding Wisconsin’s struggles over unions, bargaining and budget balancing, the state’s ELCA bishops issued a joint call to the governor and state legislators, urging that they pay particular attention to people who may be vulnerable if certain state programs are eliminated or reduced. In still other recognition of the value offered by the “mainline denominations” in public debates over what makes a good society, both ELCA and Episcopal presiding bishops are among religious leaders recently named by President Obama to a White House advisory council.

In a recent round of visits in several congregations that host Gettysburg Seminary interns, I have been reminded that one need not be a bishop or prominent Ivy League university preacher to serve as a public theologian. This year’s interns in Washington, D.C., Lincoln, Nebraska and Hartford, Connecticut, for example, have front-row seats as St. Paul’s, First Lutheran and Emmanuel offer their public witness in the nation’s and two state capitals. Even in the most remote rural communities, there will be opportunities to publicly offer pastoral perspectives and issue calls to civil discourse, concern for the poor, and respect for the dignity of all persons. Local newspapers often are eager to publish a pastor’s op ed piece on local vexing issues.

In his book, “The Good Life” (Harper 2002), a treasured Christmas gift from valued colleagues, Peter Gomes shares the painful story of his first major failure. After he failed to pass the second grade, he was taunted on the school playground as “Peter the Repeater.” As a high school senior, his application to Bowdoin College in Maine was rejected, a fact for which he thanked the prestigious institution decades later when Bowdoin awarded him an honorary doctorate! As he now moves on into the Church Triumphant, I thank God for the life, generous pastoral spirit and bold public witness of Peter the Repeater. May we all have at least a small measure of the courage with which over and over and over again he kept on repeating the Good News that makes for a good life and better world!

FW: Choral Vespers Sunday March 6

2011-03-01T09:50:00.000-05:00

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LTSG-11-19
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010 jspangler@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu/news
________________________________________

Festival Choral Vespers for Transfiguration Sunday Featured in Next Music, Gettysburg! Seasonal Offering

GETTYSBURG, PA—Music Gettysburg! presents Festival Choral Vespers for Transfiguration this Sunday evening, March 6, at 7:30 P.M. in the chapel of the Gettysburg Seminary. This one hour pre-Lenten Sunday sung prayer service opens with a candlelit evening prayer, led by the Schola Cantorum of Gettysburg, and includes a setting of the Magnificat, psalms and motets. The choral concert is free and open to the public.

The choral vespers will include festive music for the Sunday of the Transfiguration, the last Sunday before Lent begins, and includes the Magnificat by Leonhard Lechner (1553-1606), Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) motet “Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt” (John 3:16), his setting of the Lord’s Prayer, and an original arrangement of Stephen P. Folkemer’s “How Good Lord to Be Here.” The evening prayer service will include the singing of hymns for the Transfiguration for the whole assembly.

Under the direction of Stephen Folkemer, Gettysburg Seminary’s Cantor and Professor of Church Music, the Schola Cantorum is a vocal ensemble of 30 singers from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia which has in its more than 20 years of performance, presented some of the most beautiful sacred choral music of the 15th through the 20th Centuries.

Be sure to join us in welcoming this late winter choral feast. The Seminary Chapel is located at 147 Seminary Ridge in Gettysburg. For more information about this and other concerts in the Music, Gettysburg! schedule, please call 717-334-6286 ext 2197 or visit the web site at www.musicgettysburg.org .

Lenten Primer Posted by Gettysburg Seminary

2011-02-22T09:58:00.000-05:00

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LTSG-11-16
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010 jspangler@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu/news
________________________________________

See www.Youtube.com/LTSGvideo

MAKING THE MOST OUT OF LENT VIDEO POSTED BY GETTYSBURG SEMINARY

(Gettysburg, Penna.) Gettysburg Seminary Video productions posted a video based introductory Lenten resource on www.youtube.com this month entitled “Making the Most Out of Lent” suitable for use in personal spiritual enrichment and educational use for Christian study groups.

The 17 minute primer features the Rev. Dr. Mark Oldenburg, Dean of the Chapel and Steck Miller Professor of the Art of Worship outlining the basic and deepening spiritual practices for Christians in the Lenten time. The resource is available to individuals and congregations for group use. Oldenburg’s introduction to Advent became the seminary’s most watched video production last fall, according to Information Technology Director Donald Redman, acknowledging the clear and concise communication style of the Seminary’s leading worship scholar.

The video is posted on the seminary’s resources web page http://www.ltsg.edu/Resources and directly to youtube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKcWuJVfY30 or see www.Youtube.com/LTSGvideo.

Getting the Outsiders' Perspective

2011-01-16T18:11:00.000-05:00

From the Gettysburg PO
by President Michael Cooper-White
Getting the Outsiders’ Perspective

Several items on my Amazon “wish list” were received as Christmas presents; but a most intriguing book came as a complete surprise. “Future Savvy” by Adam Gordon (AMACOM Books, 2009) aims to help readers gain insights for planning by becoming more adept at what Jesus referred to as “reading the signs of the times.” Chapter 3 of Gordon’s book confronts us with “bias traps,” that is, ways we often get into trouble because of what he calls “insider bias.” Put simply, it means that failure to make necessary changes when they are called for results from false perceptions that things are alright as they’re going, and we can continue doing business as usual.

To drive home the point, Gordon rehearses the history of innovation, citing an analyst named Bob Seidensticker who poined out that: “The digital watch didn’t come from established watch companies, the calculator didn’t’ come from slide rule or adding machine companies, video games didn’t come from board-game manufacturers, the ballpoint pen didn’t come from fountain pen manufacturers, and Google didn’t come from the Yellow Pages.” (p. 73) As insiders in any profession or venture, we are just too close to things, and have our biases and vested interests that hold us back from imagining a future significantly different from the status quo. We think that our current “products” are the best that can be offered, thereby failing to imagine innovative approaches or inventions that can truly change the world or at least the arena in which we serve.

Hence, concludes Gordon, it is critical from time to time that we intentionally seek insights and perspectives from objective outsiders who can see things hidden in our insiders’ blind sides. “Outsiders are more likely to be willing to see change and are therefore more likely to see it and forecast it. Outsiders will also generally have more experience of forces and factors from other fields, or bring a comparative perspective as to how things have changed in other industries, and be willing to apply these analogies.”

A predecessor pastor at the inner city parish I served during my first call is reported to have occasionally dressed in casual clothes when he would “hang out” for a few hours in a park across the street from Angelica church. He’d mill about and ask the park visitors what impressions they had about that church across the street. From these “outsiders” Lloyd Burke gained valuable insights about how Angelica and its ministry were viewed in the local community, and how the church might better meet the needs of its neighbors. Similarly, when I was a synod staffer, my colleagues and I worked to develop a parish review process that included visits by members of other congregations in the synod; their job was to provide unvarnished feedback on how they were welcomed, the church’s signage, accessibility to visitors, and the like. Wise were the parish leaders who availed themselves of such an “external audit” and non-defensively received and acted upon feedback offered by the visitors.

Here at the Seminary, we turn to both true outsiders and what I call “inside-outsiders” or maybe “outside-insiders” with some regularity. Chief among the latter, of course, are members of our Board of Directors, Endowment Foundation trustees, President’s Cabinet and others involved in what we refer to as “shared governance.” These gifted and committed partners in ministry bring their wisdom from many walks of life. They know the Seminary well enough to offer knowledgeable feedback, yet because they do not work or study here on a daily basis, come with a degree of objectivity that can often see things we true insiders cannot. As needed and as required by law or otherwise, we have regular visits by outsiders with particular expertise; chief among these are the auditors who come in annually to scrutinize our financial records, reporting procedures and legal compliance, to ensure we’re being good stewards of resources entrusted to us.

A unique group of outsiders will be on campus for three days or so next month when we host our once-a-decade visit by representatives of the two bodies that grant us formal academic accreditation. Accredited status is critical to signal to prospective students and the broader public that we are a reputable educational institution that meets the highest standards for U.S. graduate schools. Also hinging on accredited status is our ability to offer students federal monies granted for student loans. Then, in March, we will host our annual “episcopal visit” by the eight bishops of the ELCA’s Region 8, another group of inside-outsiders whose needs for rostered leaders are met by us and our sister seminaries. Generally affirming in their feedback, both bishops and peers from other academic institutions can also suggest areas where we can make improvements, and occasionally raise issues that require immediate attention lest we fall short of meeting our own goals and fulfilling our highest aspirations.

In any setting of ministry, with a bit of ingenuity, it is possible to solicit and receive some assessment and feedback from outsiders. In my experience, congregations that are highly defensive or altogether resistant to such insight from outsiders are on the decline. In theological jargon, they are what Luther and others described as “incurvatus in se,” that is, turned in upon themselves, thereby failing to meet our Lord’s mission mandate to “go out” and tell the Story to those beyond our immediate circle.

As always, I’m open for some feedback and insights from students, friends and Seminary supporters (and even or perhaps most especially those who feel they cannot currently support us!), both about the Seminary and about ways you have found to gain valuable perspectives from those you regard as outsiders.

Making Decisions in the Ministry of Giving

2010-12-03T08:30:00.003-05:00

Making Decisions in the Ministry of Giving

From the Gburg PO
by President Michael Cooper-White

On my desk at home is a stack of a dozen or so letters and response cards, offering multiple opportunities to share a portion of my tithe. I know that before Christmas comes, more fund appeals will arrive in my mail slot, as well as via email. With so many worthy causes in desperate in need of contributions this year more than ever, how do I make decisions regarding an appropriate allocation of my financial stewardship?

I continue a long-time practice of being most generous with the place of ministry to which I am called—Gettysburg Seminary receiving the largest portion of my charitable contributions. In addition to the worthiness of our mission, I believe that other donors appropriately expect the school’s leaders to demonstrate a high level of personal commitment and generosity. We are blessed indeed that a high percentage of our faculty, staff, board members, and even some financially-challenged students generate a significant portion of our “annual fund.”

The congregation to which I belong needs and deserves strong financial support, as well as a portion of my time and talents as they may be called upon from time to time. I also try to be generous as I visit other congregations, though I have discovered that in many places where I serve as guest preacher the offering plate is never passed in the chancel area where I tend to be seated!

Taking pretty literally Jesus’ insistence that we must be generous with “the least of these,” the ELCA’s World Hunger appeal has been another personal giving priority area throughout the three plus decades of its existence. In the course of my ministry, I have been privileged to visit a number of ministries in this country and abroad where World Hunger support is truly a matter of life-and-death. This year I felt a pang as we made our WH commitment given the fact that my son, who worked for the appeal until recently, was among those laid off in the recent round of ELCA churchwide budget cuts. While I remain confident in those staffers who are left to allocate funds among the many domestic and global hunger relief and development efforts supported by our contributions, I confess to some less than charitable feelings about fellow Christians who have withheld or withdrawn their mission support and thereby caused disruption in the lives of so many as a result. In recent years, my wife and I have been expanding the circle of friends and family members to whom we give “Good Gifts,” a special holiday season opportunity for second-mile designated giving through our church’s hunger and development-related programs.

Many effective, efficient and important local agencies cry out for my attention, as do my college alma maters and other causes. While in general I tend to give more to a few recipients rather than a host of smaller gifts to many, I also recognize the importance of “loyalty gifts,” which demonstrate to grant-making foundations that a high percentage of a school’s alumni make at least a modest contribution of record. I also tend to be a bit more generous donor when “matching funds” promise that added value will result from my gift.

In the senior “Integrative Seminar,” for which I am the instructor/leader again this year, December’s second session will focus on pastoral leadership in congregational stewardship. Based upon my personal experience and that of many colleagues, “declaring oneself,” i.e. being transparent about one’s own financial stewardship commitments, is a key to effective leadership. Regardless of one’s financial capacity and income and indebtedness levels, some measure of giving is both possible and a necessary component of spiritual wholeness. As important as current giving is signaling one’s desire and commitment to grow in generosity. And most crucial of all is to genuinely exude a spirit of joy in giving—not as mere duty, but as response to God’s incredible graciousness in the gospel.

In this brief P.O. piece, I’ve shared a few personal perspectives about and approaches to giving. I’m eager to hear how you steward your gifts, and how you have been blessed by and found joy in giving.

Choral Vespers for Advent from Music, Gettysburg! Nov 28

2010-11-17T18:07:00.000-05:00

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LTSG-10-71b
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010 jspangler@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu/news
________________________________________

SCHOLA CANTORUM PRESENTS CHORAL VESPERS FOR ADVENT

The Schola Cantorum and the Mount St. Mary’s University Chorale Chamber Ensemble, conducted by Andrew Rosenfeld, will offer festive Choral Vespers for Advent on Sunday Nov 28th, at 7:30 p.m. at the chapel of Gettysburg Seminary.

Choral vespers, or evening prayer, is a meditative and stimulating sung prayer event combining sung prayers, psalms, motets and readings and assembly singing in the beautiful setting of the Gettysburg Seminary chapel at 147 Seminary Ridge, in Gettysburg. The one hour choral vespers will follow the order of a typical 17^th century evening prayer service, featuring a new setting of Psalm 122 by Stephen Folkemer who will serve as organist for this vespers. Choral works will be conducted by Andrew Rosenfeld of Mount St. Mary’s University. The vespers will also include the “Magnificat” by Leonardo Leo.

The Chamber Ensemble is making its first appearance at Choral Vespers, and will perform Hugo Distler’s “Praise to the Lord,” joining the Schola Cantorum for Psalm 122, the “Magnificat” and other offerings. The setting of Psalm 122 is newly translated by Seminary biblical scholar Brooks Schramm set to new music by Folkemer. The Rev. Dr. Pamela Cooper-White will officiate.

Rosenfeld has served as Associate Professor of Music and Director of the Chorale at Mount St. Mary’s University since 1997. In addition to directing the vocal ensembles, Dr. Rosenfeld also serves as chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at the Mount, and teaches a wide array of courses in music history and theory and in the humanities. In 2008, he served as a guest conductor with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Elizabeth Schulze, music director and conductor, in a performance of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy in celebration of the Mount’s bicentennial. He has been a member of the Gettysburg Schola Cantorum since 1998; this ensemble premiered his “Psalm 23”, a work appearing on the recently released compact disc, Thy Ways Illumine.

Enjoy this choral musical treat at the Sunday evening concert, which is free and open to the public. The Seminary Chapel is on Seminary Ridge in Gettysburg. For more information about this and other concerts in the 2010-2011 Music, Gettysburg! schedule, please call 717-338-3000 ext 2197 or visit the Music, Gettysburg! web site: www.musicgettysburg.org.

Carthage's Harvard Stephens 2010 Pastor in Residence

2010-11-08T14:35:00.001-05:00

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LTSG-10-68
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010 jspangler@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu/news
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Carthage College Dean of Chapel Harvard

Stephens Serves as Pastor-in-residence

at Gettysburg Seminary

The Rev. Harvard Stephens, Jr. will be the pastor-in-residence on campus this week, November 8-12, 2010. Pastor Stephens is currently the dean of the chapel at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., a position he has held since 2003. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Stevens is a veteran of educational and parish ministries including Howard University. Pastor Stephens will be preaching in chapel on Monday, Nov. 8 and Friday, Nov. 12, will be attending various classes throughout the week, and will be experiencing campus life and informal conversation over lunch in the Refectory and other times and places.

Bothering with Advent

2010-11-08T14:15:00.000-05:00

Bothering with Advent

The Rev. Dr. Mark Oldenburg, Dean of the Chapel and Steck Miller Professor of the Art of Worship at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, provided the community, the church and the world with a ten minute primer on Advent entitled “Bothering with Advent.”

You’ll find it easy to use for personal preparation and an excellent primer for parish education groups.

See it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxDedqAG5mM

Our thanks to Mark Oldeburg

Sornchai Named Young Adult Steward

2010-11-08T12:38:00.001-05:00

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LTSG-10-67
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010 jspangler@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu/news
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Gettysburg Seminarian Adam Sornchai Named Young Adult Steward for National Council of Churches’ General Assembly

November 8, 2010 (New Orleans, LA) Fourth year Gettysburg Seminarian Adam Sornchai was chosen by the National Council of Churches to participate in the Young Adult Stewards Program for the 2010 General Assembly of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCCCUSA)/Church World Service (CWS) to be held in New Orleans, LA, November 9-11, 2010.

Sornchai, a native of New York, will complete his studies in preparation for ordained ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 2011. The ecumenical agency is observing its centennial during this year’s national gathering, which is shared by the globally active relief agency, Church World Service.

Chosen from an unspecified number of applicants, Sornchai expects to report more than daily by way of social media from the assembly, which began the evening of Nov. 7^th and continues to the 12^th. He will be tapped by the assembly for special duties and write a post assembly reflection as well.

More information is also available at the Seminary’s web site: www.ltsg.edu/ .

Pamela Cooper-White and Organist Mark Mummert Bring Bach, Copland, Faure and More to Music, Gettysburg!

2010-11-08T12:38:00.000-05:00

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LTSG-10-66
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010 jspangler@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu/news
________________________________________

Soprano Pamela Cooper-White and Organist Mark Mummert Bring Bach, Copland, Faure and More to Music, Gettysburg! Nov 14

(Gettysburg) Music, Gettysburg! presents a favorite soprano Pamela Cooper-White and organist and pianist Mark Mummert to the concert stage November 14, 2010 for a concert of Bach, Faure, Copland and more.

Cooper-White is familiar to Music, Gettysburg! audiences, but this Sunday afternoon concert is her first headline event and one that reunites her with friend and musical collaborator Mark Mummert. They will open the concert with Bach’s ‘Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor’ followed by 'Pie Jesu' from the Faure Requiem. Aaron Copland’s Old American Songs are included in the second half of the concert along with songs of Hugo Wolf and more.

The concert will begin at 4pm in the chapel of the Gettysburg Seminary, 147 Seminary Ridge, in Gettysburg, and is free and open to the public.

Pamela Cooper-White, who for several years sang full time for the San Francisco Opera company, now serves as the Ben G. and Nancye Clapp Gautier Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care and Counseling at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA, and from 1999-2008 served as Professor of Pastoral Theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Prior to her theological credentials, she earned a B.Mus. from Boston University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University, with a dissertation on Arnold Schoenberg’s opera Moses und Aron. She studied voice with Wilma Thompson (Boston), Kari Windingstadt (Los Angeles), and Janet Parlova (San Francisco). She was a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and performed as soloist and in vocal ensembles for the San Francisco Ballet and the American Ballet Theater.

Cooper-White is a familiar soloist with the Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra and Music Gettysburg!, having premiered Lynn Gumert’s “Mary’s Lullaby” with flutist Teresa Bowers on Music Gettysburg!’s Christmas Offering in 2000, and has appeared in solo ensembles on several other Music Gettysburg concerts. She was soprano soloist with the Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra in the Kodaly Te Deum (2005), the J.S. Bach Magnificat (2006), and most recently, Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate, a three-movement cantata for soprano and orchestra, for an all-Mozart program in celebration of the 250^th anniversary of the composer’s birth. She will also perform as a soloist in the upcoming Music Gettysburg! Christmas Offering on Dec. 19, singing pieces by J.S. Bach and Max Reger.

Mark Mummert is Church Organist and Chorus Director at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas. There he conducts the Chorus, the Choristers, the Jr. Choristers, the Taize Ensemble and leads the assembly song at the liturgies of the congregation. Mummert serves as organist for the Bach Society of Houston, and is active in the Association of Lutheran Church Musicans. Prior to his call to Houston, he was Seminary Musician at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia for eighteen years (1990-2008), where he and Cooper-White were musical colleagues in numerous performances. Mummert is a composer of the first setting of Holy Communion in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's core worship resource, Evangelical Lutheran Worship. He has served as Cantor for congregations in Philadelphia, Lancaster, and Glenside Pennsylvania. As a recitalist, Mummert has appeared in programs for the American Guild of Organists and has presented hymn festivals throughout North America. He has appeared in concert with the University of the Arts Chorale, Haddonfield Symphony Chorus, Philadelphia Chamber Chorus, Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, and the Singing City Choir of Philadelphia.

Cooper-White and Mummert will delight the Central Pennsylvania audiences this Sunday in a not to miss concert.

Music, Gettyburg! is a premier free concert series featuring the finest regional, national and international musicians hosted by the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettyburg. The seminary chapel is located at 147 Seminary Ridge on the west edge of Gettysburg. For more information about this and other concerts remaining in the Music, Gettysburg! schedule, please call 717-338-3000 ext 2197 or email info@musicgettysburg.org or visit the web site at www.musicgettysburg.org .

New Eben Ezer pastor sees a need on the plains

2010-09-15T13:52:00.000-04:00

Story about recent graduate Teri Hermsmeyer

By Jesse Chaney Brush News-Tribune Staff Writer

Teri Hermsmeyer stands in Brush s All Saints Lutheran Church, where she will be installed as pastor Sunday morning. She is also the new chaplain at Eben Ezer Lutheran Care Center. (Jesse Chaney/News-Tribune)For someone who lives in Boulder, new Eben Ezer Lutheran Care Center Chaplain and Pastor Teri Hermsmeyer spends a lot of time in northeast Colorado.

For nearly two years, Hermsmeyer has served as the Sunday morning pastor at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in the rural town of Anton south of Akron.

She joined the Eben Ezer team about three months ago and will be installed as pastor of the facility’s All Saints Lutheran Church during a special service at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Bishop Alan Bjornberg will lead the special service, and a reception will follow in the Eben Ezer activity room.

“Apparently God is calling me out here to rural ministry,” Hermsmeyer said.

Though her home is in Boulder, Hermsmeyer lives in a duplex on the Eben Ezer grounds from Tuesday through Thursday and preaches at All Saints church on Sunday morning each week. She leads services in Anton on Sunday afternoons.

In addition to preaching at the Eben Ezer church, Hermsmeyer is responsible for any funerals or weddings held at the facility. She said the church is open to anyone in the community, though “our ministry is with Eben Ezer.”

Full story may be seen at:
http://www.brushnewstribune.com/ci_16073963

40 Years Later, ELCA Pastor Elizabeth Platz Still Serves Maryland Students

2010-09-15T09:27:00.000-04:00

ELCA NEWS SERVICE
August 23, 2010
by John Brooks

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (ELCA) -- For nearly 45 years, the Rev. Elizabeth A. Platz (Gettysburg Seminary M.Div. 1965) has served here at the University of Maryland (UM), quietly influencing generations of Lutheran students to remain active in the church and in service to others. Those whose lives she has touched speak highly of Platz's influence on them, her dedication to the church and some wonderful home-cooked meals she serves to hungry college students.

In 1970 the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) ordained Platz at UM's Memorial Chapel, where she serves today. Platz, the first woman ordained a Lutheran pastor in North America, has served her entire ministry as UM Lutheran campus pastor. On Nov. 22 this year, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will mark the 40th anniversary of her ordination.

Before she was ordained Platz served five years as assistant Lutheran chaplain at the university, after earning a bachelor of divinity at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (LTSG), an ELCA seminary in Gettysburg, Pa. Looking back, Platz, a native of Pittsburgh, said she couldn't have imagined becoming ordained.

Full story at: http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx#&&a=4612

Alumnus Passes On His Love for Learning

2010-09-14T13:33:00.000-04:00

Retired Pastor Never Stops Learning and Teaching
Now that he's retired for the second time, the Rev. L. Guy Mehl (Gettysburg Seminary B.D. 1961) has the time to do what he loves — learning and teaching. "I love to learn anything I can," Mehl said. Mehl quoted an Asian spiritual leader: "You're never old as long as you want to keep learning." The 75-year-old Lancaster resident's recent studies have been about Muslims and Islam.

"I've read the Quran, and, recently, the autobiography of Jehan Sadat, the wife of (the late Egyptian) President Anwar Sadat, who is a devout Muslim."

Last spring, Mehl taught a course on how the Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions relate to Jesus and Abraham for Pathways Institute for Lifelong Learning. "Muslims have a great deal of respect for Jesus," Mehl said. This fall, Mehl will teach about the healings of Jesus in relation to the practices of healing in the first-century Roman Empire.

Read more:
http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/288645

Seminary Professor Gil Waldkoenig Named GreenFaith Fellow

2010-09-14T10:56:00.000-04:00

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LTSG-10-49 gf
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010 jspangler@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu/news
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GETTYSBURG SEMINARY PROFESSOR NAMED GREENFAITH FELLOW

NATIONAL INITIATIVE TRAINS RELIGIOUS LEADERS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP

(September 14, 2010) GreenFaith announced today that Dr. Gilson Waldkoenig, Professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, has been named a GreenFaith Fellow, joining the 2011 class in the only comprehensive education and training program for religious environmental leadership. “We’re thrilled to welcome Gil to the Program,” said Rabbi Lawrence Troster, Fellowship Program Director and a nationally recognized religious environmental leader. Fellows gain “the opportunity to become well-trained leaders in religious environmentalism,” noted GreenFaith Executive Director, the Rev. Fletcher Harper, who added that “they will help create an environmentally just and sustainable world.”

Through retreats, webinars, and extensive reading, Waldkoenig will receive education and training in eco-theology, “greening” religious institutions, environmental advocacy, and environmental justice. Waldkoenig, who already teaches courses in ecological theology in the seminary curriculum, will join Fellows from Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations who come from congregations, universities, campus ministries, NGO’s, and denominational organizations. Each Fellow develops an eco-theological project intended to mobilize religious leaders in relation to an environmental issue.

Gettysburg is an ideal base for work in the Fellowship. “Seminary Ridge is treasured by millions of people around the globe because of its historical significance,” Waldkoenig noted. “The seminary has been a faithful steward of the natural habitat on the ridge since 1832, helping it to recover from the battle’s devastation in 1863 and collaborating with the Park Service and Gettysburg Borough in long-term care of this public treasure,” he added. “As the global community confronts new environmental challenges,” Waldkoenig said, “how--and why--we sustain the natural habitat of Seminary Ridge will be a witness and inspiration to many.” Waldkoenig serves as one of two faculty members on the Seminary’s Green Task Force, a community wide campus effort to steer the seminary in ecologically healthy directions.

GreenFaith is a leader in the fast-growing religious environmental movement and has won national and international recognition for its work. The Kendeda Sustainability Fund supports the Fellowship Program. For more information visit www.greenfaith.org.

The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, the oldest of the eight seminaries of the 4.8 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, prepares women and men to be outreach oriented pastors, public theologians and mission leaders. In addition, it provides programs in continuing studies, advanced theological education, and specialized educational programs for informed lay persons, ordained and other rostered leaders, and high school youth.

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Neither Slave Nor Free

2010-09-08T20:03:00.001-04:00

Sermon for Wednesday, Sept 8, 2010
Texts are Year C Lection 23
Philemon & Luke 14.25-33
Preached by the Rev. John Spangler

Paul's shortest letter in the New Testament is a personal note. So far as we know Paul wrote it, and he did so from captivity, ironically, addressing it to a slave owner about a runaway slave, Onesimus. If you study this letter, its 500 words, you can see why the early Christian community was seen as pushing against the social structures. In fact, you can find evidence of the leadership of women, and of course the presumption of the prevailing slave holding structures; you can infer the breaking down of class divide, and also the need to abide by law; you see an appeal to the freedom of life in the Gospel, and the sheer force of personal persuasion.

In a year in which the first African American president has been caricatured in public political rallies repeatedly in white face and cartoon-like animal drawings, this text sent up a flare. In a year in which a Mid-Atlantic state celebrated its civil war heritage without the mention of slavery, it seems prudent to revisit a little history. In a time in which too many Christians are confused about what is “in” the Bible and what “the Bible” says, it is time to model witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In such a year, in such times, we bear special responsibilities. Our preaching is on the line, and in the spotlight.

What you find “depends an awful lot on what you are looking for,” said a wise Yogi Berra. And this is the bad news: If you are looking for a resource for the one chosen divine idea about social structure, a societal makeover that suits you, you’ll probably find it. If you are looking for confirmation of your conclusions around human sexuality, you’ll probably find that too. If you think that it is your righteous duty to burn a copy of the Quran in public, you will find justification, however inadequate, somewhere in Deuteronomy that calls for the burning of idols, some twisted idea about false worship, and other thinly veiled un-contextual self-justifications.

--The truth is that interpretation matters. Faithful exegesis is no mere luxury in our time. The physical well-being of countless people depends upon preachers getting this right. Self projections upon the sacred texts are dangerous. Things are so bad that perhaps we should press Fox news to rally people to Seminary Ridge to restore honor to the Bible. Well, maybe not.

But the first and most important step is to stop applying inappropriate questions to the scriptures. Apparently, the second is to say more about this when we preach and teach. We work here is a place dedicated to faith in search of understanding. The world around us isn’t getting enough of the “understanding” part.

II

The first African American to receive a Lutheran theological education arrived here in 1835, 25 years before the civil war began. He arrived with letters of introduction from John Bachman, a leading Lutheran from South Carolina and what he called an album of signatures and associations that testified to his good character and free standing. He had started a school in the South to help open young minds of young African Americans. That activity was such a threat, however, that he was driven from his own school, the victim of new laws passed in a quasi legal way (for no women or African Americans had access to the legislature). The laws were designed to make it impossible for free blacks to survive there, and so he was forced to leave. [Remember, we do not delight in every law, but in the Law of God.]

Upon arrival in Gettysburg, he wondered whether his sponsors among the Lutherans here intended to send him to Liberia. From his own pen:

When Dr. Schmucker, the President, arrived, I called upon him and again asked what the Society had in view--whether it was the intention to send me to Liberia. The reply was: "The members of that Society are not colonizationists, but abolitionists, and they desire you to be trained to labor for the intellectual, moral, religious, and social improvement of the free people of color in the United States." My doubts were at rest, and I was ready for matriculation.

Payne wrote about choosing his affiliations here in town and in Pennsylvania based upon what the various groups thought about these 500 words in the New Testament. Some Northern preachers found justification for the end of slavery in this letter. And in Philemon others in both north and south found slavery’s justification. Interpretation matters deeply, and Daniel Payne will be among the voices saying it can be a matter of life and death.

III
What we know about the letter to Philemon is this: Onesimus owed his master money, perhaps having borrowed more than he could repay and had also run away. Paul sent this servant back to his master in order that forgiveness and love and new life might have a chance. But as he sent Onesimus, the risks were rather high. A slave would likely be punished severely for running away, let alone for running away owing money.

And Paul faced the risk that the slave would not return to Philemon. And he risked his hope that the new relationship between master and slave would be no longer master and slave, but something new as between brothers. Paul was trading on his relationship with Philemon -- a promise to repay and an expectation that all the parties involved would sacrifice, for the sake of love.

For Philemon, it would mean total forgiveness and perhaps swallowing some righteous anger. And for Onesimus, the order called for courage and obedience and a new steadfastness in service. Paul risked becoming the newest cause for his friend’s suffering, in other words, he was meddling now. As a kind of indirect insurance, Paul told his brother in Christ, Philemon, that he was coming to visit as soon as he was out of prison. I suppose we call that accountability.

Did Paul count the cost? Did he know what the outcome would be? Did he know that things would turn out all right, or perhaps did he suspect that things could get worse? Did he really believe that line about in Christ there is no jew or greek, no slave or free [person]? He expected his brother to give up being a slave lord; he foresaw a former slave to take up new responsibility as a full person. Paul apparently weighed the options and took the plunge, believing that the power of the Gospel to reconcile would win out.

We know little of how this story turned out. We don't know about any such visit Paul made to Philemon after his imprisonment. Many wonder in print about the forces that led to preservation of this letter. Is that in itself evidence of a good outcome for Onesimus and Philemon?

We have hope ourselves because people have counted the cost of discipleship and have followed Christ anyway. The cost is, in the end, too high; we cannot afford it. But in our lives connected to Christ, we cannot avoid taking risks if we are faithful to the Gospel. This letter of Paul reflects a moment, a teachable moment, when one cannot keep blindly following the messiah without understanding what is at stake. The Gospel beckons us to lead a life that reflects real risk, perhaps even becoming sacrificial -- or it is something other than love and something other than the Gospel that we follow. amen.

Welcome Home

2010-09-08T18:20:00.003-04:00

Opening Eucharist August 31, 2010, 185th academic year
Preached by President Michael L. Cooper-White
Texts: Proverbs 25, Hebrews 13, Luke 14:1, 7-14

Theologian and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas has been teaching down at Duke Divinity School for nearly three decades. A few years back, TIME magazine deemed Hauerwas the most influential theologian in America. He recently published an autobiographical memoir, Hannah’s Child, which I received as a gift and have begun to read. Looking back at his Texas origins, where his father was a bricklayer, Hauerwas reflected, “I have spent my life in buildings built by people like my father, buildings in which the builders have felt they do not belong.”

Buildings in which the builders have felt they do not belong . . . Hauerwas refers, of course, to the halls of academia, and perhaps even to the great chapels at places like Duke University. Here in our own grand Church of the Abiding Presence, those who built and have stewarded it over seven decades have seldom sat among us as we gather for worship or one of the fine lectures or concerts that take place within these walls.

In the current season, it seems that we are surrounded on every side by questions of who and what belong where and when. Heated debates are waged up in New York City. Out in the New York harbor, Lady Liberty still beckons and beseeches: Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. But if your idea of freedom is to build a Mosque near the place of horrendous tragedy at Ground Zero, then go elsewhere. Here you do not belong.

Likewise down in Arizona, and in many jurisdictions around the country, there is high anxiety over those who cross our borders without their immigration papers in order. “Send them home or somewhere else,” cry out many. I suspect if they did their family genealogical work carefully, some of those most vociferous in their opposition to so-called “illegal aliens” would soon come across ancestors who came to this country with no questions asked. Many who cling most fiercely to their land and property would have to acknowledge that their ancestors walked onto rich land and simply called it their own in a time of rural homesteading.

Even within our churches, the debates roil on and on about who and what belongs where and when. So-called worship wars continue to be waged in some places over what kind of liturgy and type of songs, even which hymnal shall be used. In my student years at this institution, a couple of professors could not celebrate the Sacrament because they held radical notions about who might receive bread and wine, including very young children. This was at a time when pastoral discretion in such matters was quite circumscribed, and deviations from the norm received a heavy hand of church discipline. Just last week, a new North American Lutheran Church body was created over questions of who belongs where doing what in our churches. Some of the long-time builders, including bishops who gave their lives and careers to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its predecessors, have concluded that ours is now a building they can no longer inhabit. While I do not agree with their assessment, I am saddened by their departure and hope for a day when they and we and indeed all Christians can truly abide in the same household of faith.

This week’s appointed Scriptures issue some theological vectors and pastoral advice that address these very questions of who and what belongs where and when. And their message is consistent, even insistent. The writer of Hebrews sums it up succinctly: Never fail to exhibit, to demonstrate hospitality to strangers! Those who have done so already have often entertained God’s very messengers, angels coming incognito and in disguise. Go so far, says the Hebrews author, as to remember those in prison, for they too belong in places where they are no longer free to go.

In the Gospel, Jesus once again is mixing it up with the Pharisees, who seemed to spend most of their time worrying about who belongs where and when doing what. On a Sabbath, when Jesus went to dine in the house of a Pharisee, Luke’s Gospel says, “he was being watched carefully.” The Pharisees were always watching Jesus. Theirs was not the loving kind of watching, as when you watch a baby sleep and utter prayers from your perch beside the crib. It was a more sinister watching—to take note when he might stumble. Theirs was the watch-keeping of a security guard or police officer keeping tabs on a shady suspect.

As he did so often, Jesus engaged the Pharisees and invited them to expand their comfort zone. He first offered some friendly advice about how to avoid embarrassing themselves. “Don’t take a seat in first class if you don’t have that ticket. They’ll kick you out and send you back to coach, and you’ll be shamed in the process.” Then he went on to teach them the way of true Christian hospitality:

When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your relatives or rich neighbors. But when you host a five-course banquet with your finest china and nicest linen tablecloths, or when you make a group reservation at your town’s most expensive restaurant, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then you too will be blessed by the experience of offering lavish hospitality.

Once again this year, as I have been privileged to do now most years of the past decade, I sat in as you summer Greek students introduced yourselves and explained how you came to be in this place. I came away that Friday afternoon more grateful than ever for my own call to serve in a Seminary that attracts such outstanding women and men! As I listened to your “call stories,” I was struck by how many of you wondered for so long—and may still be wondering—whether or not YOU belong in this place. Are you not indeed like Stan Hauerwas’ father, the builders who feel you don’t belong in the buildings that you have sustained by your prayers, your offerings, your commitment during all those years of your formation in the faith; during a long season of your lay leadership in the church?

Perhaps some or many of you need a word of assurance, maybe even from me a presidential proclamation. So here it is: Welcome home! This Church of the Abiding Presence is a building that your forebears built. You will continue reinforcing and refurbishing it by your frequent presence within these walls. This Seminary will not be the same four or two or one year hence. As has occurred every year since the beginning way back in 1826, once again this year the Seminary will be rebuilt, refashioned as a community—by all of us.

So, be confident in God’s call and your own sense of calling. You do belong in these venerable buildings and upon this holy hill. Whether or not you come for your very first service of Holy Communion around this altar, or have been coming here for decades already—in the case of some of the faculty, staff and alumni—welcome home. Welcome home!

Now, in the spirit of high transparency to which this school’s leadership aspires, I must go on to remind you that exhibiting good Christian hospitality is indeed hard work. Those who open their doors and their hearts to a host of strangers will on occasion be taken advantage of and even abused. There is some wisdom in the little ditty that Barney the dinosaur teaches children who watch him on television:

Never talk to strangers; that’s very good advice. Cause you just can’t tell if they’re good or bad, even though they may seem nice.

In my experience, however, it is generally not strangers who do us the greater harm. So often, our most painful encounters come with those who are close to us or even within our care. Of late, there has been a flurry of newspaper articles and internet pieces on the topic often referred to as “clergy burnout.” These articles point out that on average those who engage in full-time ecclesiastical service have poorer physical health and more mental health challenges than the population as a whole. Many in the professions to which you students aspire find themselves strapped financially, work far too many hours, often neglect their families, and experience a profound loneliness because they lack either the time or the ability to form lasting supportive friendships. But the even greater burner-out, which leaves some colleagues smoldering in the ashes after a time of ecclesiastical service, is the constant grind of demands by and lack of appreciation from those among whom they serve.

Perhaps in this regard also, there is some word from the Lord for us in the Bible’s many teachings on this important matter of Godly hospitality. I think both Jesus in his mini-lecture at the Pharisee’s house, and the writer of Hebrews issue a reminder, and it is this: The host is the host. The host is not a servile victim who must fulfill every unreasonable demand of every guest who shows up at the banquet, invited or not. In another saying, Jesus urged us to go the second mile; he did not say we have to always run a marathon beside those whose intentional or subconscious aim is to facilitate our fatigue. A good host has to remain healthy enough to issue the invitations, set the table, and then engage in holy conversation that builds up and sends guests away more whole than when they arrived.

Jesus concludes this little lesson in the school of the Pharisee’s home with a promise: “You will be blessed. Even though your guests cannot bother to say thank you; even if they pan you or blast your hospitality in the post-banquet reviews, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. God’s answer to our modest acts of hospitality will be the Great Surprise at the in-breaking of the Coming Age, when the Triune Host of Heaven flings wide the doors to the larger life of God and shouts, “Welcome home, daughters and sons, friends, family all. Welcome home!”

That, dear fellow travelers on the journey this year on this hill, that word of welcome is precisely what Jesus issues to us now as he beckons us to his banquet table.

Information, Knowledge, Wisdom

2010-09-01T11:09:00.000-04:00

A sermon preached during the summer Lay School, July 2010
by the Rev. Dr. Kristin Johnston Largen
Text: Matthew 12:38-42 [Wisdom]

We live in an unprecedented age of information. Everything you want to know about anything at all is at your fingertips—no further away than a cell phone or a keyboard, and an internet connection. If you give me a woman’s name—any name—in 30 seconds or less, I can tell you everything you need to know about her. If you give me a date—any date in history—in 30 seconds or less, I can tell you everything you need to know about what happened then. If you give me a sentence—a fragment of a sentence—in 30 seconds or less, I can, most likely, pull up the book or article from which you got it [plagiarizers, beware!]. In 30 seconds or less, I can find a list of every state capital, give you the definition and spelling of any word in the English language, or pull up a picture of any picture by your favorite artist. Today, everything you want to know about anything is at your fingertips. Information is everywhere.

However, unless you are preparing for a stint on Jeopardy, these kinds of bald facts are not necessarily all that valuable. What good is it, for example, if I know that it was Matthew’s Gospel in which the wise men visited the baby Jesus; and Luke’s Gospel in which it was the shepherds—if that is all I know?

What good is that information if I don’t understand that, for Luke, the shepherds are another example of the gospel proclamation of the salvation of the last and the least, and the radical reversals in human society that Christ’s coming entails? I would argue that it is this bigger picture that makes any bit of information worth something; it is this larger context in which we can interpret information that makes it useable, that makes it useful, that makes it mean something in our lives. In other words, it is this larger context that separates information from knowledge.

Now, knowledge, of course, is a good thing. Knowledge goes far beyond the simple collection of facts to a synthesis, interpretation, and application of that data to real-life situations, in order to make the world a better place. Knowledge, then, consists of the use of our God-given gifts of intelligence, creativity, and memory to create new technologies, develop new medications, find alternative fuel sources, and to deepen connections between individuals, cities, and countries. Knowledge is information in context, information at work for the sake of the world.

However, knowledge, like information, is, ultimately, a human convention —it comes from our necessity, it is shaped by our convictions, and it is judged by our standards; and what that means, is that, like all things human, it is tainted by sin and evil. And therefore, we deceive ourselves terribly if we choose to ignore the fact that knowledge also consists of the use of our God-given gifts of intelligence, creativity, and memory to create land mines, to develop new ways of trafficking drugs and people, to find alternative ways to torture people more slowly and more painfully, and to deepen the divide between the rich and the poor. Human knowledge in action reveals both the best of who we are, and the very worst.

Now, in saying all this about information and knowledge, I have attempted to set the stage for what is, for Christians, a central paradox, a key faith proclamation, and a particularly rich bit of gospel all rolled up into one outlandish claim: that is, the very best of human knowledge is folly—stupidity, to quote Rick Carlson—when compared to the wisdom of God, embodied and enfleshed first and foremost in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Over and over again in Scripture, we see that God’s wisdom is surprising, and runs quite counter to knowledgeable human anticipations, assessments, and assumptions. I’m sorry, God, but I’ve run the specs and a little runt like David has less than a 1% chance of winning a fight against a giant like Goliath—you really should choose someone bigger and more powerful. Listen God, I hate to disappoint you but I’ve seen with my own eyes that you can never trust someone who was once your sworn enemy—Paul is going to turn on you at the first opportunity—you really can’t count on him. Excuse me God, but I’ve done some research and no one is going to believe a woman if she tells them that she has seen something as miraculous as a resurrection—you really should send someone else.

God’s wisdom really does look like foolishness, when you think about it. Only God could see that choosing a young boy, an agitator, and a woman to do God’s work in the world would bear such extraordinary fruit—our eyes are blind to such wisdom.

And that’s not all: when we turn from Scripture to today, over and over again in our own lives, we see that that God’s wisdom is surprising, and runs quite counter to knowledgeable human anticipations, assessments, and assumptions.

When we’re sure we should go left, God takes us right. When we’re sure we should marry someone like “X,” God brings “Y” into our lives, and turns everything upside down. When we’re sure we’re going to be a lawyer or a teacher, God calls us into public ministry. God’s wisdom really does look like foolishness, when you think about it. But that's only from a human perspective. When viewed through the lens of God's wisdom, we can look back on our lives and see that God never leads us astray. When we put our faith and trust in God and God’s wisdom, we will surely be surprised, but we will never be disappointed.

That’s why I love every single one of these Scripture readings we heard today. Even though Solomon turned his heart away from God toward the end of his life, I will always love him for answering God in such humility and honesty, and choosing wisdom over everything else, when God offered him the whole world on a platter. And as we heard this morning, Solomon went on to use that wisdom for the sake of God’s people, and for the sake of God's kingdom.

In First Corinthians, Paul shocks us anew every time we read this passage, as he calls us away from our typical way of ordering the world—our logic, our hierarchies, and our convictions about what's right and wrong—and back to what really matters, the wisdom of God manifest on the cross of Christ and revealed in weakness, realized in our own lives as we are joined to Christ in our baptism.

This is a lesson we, like the Corinthians, have to learn over and over again, because we continually fight against God, sure that our way is the best way—sure that our human knowledge is equal to divine wisdom. Luther's call for us to return to our baptism daily surely includes the day-to-day practice of conforming our minds to the mind of Christ, and allowing God's wisdom to be the ordering principle of our lives.

Finally, in our Gospel lesson for this morning, we hear the radical proclamation that Christ himself is the very incarnation of God's wisdom—divine wisdom walking, talking and at work in the world. In Jesus Christ, we have more than simply a sign of God’s intentions, we have God in the flesh, living and breathing right in the midst of creation. In Jesus Christ, we have more than just the inspired speech of a human channel for God’s wisdom, we have that wisdom in a flesh and blood human being, not only speaking God’s will, but actually embodying it for all to see and follow and emulate.

What this means for us, then, is that when we want to access this divine wisdom, when we want to see what God desires for God's people, we merely look to Christ. In Jesus’ life, in his ministry, in his healing the sick, in welcoming the outcast, chastising the religious leaders, and proclaiming a kingdom of God that bears little resemblance to any society constructed according to human knowledge, we see a vision of what God intends for the world. And in this vision, against all knowledgeable human predictions of how things should logically turn out, might does not make right, the rich do not keep getting richer, and the status quo is not maintained. Instead, in the kingdom of God, there are no rich and poor, no haves and have-nots, no outsiders; and no one is rejected, no one is abandoned, no one is unloved.

Today, the church as a whole, and we as individual Christians are called to be witnesses to this vision, and live as though this promised reality were already here; seeing and believing with the eyes of divine wisdom that Christ truly lives in each brother and sister, that every corner of creation has infinite value, and that the promised victory over sin, death, and the devil has been won—salvation is not in doubt, no matter how dark things may appear. In God, all things are possible; and with Christ at work in us, amazing things are possible for us, too—not because we have so much information, not because we have so much knowledge, but because in Jesus Christ, divine wisdom has come into the world and changed it forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

The Packards Came to Seminary Ridge

2010-08-05T11:17:00.000-04:00

Just Because It’s Fun!

In late July, the Seminary campus was host to a pack of Packard automobiles, and their several hundred owners and admirers. More than 100 of the restored cars manufactured throughout the now-defunct Packard Motor company’s existence, from 1899-1958, graced the lawns up and down Seminary Ridge. Our staff worked closely with event organizers to provide a safe and hospitable climate for the day’s events. Following the “concours,” which included judges rendering prizes to the best-restored vehicles in pristine condition, the Seminary received a letter from the Packard Club of America glowing in its appreciation for our hospitality.

See the full column at From the Gettysburg PO
http://www.ltsg.edu/Publications/From-the-Gettysburg-PO/August-2010/Just-Because-It-s-Fun.aspx

LWF Unity is in Christ

2010-07-30T09:36:00.001-04:00

Unity in Christ, by Robin J. Steinke, LWF Council member and dean, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg

I just finished my first meeting on the new council for LWF. It is such a privilege to serve the church and the mission of Christ in this capacity. I wish that each member of the ELCA could experience the genuine love of Christ experienced here across the cultural, social, economic and denominational traditions. There are clear and longstanding differences on a whole range of theological and social issues. Yet the unity of the Lutheran World Federation, a communion of churches, bears steadfast witness that our unity comes as a gift in Christ. We need not be of the same mind on any of these issues as long as we together confess Christ. I give thanks for my brothers and sisters across the communion of the LWF that we stand together as a public sign of unity in Christ in the midst of difference.

One final note, I also wish that each member of the ELCA could witness the faithful, pastoral and wise leadership exercised by Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson as he so ably served as president of LWF and presided at this assembly. There was great appreciation expressed throughout the communion of churches at this assembly for his Christ centered, biblically rooted, and confessionally sound and pastorally sensitive witness in preaching, teaching and presiding. His leadership was a powerful witness which pointed to Christ as the Center of life, faith and ministry.

Two Vignettes from Stuttgart

2010-07-30T09:34:00.001-04:00

LWF Vignettes, worship setting moments
by Robin J. Steinke

A Living Ikon

I have been singing in the LWF Assembly Choir throughout the week. It has been a wonderful way to engage in the public witness of LWF as we pray together “give us this day our daily bread. On Thursday we experienced the moving service of forgiveness with the Mennonite/Anabaptist tradition. Bishop Younan carried olive oil from the Middle East which was distributed in small bowls throughout the assembly hall for use later in the service.

The entire assembly processed together from the assembly hall, where the formal action to ask for forgiveness was adopted, to the Chapel space singing Veni Sanctu Spiritus-a kind of physical journey to repentance-. This hymn reverberated throughout the tunnel as we sang from deep in our hearts. When we slowly and solemnly gathered in the “Reithalle” for worship, nearly every seat was filled and many were standing in the back of the hall. The Very Rev. Protopresbyter Constantin Miron (which means oil), Ecumenical Patriarch of Germany was crowded into a seat right next to me and the choir. He did not have the green assembly worship book so I stood next to him and said something like, “When you are sitting this close to the choir-you are in the choir so please join the choir and sing with us.” So I shared the worship book and he joined with the choir. He had a wonderful deep bass voice. There we were, an ordained Lutheran woman in a clerical collar and the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch singing praise to God with the whole communion of saints.

At the appointed time in the worship service we were to dip our finger in the small bowl of oil and turn to the person next to us and mark the sign of the cross on the top of their hand and say “God gives you a new heart and a new spirit” and the response was “Thanks be to God”. This was from the Ezekiel text for the day. Several of us were to start this with the choir. I went to begin this rite with the Mennonite choir and gave and received the sign of the cross with oil.

When I returned to my place in the choir, Bishop Miron reached for my hand and took his own oil crossed hand and placed the top of his oil marked hand on the top of my hand and said “with this I seal it”. It was a gift of blessing from this Orthodox Bishop. I received this blessing from one who did not need to do this. I was stunned at his public respect and gift of blessing. It may be that the public act of confession and forgiveness with the Mennonites bore witness to God’s reconciling and redeeming project for the world in a way that this Orthodox brother in Christ extended to me an ecumenical blessing. I continue to reflect on the powerful time of shared blessing and rejoice in the glimpse of God’s promised future of wholeness in the body of Christ.

Stiftskirche Marks History with Bell

I was in the “Stiftskirche” or college church on Sunday morning, July 25th singing in the choir again. The bishop of Baden Württemberg, Bishop July preached with the Bishop of Lund and Dr. Ishmael Noko presiding. This was again a deeply moving service, broadcast across all of Germany.

The pastor invited all assembly participants to climb the bell tower following the service. Housed in this towed is an enormous bell which is only rung twice a year. Once at the beginning of lent and again on the commemoration of the bombing of the church and its nearly total destruction in 1944. The day of commemoration just happened to be July 25th. Many of us were in the bell tower as it was rung to remember the devastation of another era.

As one who also lives on another battlefield where we too commemorate the end to violence unleashed on our seminary campus, it was a powerful reminder of the need to for ongoing attention to our call to bear witness to God’s promise of peace for the world.

Steinke Elected To LWF Council

2010-07-26T03:51:00.000-04:00

LTSG News

Stuttgart, Germany (July 26, 2010) The Rev. Dr. Robin Steinke, Dean of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, was elected to serve on the 48 member Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). The election took place here during the Eleventh Assembly of the LWF, which meets every seven years.

The Council serves as the global Lutheran Communion’s governing body between assemblies, and meets once every 12 to 18 months. It consists of the President, who is elected by the Assembly, the Treasurer, who can be elected from among the membership or from outside, and 48 persons elected by the Assembly.

Steinke is one of five persons elected to the Council from North America. The Rev. Donald McCoid, Executive for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said that Steinke was the right nominee for this role. “The LWF had identified the need for a female theologian to serve on the Council,” he said. “Dr. Steinke has the right combination of theological gifts and global knowledge for the work of this Council.”

The Council meets every 18 months to consider the important work of ministry of care, world service, ecumenical dialogues, interfaith relationships, theology, and to address concerns and issues in the world. An executive committee meets between meetings of the Council.

This year marks significant changes for the LWF. By action of the Assembly, the LWF Council will be face a new structure, some challenging ongoing planning, and new leadership. As of the conclusion of the assembly, the newly elected Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land will fill the post of the LWF president. In October, a new General Secretary will lead overall operations for the Geneva based organization.

An advisor to the LWF also said that with diversity of opinions on moral and ethical decisions and maintaining unity within the LWF Communion of Churches, the Council will tend to relationships as well as issues. Among the issues that are a priority include: global warming, gender justice, peace, hunger, poverty, disease -- malaria and HIV/AIDS, illegitimate debt, disaster response, and concerns and needs that develop.

McCoid cited Steinke for “her commitment to the LWF as a communion of churches, and her passion to work for unity in Christ in the world and for the sake of all people especially for those who live on the margins of society.” Steinke, who was present for the assembly, attends her first meeting at the conclusion of the LWF Assembly on July 27, 2010.

LWF Assembly Short Video Spots

2010-07-24T10:57:00.001-04:00

You can see an array of 1-5 minute video clips that give a feel for the more than 1000 persons assembling at Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Germany

Youtube LWFweb section

LWF President-elects First Press Conference: Hardest questions first

2010-07-24T09:59:00.002-04:00

Press Conference with Munib Younan

Reported by John Spangler

Right out of the box, the questions came hard and fast for President-elect Munib Younan following his election. The first question was offered by secular press and it was clear that they wanted the Bishop to stake out the lines in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict: “Are the Jews God’s chosen people?”

The bishop affirmed all three times he was pressed on the Israeli/Palestinian questions that he believes that as complex as the issue is, justice for Palestinians and justice for Israeli’s is the only way to achieve a suitable peace in the seemingly intractable conflict in the Middle East. He thought that his election might bring greater strength of spirit to Arabic Christians, who are such a profound minority in the territory now. Younan navigated the thorny questions on conflict Palestinian politics carefully and thoughtfully.

Secondly, on the first question’s heals was another line of difficulty: this one on the culturally specific hot button issue in the Christian world these days: “Do you believe in the ordination of women? Homosexuals?

Reporters got aggressive here and followed up trying to find out how he might deal with an issue of disagreement among some groups in the communion. Younan said quite clearly that “My church 10 years ago decided to allow women to be ordained and now is preparing a woman for ordination. Now we must continue to encourage the evangelical churches to be open to women, for it is an integral part of the Lutheran tradition.” Once more the follow up came whether he himself believes in the ordination of homosexual persons, he finally said “it would be wrong to state my opinion now. And he said flatly to a third follow up on the question of “We are committed to this process of study until 2012. Please be patient. Because the churches in Africa and Asia in the next two years are studying marriage, family and hosmosexuality and will come to the council at that appointed time.”

"When God created us in his image, it is male and female, when he saved us from the cross, it was for all. He calls us as human beings." And his last statement on the issue was it is his desire to focus on “what unites us more than what divides us.”

The bishop also received other kinds of questions, equally offering potential pitfalls: are you prepared for this role? What is your vision for the Lutheran World Federation? Will his role change in his present setting due to this new global recognition?

“I took the nomination as a call from Christ.” Said the president-elect. “I believe that the lord calls me to this job to be the servant of this communion, that he would qualify me. In essence, he expects that God is telling him “don’t worry my brother, we will succeed.”

Even though these seemed particularly "hard ball" questions for the newly elected leader, there is no reason to expect that they will get easier as time goes on.

Palestinian Bishop Elected President of the Lutheran World Federation

2010-07-24T09:58:00.000-04:00

LWF News Service
Bishop Munib A. Younan is a Passionate Campaigner for Peace and Inter-Faith Dialogue in the Middle East

STUTTGART, Germany, 24 July 2010 – Bishop Munib A. Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) has been elected President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) by the Eleventh Assembly here, a gathering of 418 delegates and others from the LWF member churches.

Three hundred and sixty registered delegates voted, representing 145 member churches from 79 countries. Rt Rev. Dr Younan received 300 votes affirming his election, 23 against; there were 37 abstentions. There were no other nominees.

Younan photo LWF/Erik Coll

Younan, 59, succeeds Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, who has been President of the LWF since the organization’s last Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada, in 2003.

Ordained in 1976 after study in Palestine and gaining a degree from Helsinki [Finland] University, Younan was a youth pastor and teacher in his homeland. From 1976 to 1979 he was pastor of the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem and he has also served parishes in Beit Jala and Ramallah. He studied at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and he holds an honorary doctorate, granted by Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.

The president-elect has headed his church body since 1998 and was the third Palestinian bishop of the church founded by Germans in the nineteenth century and previously led by clergy from Germany. A member of the LWF since 1974, the ELCJHL has about 3,000 members.
The bishop was the first to translate the Augsburg Confession, a key document of the Lutheran Church, into Arabic.
Younan is a former vice-president of the LWF, is president of the Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches and serves with three Jerusalem patriarchs and nine other bishops on the International Christian Committee of Jerusalem. He is also a co-founder of the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land, made up of the two chief rabbis of Israel, heads of the local churches, the Chief Judge of the Islamic Court in Palestine and other Muslim leaders.
He is the author of Witnessing for Peace, a book about the search for peace in his homeland and numerous articles on churches and the search for peace in the Holy Land.

His wife, Suad, is Director of the Helen Keller School in the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Hanina, which educates visually-impaired children. She is also the chair of the women’s committee of the ELCJHL.
The couple has three children and one grandchild.

Singing in the Tunnel

2010-07-23T03:57:00.001-04:00

Singing Veni Spiritus in the Tunnel, Marking Reconciliation

By Maria Erling
ELCA Delegate to the LWF Assembly

The procession underground went through the modern, granite surfaced tunnel between the plenary hall and the worship room. Were there a thousand of us? Hard to tell from the front, where the Mennonite and Lutheran choirs sang their way through. We sang a version of “Come Holy Spirit,” and it carried us into a service of confession. The tunnel gave our song a rich welcome. The prayer echoed ahead of us and behind.

photo by Arni Svanur Danielsson

Then began a service of testimony and song that recited the stories of persecution. We heard stories of the Anabaptist martyrs and learned how another community was formed. We listened as our Mennonite sisters and brothers acknowledged that a dark history told by victims can also do a kind of damage, and prevent a people from becoming all they can be. So, both of our communities will be transformed by this, and in that work made more fully alive in Christ.

But the other healing thing that happened through this honest recital was that we Lutherans, that is all of us – African, Asian, Latin American, European, Nordic, and North American - accepted that the harm done in the 16th century and continued through five centuries is a history that would not be buried or forgotten by us.

So we sang our way through to a new day.

Follow the Questions

2010-07-23T03:50:00.000-04:00

The Questioners’ Questions
by John Spangler, From Stuttgart

How does the world view Lutherans in this kind of a global gathering? To answer that, I followed the questions that people have been asking. In this case, mostly press and media questions.

From the pre assembly news conference and subsequent conferences taking place within the assembly time frame, the world and its media representatives press their questions to LWF leaders. In the pre assembly event, all questions were related to human sexuality in one way or another. The ELCA’s decision, joining the Church of Sweden in formal openness to the ordination and recognition of persons in faithful same gender relationships, elicited questions about whether disagreements among the LWF member churches, particularly Africa, would surface. A second focus, still centered on sexuality, was the abrupt resignation of German Bishop Maria Jepsen over the weekend before the assembly. (Jepsen resigned in response to clergy sexual abuse cases within her jurisdiction that did not receive proper intervention in a timely way.) One German newspaper noted that it was the third German bishop to resign (2 Lutherans, one Roman Catholic) with in a year’s time. Jepsen is listed as a delegate to the assembly but has not attended to date.

In a later conference, the questions from media shifted slightly toward the search for conflict, signs of what they believe to be potentially underlying clashes among the Lutheran churches around sexuality. This shift was triggered by questions raised by delegates in a plenary session in response to Bishop Hanson’s report on Wednesday, wondering why the U.S. church, and by implication, the church of Sweden, moved ahead on sexuality questions when the LWF is calling for a five year period of study and conversation. A second delegate from Africa wanted to know what the nature of the communion of churches is in which this kind of decision might be made by some churches. But the secular media members’ other questions also picked up on disagreements over the ordination of women among the churches, a kind of extension of the tensions around sexuality. Bishop Hanson clarified that membership in the LWF does not require the ordination of women, but that the LWF is on record within its membership to supporting those churches that do (which is a very strong majority) and encouraging those that do not to consider adoption of the practice.

More pointed questions from secular and ecumenical outlets searched for possible rifts in the LWF’s unity. Here LWF leaders responded with frustration around the belief that some non-LWF member entities in the Lutheran tradition may be trying to use either scripture or the Lutheran confessions to define who is and who is not Lutheran, or who is and who is not confessionally pure. There appeared to be a frustration among some leaders that there are thinly veiled attempts to fragment the Lutheran world and use issues of women’s ordination or human sexuality as a wedge.

Other questions included one about the hopes the leaders might have for the 2017 anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, is there ecumenical work going on around the prospect of common communion for couples who belong to ecumenically diverse traditions, such as Lutheran and Roman Catholic spouses, and one about the fragility of family and church life in the North, the isolation and scarcity of young people in church life.

Lutheran Reconciliation with Mennonites Intense, Emotional, and Moving Action

2010-07-22T16:19:00.000-04:00

Lutheran and Mennonite Reconciliation today, Thursday the 22nd

Mennonite gift to LWF

In response to the Lutheran and Mennonite reconciliation, today Larry Miller, whoserves as General Secretary of the Mennonite World Conference presented a gift of a footwashing bucket to the Lutheran World Federation today,

The gift followed an intense and heartfelt introduction to action, and included a vote with many delegates voting on their knees in repentence before God and in request of forgiveness from the Mennonites.

The gift is a pine well bucket, a varnished wooden pail, roughly 20 by 20 inches, with narrow steel rings around the outside, a steel handle. Essentially it looks like a well bucket.

The bucket is engraved with the following: “Given to the Lutheran world federation by Mennonite world conference with deepest gratitude on this day of repentance and forgiveness. From this day forth let us serve one another as our Lord and Teacher served us. (John 13:1-17)” and dated 22 July Stuttgart

The “Footwashing Pail” was made by the Anabaptist community in the Nickle Mines area. “in the Nickle Mines area” is due to the fact that they are a “modest community” and Larry Miller, out of respect for their reticence about being in the media spotlight. It is from one of the Anabaptist communities in Eastern Pennsylvania that still practices foot washing. Footwashing is done prior to the Lord’s Supper as a sign of service and reconciliation.

The Old Order Amish community at Nickel Mines in Lancaster County, PA, came into a tragic spotlight on October 2, 2006 when a gunman took ten girls hostage in the one room school house, killed five and committed suicide in the school. The response of reconciliation and forgiveness and the resistance in the Amish community to express anger or bitterness was widely discussed in both churches and wider public across the country.

Hail and Farewell and ‘The Dialogue Must Continue’ -- Day 2

2010-07-22T03:40:00.000-04:00

by John Spangler, from Stuttgart

Thanksgivings mingled with the undercurrent of farewells on day two of the assembly. The greetings of Walter Cardinal Kasper were received with affection by the assembly, even as they highlighted the unfinished work of ecumenism, the dialogues, and the greater common work of Christian unity. Kasper, who came “home” to Stuttgart for the greeting (he was bishop of Stuttgart) has been in a farewell tour mode, it seems, and cited the significant friendships that have been forged through long history of ecumenical contact with the Lutherans. If Kasper were the only key figure to retire, that wind may not have prevailed, but with the retirement of General Secretary Noko and the conclusion of the LWF President’s term (Bishop Hanson), the text of the song was thank you, carry on in faith the work of unity, and farewell.

As one would expect, Kasper cited the Joint Declaration on the doctrine of Justification as the highlight of his four decades of dialogue. He said that this work doesn’t belong to any person or tradition, but that “the ecumenical movement is God’s own movement… to bring us together to reconcile ourselves to him.” Whether Catholic or Lutheran, “as Christians,” he said, “we can no longer afford our differences. The dialog must continue. Where there is no communion there is no peace.”

Dialogues are still an unfinished agenda, said Kasper, and “the Catholic church is determined to continue.” Here I suspect an unspoken context is that some among Lutherans who have been arguing against the ELCA’s 2009 decision to permit the ordination of homosexual persons in monogamous, lifelong committed relationships would bring an end to such commitments and common work. Ecumenical partners appear to remain in their commitments, even where there might be significant disagreement on this issue.

News alert -- Global Lutheran Communion and Mennonites to Mark Reconciliation

2010-07-21T12:23:00.000-04:00

Luherans to Ask Forgiveness for Past Persecutions of Anabaptists -- Mennonite response to include gift from Nickle Mine Community

An Action toward Reconciliation with Anabaptists

The most prominent ecumenical action at the July 2010Lutheran World Federation Assembly will be the request for forgiveness—first from God, and then from Mennonite brothers and sisters from the Anabaptist tradition. With theological support from such leaders as Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, Lutherans in the 16th century violently persecuted and even executed Anabaptists. These actions remain vivid in Anabaptist memory.

Results of the Lutheran – Mennonite International Study Commission (2005-2008) provide common perspectives on this painful history and allow Lutherans to recognize not only past wrongs but also “inappropriate, misleading, and hurtful portraits” of Anabaptists to the present day. Based on this study, the LWF Council in October 2009 unanimously approved the request for forgiveness. While important theological differences remain, these can be explored in a new atmosphere when the legacy of the persecutions is addressed.

In this action, the LWF prays “that God may grant to our communities a healing of our memories and reconciliation.” Mennonites have indicated that they are eager to respond. This action by the Lutheran communion to address faithfully a sorrowful legacy has significance for the entire Body of Christ.

Further information will be made avialable Thursday morning 08:00 in Stuttgart that is currently embargoed information.

More details are available at

http://www.lwf-assembly.org/explore/lutheran-mennonite-reconciliation/

The event is streamed from the same website and scheduled for the afternoon of thursday here (between 16:30 and 18:00), early morning EDT

Text of the statement:
http://www.lwf-assembly.org/uploads/media/Mennonite_Statement-EN.pdf

______________________________

The Rev. John R. Spangler
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
And Co-opted Staff for LWF Assembly, Stuttgart, Germany

Gettysburg Seminary Sends Three to LWF Assembly in Stuttgart

2010-07-21T10:03:00.000-04:00

By Gettysburg Seminary News
Three members of the Gettysburg Seminary faculty and staff will attend the 11th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), July 20-27, 2010, in Stuttgart, Germany.

The Rev. Dr. Maria Erling, Professor of Modern Church History and Mission, is a voting delegate to the assembly, representing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a member of the global Lutheran body. Joining her at the assembly will be the Rev. Dr. Robin Steinke, Dean of the Seminary and newly elected member of the LWF Council, a 48-member body directing the Federation’s work between assemblies, which occur every seven years. The Rev. John Spangler, the Seminary’s executive for communication, will serve on the LWF communication staff for the event.

The focus of the LWF assembly is “Give Us Today Our Daily Bread,” which will open topics of food, hunger and justice, as well as environmental and political causes of food shortages. Leading the meeting is LWF is the Rev. Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, and for the last seven years, President of the LWF.

The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF now has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the world representing more than 70 million Christians. Information about the LWF and its Stuttgart Assembly is available at www.LWF-assembly.org/ .

Opening Worship at LWF2010 Assembly in Stuttgart

2010-07-21T08:35:00.000-04:00

From John Spangler, co-opted LWF staff, social media manager for english
____________________________________________

The Eleventh Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation opened with a stunningly visual liturgy this afternoon in the Stuttgart Stiftskirche, packed with several hundred worshippers and 8 (count em) television cameras from SWR, broadcasting all over Germany and selected other countries.

The service opened up the theme “Give Us Today Our Daily Bread” with the reading from the first two chapters of Ruth in which Naomi tells her daughters in law to return to their own kin and country. This was paired with the Luke chapter 9 gospel story in which Jesus tells the disciples to feed the great crowd gathered to hear him teach and heal at Bethsaida. The disciples wanted Jesus to send the crowd homeward and away to be fed. This set up Bishop Hanson’s opening to his sermon, asking if the message is “Go back” or whether it is a far more powerful message more like Jesus’ call not to retreat, but to “make them sit down” and feed this crowd with bread, both physical and spiritual. “You give them something to eat” said Jesus, and what was collected, bless and shared fulfilled this promise.

The theme and sermon was augmented by a choreographed feature, part liturgical dance and part chancel drama, in which a dozen people, some clothed in the travel clothes of immigrants and pilgrims, act out and then cry “your people are my people, your God is my God” woven through the entire section of the worship devoted to the Word. The same group brought back a gleaning gesture at communion distribution as worshippers came forward. Each bent low to pick up a stalk of wheat and placed it in a basket that represented an offering of “necessity laid upon you” for this meeting, for your work back home. Say what commitment you are taking to respond to the one who says ‘you will be my people and I will be your God.’”

Death of a Gettysburg Seminary professor emeritus

2010-04-14T11:26:00.000-04:00

The Rev. Roy J. Enquist died Tuesday evening, April 13, 2010, following a brief battle with leukemia.

Memorial arrangements will be shared when they are known. The Seminary’s prayers extend to Mia Enquist, their family and loved ones.

The Rev. Roy J. Enquist

The Rev. Dr. Enquist, an ordained Lutheran minister, was appointed Ecumenist at Washington National Cathedral in the spring of 2000, serving as the principal advisor and planner on matters regarding the Episcopal Cathedral's relationship with other faiths and denominations.Pr. Enquist received his Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in New York. He was professor emeritus of theology and ethics at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg where he served as professor from 1980 to 1998. He had also served as visiting professor at theological schools in both Namibia and South Africa.

Additionally, Pr. Enquist has authored various works, including The Courage to Believe which was released in 2009. He served as an assistant professor at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and as a professor of theology at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin from 1965 to 1980. He had also served as the assistant executive secretary of the Division of College and University Work of the National Lutheran Council and had studied as a visiting scholar at the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., and the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.

Holy Saturday

2010-04-05T11:02:00.001-04:00

by Michael Cooper-White

Holy Saturday

Now comes the quiet after the tsunami;
It is indeed finished, the suffering ended.

Hope died too at Good Friday’s crossing;
That the even greater loss than the man.

We wait now, no longer with expectation;
Yet comes a feeling—there could be more . . .

Easter!

2010-04-05T11:02:00.000-04:00

Easter!
by Michael Cooper-White

God came early to the tomb
Cool dew on the rocks
Soldiers asleep
Deadly quiet.

One more grieving parent:
“Too young to die”
“So horribly!”
Heartbroken.

Roaring “This cannot be”
Rolling back stone
Stepping inside
“Outta here!”

Now our turn has come
Disbelieving still
Yet shouting
“Risen!”

Meditation for Good Friday

2010-04-02T12:12:00.000-04:00

From the Gettysburg PO
by Michael Cooper-White

Trains run on time
Doctors operate, lawyers litigate
Potato chip factories spew out billions
Just another Friday . . .

Soldiers march on the hunt
Stock brokers keep going for broke
And truly broken is a jilted lover’s heart
Just another Friday . . .

On a hill outside Jerusalem
A man hangs dying on a cruel cross
Strangely he utters, “Father, forgive them!”
Just another Friday . . .

A Maundy Thursday Meditation

2010-04-01T17:09:00.000-04:00

Maundy Thursday Meditation
by Michael Cooper-White

Death squads do their dirty work at night;
What they’re about cannot stand the light.

The Judas battalion came by dark on Thursday;
From then on, for Jesus, things went one way.

Before the death squad marched down his street;
Our Lord took towel, and washed his friends’ feet.

Bonhoeffer's Pioneering Ecumenical Vision Topic of Special Lecture

2010-03-02T14:06:00.000-05:00

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LTSG-10-24
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010 jspangler@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu/news
________________________________________

The Church for Others: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Pioneering Ecumenical Vision

The Rev. Dr. Tomi Karttunen will deliver a special lecture entitled, “The Church for Others: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Pioneering Ecumenical Vision” at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg Thursday, March 4^th in the Valentine Auditorium.

Karttunen is the winner of the 2008 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise for his doctoral research and dissertation on the same topic. Kartunnen is currently the Executive Secretary for Theology, Department for International Relations of the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. He was in 2007-2008 a lecturer in Systematic Theology at the University of Joensu, where he received the doctoral degree in 2004. He is an ordained Lutheran pastor in the Church of Finland and received degrees at the University of Helsinki as well. He served as a parish pastor in Finland from 1994-2008.

The lecture will take place at 7pm in the lower level of Valentine Hall, Alumni Auditorium, and is sponsored by the Templeton Foundation and the Gettysburg Seminary special events office. The event is free and open to the public.

The Winter Olympics and Public Ministry

2010-03-01T14:43:00.000-05:00

The Winter Olympics and Public Ministry
From the Gettysburg Seminary President's Office

by Michael L. Cooper-White

Winter sports have never held great fascination for me, although I did enjoy sledding down our neighbor’s cow pasture hillside as a youngster. And although we never owned our own, I do recall some thrilling rides on relatives’ snowmobiles. My one adult foray into skiing was assessed curtly by my teenage-daughter after observing me inadvertently wipe out a fellow traveler on the beginner’s slope, “Dad, you’re a menace!”

Despite my mediocre-at-best interest in and prowess at winter athletic events, like almost everyone else, I’ve been drawn into some aspects of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Who can avoid a measure of awe and marvel at the accomplishments of some of the world’s greatest on the rinks, slopes and tracks of the Olympiad?

Among the various winter sports (which is likewise the case in the summer games), there are some basic types. Some are team sports where a high level of collaboration and a spirit of togetherness are essential to successful performance. Other events, like figure skating, field solo performers, where the whole enchilada depends on a young woman’s or man’s skill, concentration and dogged determination to go for the gold. Another basic differentiation in type is between those sports where the outcome is measureable and beyond dispute, and those where the winner is declared by somewhat subjective decisions on the part of a handful of judges. In races on the track or the ice, you either have the fastest time or you don’t; you cross the finish line first, second, third or last. But in figure skating or a dive off the high board, judges determine style, form and overall excellence of performance.

Most of what we do in ministry, it seems to me, falls into the categories of “team” and “adjudicated” activities. While a sermon may appear to be a “solo performance,” even in preaching we depend upon the insights, encouragement and assistance of others; indeed, ultimately we depend on the “teamwork” of the Holy Spirit! While some believe it possible to assess effectiveness and even faithfulness by “the numbers game,” most of us are humble enough to recognize that matters are usually far more complex. Achieving 10% membership growth is more readily achievable in a booming suburban community than a declining rural village. Significant budget growth may not even require all that much effort in an affluent setting, whereas staying even or going down only slightly may be the result of herculean work in an economically depressed urban area.

The timeframe in which the fruits of our labors become evident is also often far more extended than in the Olympics arenas. You skate, you wait a few moments, and then the scores appear and you know how you did. In ministry, as St. Paul articulated so well, you plant, another waters, and God gives the growth—but only in God’s own good time. As Moses never did enter the Promised Land and enjoy the final flourishing of his long-held dreams, so we may seldom see the ultimate effects of our words and labors. As a colleague seminary president observed a few years ago about the work we do encouraging generous stewards to include our schools in their wills, “we’re always working for our successors.” The gifts that come this year were often solicited decades ago by one of my predecessors or a long-departed development officer.

As much as we all are drawn to watch the winners during the just-concluded or any other Olympics, even more may be learned listening carefully to those whose performance fell short of a medal. So often, amidst their disappointment, they speak of the true and lasting joy that comes from just being in the arena. And a satisfaction no less profound than that experienced by the winners belongs to the runners-up who head home from Vancouver knowing deep down they did their best. They were faithful to their callings. They were privileged to be in a place where few are granted entrance. So it is for us engaged in or aspiring to serve in public ministry. I never approach a pulpit, stand at an altar, set foot in a classroom or engage in a holy conversation with a student or colleague without the same sense of awe and wonder expressed by so many athletes in Vancouver. What a privilege to be in the arena of public ministry with so many hugely gifted and enormously committed colleagues, all striving for the same goal of faithful service to the Gospel!

February Brings Icy Reality to an Intern's Awareness

2010-02-09T08:34:00.000-05:00

Internship Journal, February 2010

By Scott Schul, Seminarian and Intern

---------------------------------

“By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast.” Job 37:10

By now, I should be used to ice. After all, I grew up in Kane. Folks in Kane know what it’s like to live with ice. And I lived many years in Maine, another place where winter and ice go hand-in-hand. But that doesn’t mean that I have to like it. Perhaps you’re just as ready to be finished with ice as I am. Maybe, like me, you’ve heard of too many people slipping and falling on ice. Ice can be very dangerous.

Back in December, we had a Sunday here in Butler during which the roads were an absolute sheet of ice. As I tried to navigate my car down our very steep driveway that morning, it was all I could do to wrestle it safely to the bottom of the incline without plowing sideways through the guardrails at the base of our street. The drive to the church was just as hazardous. What is usually a 10 minute commute took nearly an hour. We spent about as much time in ditches as we did on the road. I’m usually oblivious to the many dips, inclines and curves in the roads I use to get to church, but on that day the hazard that each such feature presented illuminated them better than a forty foot neon sign could have done.

Fortunately, both my family and our car was undamaged by the “skate” we endured on the way to church that Sunday. And, much to my surprise, I think some good came out of the ice too. Now, each time I drive that oh-so-familiar route to church, I see it differently. Now, that driveway at the crest of the hill on South Duffy is more than a driveway – I remember it as the safe haven that gave us a place to pull off as we waited for the salt truck to come through. Now, those rocks that fill the ditch alongside the big curve near the old farm are more than rocks – they were like life preservers that provided traction for us on an otherwise glassy surface. Indeed, my experience with that ice has made me more attentive to the multitude of little blessings and graces that so abundantly populate even the most mundane aspects of my life, like the route of my daily commute.

One of the many marvelous and mysterious things about God is how the Creator manages to bring hope, insight, inspiration and redemption from circumstances that would otherwise be hopeless, painful and tragic. In Jesus’ day, a cross was a tool of terror and execution. But now, it is through a cross that we are saved. It is through a cross that new life is available to us.

Similarly, as that ice melts, it will become water that cleanses our roads and sidewalks…water that will provide us with life-sustaining hydration…water that will fill our baptismal fonts with the promise of a God who loves us and claims us even when we have nothing to offer in return.

And so I’m going to try to complain a little less about the ice from now on. Somehow God manages to take the things of this world – even those things that seem to be beyond redemption – and transforms them into something beautiful and holy. If God can do that with ice, just imagine the miracles God is working with us. Now that’s something to celebrate!

Scott Schul

Vicar, Trinity Lutheran Church, Butler PA

Nicaragua and Honduras -- Final Blog

2010-01-25T09:52:00.004-05:00

"Remember Me"

By Michael Cooper-White, president
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg

As our ten-day pilgrimage in Nicaragua and Honduras draws to a close, I reflect back on these intense days in two countries that continue to be home to many of the world's poorest. Among the manifold highlights of the trip for me have been devotions led each day by one of the seven seminarians who are my traveling companions. On Saturday, following a few hours enjoying one of Nicaragua's beautiful Pacific coast beaches, second-year seminarian Cassandra Lamb led us in reflection on the Gospel story where a sinful woman of the city approaches Jesus to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. Concluding by consensus that a major theme of the story is extending hospitality, one by one, my companions shared ways in which we have been offered extraordinary hospitality in the course of our Central American sojourn.

Everywhere we went, but especially in the "home-stays" where we were hosted in humble campesino village huts without electricity or running water, at each meal we guests were fed first. At the remote community of El Rodeito in northwest Nicaragua near the Honduran border, the community killed a chicken to enrich our meal, thereby exercising the Nicaraguan equivalent of the biblical killing the fatted calf. In several homes, the hosts gave up their beds and slept in hammocks or perhaps outside on the rough dirt floor so that we could enjoy the most comfortable accommodations they had to offer. As my companions shared how the journey had begun to affect them, they concluded that their ministries will be marked by a high level of Christian hospitality, giving particular attention to welcoming strangers, leading congregations in extending hospitality to immigrants and others who are different.

Time after time, those among whom we visited spoke with gratitude for what they have received by way of a larger global Lutheran hospitality network named the Lutheran World Federation. In ways small but significant, the "Federacion" has brought a measure of hope and some improvement among people who fall into a category the United Nations regards as 'extreme poverty.' For people who live on just a few dollars a month, learning a new skill, a way to engage in more productive farming practices, or a craft that enables the production of small goods for sale -- all part of the LWF's emphasis on "capacitation" or skill-building and leadership development -- makes all the difference in the world. One of LWF's particular gifts in many communities has been the provision of both basic materials and training so that people dig and maintain their own wells. As one of our hosts told me as he drew water into a bucket for my morning shower (warmer than you would think after warming in the sun a few moments!), "water is life, without it we die."

As Cassandra and her colleagues have discovered, after a journey like this, one will never read some scripture lessons the same as before. Biblical images of water, primitive non-technological agricultural practices, planting and harvesting and so on, take on new meaning when one reads them after having returned to conditions not much changed in the twenty centuries since the Lord wandered about among the poor and forgotten of the earth.

Just as in his last hours Jesus exhorted his friends to "remember me," so in all our departures our hosts told us they will remember us, and expressed the hope we will remember them too. Perhaps that lies at the heart of Christian hospitality, that simple act of remembering. So, yes, Rigoberto, Luisa, CrisAlicia, Virginia, Victor and all the rest -- we will remember you. And we are changed and grateful people knowing that as you say your prayers when you lie down to rest after another long day's hard work in the hot Honduran or Nicaraguan sun, you will remember us also.

From Managua, Nicaragua

January 24, 2010

Michael Cooper-White

GETTYSBURG SEMINARY ALUMNUS TO LEAD WITTENBERG CENTER

2010-01-22T10:16:00.000-05:00

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LTSG-10-03-jb*
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010 jspangler@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu/news
________________________________________

ELCA Wittenberg Center to Move, Establishes New Staffing Arrangement
by *John Brooks, ELCA News Service

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Wittenberg (Germany) Center will move its offices to another location in the German city and employ the Rev. Scott A. Moore to be part-time coordinator who will also represent the ELCA in the observance of the "Luther Decade."
     The future viability of the center was in doubt this past October when it was announced that the center's two directors, the Rev. Stephen E. and Dr. Jean Godsall-Myers, would end their service at the center Nov. 30, 2009. The decision was the result of "harsh budget realities," said the Rev. Robert O. Smith, continental desk director for Europe and the Middle East, ELCA Global Mission.

     A proposal for the center's future was accepted by an advisory committee for the center. The Rev. Moore, an ELCA pastor and 1997 graduate of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, has been named the center's coordinator and ELCA Luther Decade representative. He recently completed a six-year call with ELCA Global Mission when he served as pastor of a Lutheran congregation in Lutherstadt Eisleben, Germany. He will soon begin doctoral studies in Germany.
     "I'm very excited to be in this place at this time. It's something I'm eager to do," said Moore in a phone interview with the ELCA News Service. "It's extremely important for our German partners that we have a presence there among them in these historic Luther sites, especially in Wittenberg."
     Moore, who lives in nearby Ehrfurt, will serve 10 hours per week at the center and visit Wittenberg at least every two weeks. Among his duties he will facilitate relationships with German church partners and institutions in Wittenberg, promote the center, maintain donor relationships, assist and coordinate activities for visiting groups, and engage in strategic planning.

     "It's good to have an (ELCA) presence in Germany in this decade as we have the opportunity to reflect for ourselves about our heritage and our future," Moore added. The Wittenberg center is one of four ELCA designated international learning centers, along with the Gettysburg Seminary’s Luther Institute in Washington, DC, the International Center in Bethlehem, Palestine, and the International Center in Mexico City, Mexico.

     The Luther Decade, launched in Wittenberg in 2008, is a significant component of the Wittenberg Center's mission. The decade includes a series of events and observances leading to 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
     The new plan calls for the Wittenberg Center to move into a newly renovated space at Colleg (correct) Wittenberg, a facility primarily for study-abroad programs of North American college and universities. Colleg Wittenberg has guest rooms and space for group seminars.
     Haug added that the ELCA churchwide organization will be working to connect the center with other expressions of the church, including congregations, colleges and universities, and seminaries.
     Renate Skirl, administrative assistant for the Wittenberg Center, will end her service on April 1 and join Christian Tours, Europe, Smith wrote in the Wittenberg Center proposal. Christian Tours will provide a separate entrance and sign for the ELCA Wittenberg Center, and will maintain various ELCA resources at the center, he wrote. "As ELCA groups utilize the Colleg Wittenberg and the services of Christian Tours, they will have full access to these resources," Smith wrote.

FORMER GETTYSBURG SEMINARY BOARD CHAIR EDWARD SITES IN HAITI RESCUE FLIGHT FOR 53 ORPHANS

2010-01-22T10:14:00.000-05:00

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT GETTYSBURG
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LTSG-10-04
CONTACT: John Spangler 717-338-3010 jspangler@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu/news
________________________________________

EDWARD SITES HELPS PLAN RESCUE

(Pittsburgh, Penna.) Dr. Edward Sites, a trustee of the Gettysburg Seminary Endowment Foundation, and former chair of the Seminary’s Board of Directors, assisted in the emergency rescue of 53 orphans from the massive destruction in Haiti’s recent earthquake.

Sites, a scholar and retired lead administrator of the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh, said “I participated in the core group that planned the extremely complex and eventually successful emergency flight to Haiti to bring a planeload of orphans from Haiti to Pittsburgh.” Sites was on the plane with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and others who eventually received help from the White House to advance through the red tape to get clearance for the 53 very young Haitians. Sites added “it was a very stressful, exhausting and yet exhilarating effort with many stories to tell.”

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An Intense Long Day in Tegucigalpa

2010-01-20T08:20:00.000-05:00

Post #3 From Tegucigalpa, by Michael Cooper-White
Email: mcooper@ltsg.edu

"You are living letters for us," declared a valiant woman named Noemi who directs the Latin American Council of Churches'human rights program in Honduras. She was referring to a program of the World Council of Churches that goes beyond sending letters or emails and dispatches a delegatiion within days of an outbreak of human rights violations in any corner of the globe. Looking around our circle of seven Gettysburg seminarians, I saw looks of wonder and awe that our very presence seemed to make such a difference.

Seven meetings is intense on any day anywhere. The nature of our visits demands even more than the usual concentration from both speakers and listeners, as we pause after every few sentences to translate from Spanish into English or vice versa. But both our "viajeros" and hosts take the challenge in good stride, committed to share and learn as much as possible in the brief time we have together.

For me, the day's most stimulating meeting was our first, held at a labor union where there are weekly gatherings of the "resistance" movement's leadership, who launched concerted efforts after last summer's military coup to restore the nation to a state of respect for the constitution and democratic convictions. It is never easy to hear harsh critique of one's own government, but the spokesman for the Honduran Resistance Movement expressed the conviction that either tacitly or overtly the U.S. government lent support for the coup that deposed the democratically elected president and installed a puppet of the army and police forces.

In one way or another, all the groups we visited are involved in the struggle to protect and defend human rights. One of our hosts spoke of threatening phone calls received by his wife in just the past couple of days. Leaders of a youth resistance movement talked of anti-coup demonstrations at which an old woman was brutally beaten, and of other instances where corpses were found after resistance movement participants were "disappeared" at the hands of the ruling regime. Despite the resistance forces' commitment to non-violence, the toll of torture, murder and disappearances mounts daily.

While most of the day's meetings would be regarded by some as "political" in nature, we were reminded by the president and two other ordained ministers of the Honduran Christian Lutheran Church that their holistic mission is deeply pastoral, theological and one of service to the "least of these" throughout this Central American nation where a young church has established over a dozen congregations and mission outposts. In this land where both the Roman Catholic cardinal and pastors of evangelical and Pentecostal mega-churches have publicly sided with the perpetrators of the military coup, the Lutherans may be the church to watch as its influence and impact in proclaiming the Gospel grows in stunning measure day by day.

Tuesday in Tegucigalpa

2010-01-19T17:03:00.002-05:00

Post #2 Gettysburg's Central American Travel Seminar
From Honduras, by Michael Cooper-White

At the end of yesterday’s long journey, which brought us north from Nicaragua to Honduras’capital city of Tegucigalpa, second year seminarian Jason Felici led our group of pilgrims in evening devotions. Reflecting on the ELCA Global Mission "accompaniment" approach to work in other lands, group members shared how warmly and graciously our Central American sisters and brothers have invited us to walk beside them, stay overnight in their humble homes, and join in worship services, including two outdoors, the largest--in a remote village called Carbonera teeming with children--under a giant mango tree.

Jason’s devotions and the group’s reflection echoed themes shared early in our visit by Nicaragua’s Lutheran bishop, the Rev. Dr. Victoria Cortez. In the course of a lengthy conversation our first full day in country, the bishop talked about her church’s commitment to go where few others are willing to go. In Central America’s poorest country, the Lutheran Church of Faith and Hope (ILFE) intentionally engages in outreach among those most denied an abundant life. Unlike many of the Pentecostal churches that tell the poor their very poverty is God’s will, to which they should humbly resign themselves, ILFE proclaims the biblical message that God desires an abundant life for all. Going beyond proclamation, ILFE helps put in place means whereby individuals and communities can improve their situations. ILFE is the only church in Nicaragua with the courage to boldly address the growing incidence of HIV/AIDS.

Our "home-stays" in the Somoto community seem to have been among the highlights thus far for our eight-member delegation, all of whom face the typical hardships of Central American travel in good spirits and with much humor. All our travelers are in good health as we now settle in for two fascinating days among another community of God’s faithful--the Christian Lutheran Church of Honduras. Despite recent high tensions surrounding the deposing of Honduras’ duly elected president, our border-crossing was uneventful, and the teeming Tegucigalpa metropolis seemed a place of "business as usual" as we arrived on an ordinary summer Monday evening.

Our long list of Tuesday appointments begins with a visit to one of the almost-daily gatherings of the "Frente de Resistencia Nacional" or National Resistance Front, a coalition of many groups that formed to protest last year’s military coup, and now persists in promoting the respect of law and honoring of democratic principles. As time and internet access allow, the next blog entry will provide readers with a report on those and other conversations and connections

From Managua

2010-01-16T22:40:00.000-05:00

Its January, which means J-term, and travel seminars away from the Gettysburg Seminary campus. Here is a series, we hope, of posts from Seminary President Michael Cooper-White, who has a group of seminarians in central America for ten days. Here is his first post:

After a journey of nearly 12 hours, which began with a 2:00 a.m. departure from the LTSG campus, our group of eight arrived at the Hotel of Fat Maria (the actual name) in Nicaragua´s capital city of Managua. Following a short time of room check-in and rest, our local hosts offered a fascinating ¨coyuntura¨or orientation session on realities of Nicaraguan society and the work carried out by local Lutherans. Our primary guide and traveling companion for the next ten days is Ms. Annie Bjerke, an ELCA missionary from Minnesota stationed here, who regularly hosts groups like that made up of our J-term study tour pilgrims. Offering a comprehensive assessment of the current state of affairs in this poorest Central American country was Mr. Edgar Sanchez, staff person for the Lutheran World Federation, who works primarily in economic development and relief projects throughout the northwestern portion of the country.

According to Sanchez, following inconclusive election results some months ago, accompanied by post-voting widespread allegations of corruption and irregularities in the contest, the Nicaraguan government is paralyzed--unable to move ahead in filling many key posts until the matter of who will actually govern gets resolved. Due to the current instability, plus the present Sandinista regime´s cozying up to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, many governments, international commercial enterprises and lending agencies have put a freeze on funds flowing into Nicaragua. As always occurs in times of such dire circumstances (with currently upwards of half the working age population either unemployed or hustiling to make a few Cordobas as street vendors and the like), it is the poorest of the poor who suffer most. Tomorrow afternoon, we head north to the town of Somoto, where our visits and ¨homestays¨will be among some of those most on the margins in this suffering land. But even as

Nicaraguans themselves struggle to keep hope alive of a brighter future, in this land that has itself been devastated by earthquake and Hurricane Mitch some years ago, there is a special measure of solidarity with and prayers for the huddled hurting, grieving masses in Latin America´s poorest country of Haiti.

One of the student pilgrims serves each day as group chaplain. In his end-of-a-long-day devotions tonight, LTSG seminarian Tormod Svensson read from Matthew 25, reminding us that it indeed in those who suffer most among us that we are most likely to catch glimpses of Jesus.

From Managua . . .

Michael Cooper-White

My Top Ten Parliament "Take-Aways"*

2009-12-09T02:42:00.000-05:00

Instead of writing my final reflections of the whole Parliament in paragraph form, I've distilled them down into a "Top-ten list!" Easier for you to read, easier for me to write. Contrary to evidence presented thus far, I can be terse and pithy when necessary!

10. You know less than you think you do about other religions.

9. It's a big, wide world out there--get out and make yourself at home in it.

8. Embodied community beats the pants off virtual community--every time, every day. So seek out real people!!

7. Everyone interprets her/his faith a little differently in the first person. There is no actual "textbook" Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc., etc. lived out anywhere--practice is always a bit [or a lot] different from theory. [This makes things both infinitely more interesting, and appreciably more complex!]

6. Being away is good; being home is better--but you only learn this by being away.

5. People are strange, endearing, annoying, wise, goofy, and lovely--sometimes all at the same time.

4. Religious faith is an extraordinary source of transformative power in the world--faith really can move mountains.

3. Your appreciation of your own faith deepens as you grow in knowledge and understanding of another faith tradition. [Trust me, I could have gone on for paragraphs here!]

2. When it comes to faith, listening is almost always more important than talking.

1. I am very, very glad I am a Lutheran! There are lots of reasons for this, but I will elaborate on just two. First, our eucharistic doctrine of Real Presence, and how this leads to a strong affirmation of the physical body, and the physical world. I honestly have to say I got tired of hearing the human being described as a soul, who uses/possesses/inhabits the body like a vehicle. I heard that at various times from a Jain, an Aborigine, a Sufi, and a Hindu, just to name a few; and frankly, I don't buy it. Second, the Lutheran doctrine of sin and grace. I didn't realize it until the end, but at no time in the Parliament did anyone talk about sin. Oh, I get it, sin is a buzz kill, and it is much more uplifting to focus on what we can do in the world, and what we can do together as people of faith. But frankly, that simply ignores the profound depth to which all of us, and all human societies, are mired down in sin; and the fundamental reality that we can do nothing apart from the free gift of God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. Sure, we have things to learn from others, and sure, we have weaknesses in our own tradition; but honestly, overall, I really, really like Lutheran theology!

So, that's all from Melbourne! Thanks to all of you who have followed this blog--it has been a fun way to feel connected so many thousands of miles away from home.

Blessings

Kristin Johnston Largen

* A note on terminology: when you go into a café or deli, they will ask you, "For here or take away." The first time I heard it, it took me a few seconds to figure out what was being said--although once I figured it out, I think it makes even more sense than, "To go," in some ways!

A Coptic Mass, Quakers, and Milestones

2009-12-09T02:25:00.000-05:00

In about 12 hours, I'll be on the plane flying home, and I'm really ready. I feel like my camera's memory card--full up! It has been the most amazing experience all around, really, I can hardly put it into words, but now it's time to come home. First, I really want to be back with my husband and my dog [even if until the end of the semester, "back" with John means being in the same time zone--a 16 hour time difference has been ridiculous to try and navigate!] Second, being a pretty strong "J," I find that variation in my daily rituals [of which there are many!], is mildly stressful, even when the reason for that variation is wonderful. It wears on me, a bit. I'm ready to get back to my routine. Finally, I'm also really ready to get back to my seminary community, and our worship life. As much as I have loved [and gloated about!] the sunshine and warmth here, it has not felt one bit like Advent, which has been really weird to me. One of the Aborigine presenters said that "a child is part of the land where she is born"--your spirit comes from the land; and I think there is something to that. I have a deep appreciation of the spiritual connection we have to specific places; and for me, Colorado in my blood and heart, winter means cold weather and snow--it simply isn't Advent in 75 degree weather! That said, it still was a great day today.

I started my morning with a Catholic Mass, Coptic rite. I'm sure that typically, they do not practice an open table, but today, in the spirit of the Parliament they did, and it was nice to receive the Eucharist. The rite itself was both familiar and strange--we said the Lord's Prayer twice, once before the Words of Institution and once after; and during The Great Thanksgiving liturgy, explicit emphasis was given to stressing the two natures of Christ. At one point, the priest said something like, "At no time was his divinity apart from his humanity, not for one blink of an eye." I'm sure if I knew more about the history and development of the Coptic church, I would understand why such references have persisted.

The first presentation I attended was called, "Introducing Quakers: What Canst Thou Say?" This was very interesting, and I found out that when it comes to the Quaker faith, the extent of my knowledge could be summed up in one word--"silence." Turns out, there's lots more of interest! [I should say that all the presenters were from the Australian Society of Friends. One presenter noted that in the US, some Quaker branches are more evangelical in constitution, and some have much more structured meetings than they do here, where they consider themselves following more closely George Fox's English model of predominantly silent meetings with no formal structure or liturgy.]

The first thing that surprised me was Quakers don't seem to consider themselves a Christian denomination--assuming that "Christian" actually has something to do with Jesus Christ. [And if they do, I want more information about why and how. And, along those same lines, I'm pretty sure they would fail Martin Luther's definition of a church, too--Scripture plays no part in their regular corporate worship life, to say nothing of the other marks, except maybe suffering] None of the four presenters even mentioned Jesus, nor did any of the 4 pieces of informative literature that were handed out--there were no Scripture quotes, either. [Of course, this explains why Quakers don't have Sacraments!] Quaker faith is all about the personal, unmediated experience of God--and "God" is more accurately thought of along the lines of Tillich's Ground of Being: some of the presenters used works like Ultimate Spirit, Source of Being, Inner Light, etc. This personal experience leads to testimony, which leads to action in the world. Frankly, this was a connection I couldn't quite make: if what is really central is the "inward listening," which forms the core of the corporate worship experience, how does that lead to such a strong commitment to service in society? I mean, I'm glad it does--the Quakers do great work in the world, but I can't quite connect the dots. What does being a Quaker add to a simple humanist belief in peace and justice? The quote in their literature from William Penn is "True godliness does not turn men [sic] out of the world but enables them to live better in it and excite their endeavours to mend it." I'm all for it, I just don't see how: the basic principles of the Quaker faith are peace, truth, integrity, equality and simplicity. Can't you get there just as easily from the Golden Rule? I'm sounding more critical than I mean--it really is just a question.

The last session I sat in on today was on "Milestones and Signposts in Interfaith Relations: the View from Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism." This was a fun, uplifting session, with both the presenters and the audience offering positive examples of interreligious dialogue in their own traditions. The stated purpose of the panel was to "seek to establish that the milestones are actually signposts, beckoning each of us to take courageous and imaginative steps in the service of human rights, justice, and peace." It was really heartening to hear the examples from the three faith traditions of those visionaries past and present who have worked so hard to build bridges across faith lines. I especially appreciated the two Muslim presenters and their passionate insistence that both the Medinan Charter and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad himself are "concrete manifestations of the pluralistic nature of the Qur'an." That is a strong rebuke of what Christians typically assume about Islam, so I was quite happy to hear it!

My favorite quote of the day came from this session, too. The Hindu presenter, Dr. Anita Ray quoted Gandhi, who said, "To swim in the waters of tradition is good; to drown in them is suicide." Get it?

The sessions ended early for the closing plenary, which was just as you'd imagine: all sorts of different people getting up and making all sorts of meaningful pronouncement; several good music performances; and prayers from several different traditions. Well and good, but now it's time to pack & head to bed!

See you all soon!

Kristin Johnston Largen

LWI News: North American Church Leaders Must Become "Communion Ambassadors"

2009-12-08T20:47:00.001-05:00

From "LWFNews" <LWFNews@lutheranworld.org>
Date Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:11:33 +0100

>LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION

>http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html

North American Church Leaders Must Become "Communion

Ambassadors"

LWF Region Plays Key Role in Lutheran-Mennonite Relationships

GENEVA, 8 December 2009 (LWI)  - Lutheran leaders from North

America are exploring what it means to be a communion of

communities in a globalizing world at a Lutheran World Federation

(LWF) regional seminar 1-12 December in Geneva, Switzerland.

The course aims to equip North American synodical staff as

"multipliers in deepening and widening ecumenical and communion

relationships in their respective communities," stated LWF

Regional Officer for North America Rev. Teresita C. Valeriano.

"We in the North American region have a tendency to see

ourselves as self-sufficient," said Rev. Paul N. Johnson,

Assistant to the National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran

Church in Canada (ELCIC).  His hope is that this group of church

leaders will become "communion ambassadors" to help the region to

be connected more strongly to the wider LWF communion.

Organized in conjunction with LWF member churches the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the ELCIC, the

seminar is bringing together 22 church leaders as part of a

communion formation program.

>Communion-Defining Ecumenism

Ecumenism figured centrally on the seminar's syllabus as

participants learned about developments in dialogues between

church communions and pondered the interface of these

conversations with realities at the synodical and local level.

Inter-denominational cooperation is routine for Rev. Larry

Ulrich in his youth ministry and mission work as Assistant to the

Bishop of the ELCIC Manitoba/Northwest Ontario Synod. However,

learning about what the LWF has accomplished in formal bilateral

dialogues "gives an official context for what we do for practical

reasons."

Dr Kathryn Johnson, LWF Assistant General Secretary for

Ecumenical Affairs, emphasized this mutual dependence of all

levels of ecumenical engagement.

She highlighted the "communion building" role of ecumenical

agreements such as the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of

Justification and the action on the legacy of Lutheran

persecution of Anabaptists to be taken up by the LWF Eleventh

Assembly in July 2010.

The Anabaptist action will have particular implications for

North America, a region where the principal LWF member churches

live closely and already are in relationship with Mennonites, who

consider Anabaptists their spiritual forbearers.

"There is a sort of amnesia among US Lutherans regarding the

history [of persecution]," noted Rev. Michael Trice, Director of

Ecumenical Formation and Inter-Religious Relations of the ELCA.

He said the ELCA has learned that it is critical to address the

role of memory in shaping current relationships.

There is a need to feel accountable for the tradition one bears,

agreed Rev. Dr Maria Erling, Associate Professor of the History

of Christianity in North America and Global Mission at Lutheran

Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (USA). In this regard, the

proposed action is a "teaching moment."

"Ecumenism is a mission story," she affirmed, and the

Lutheran-Mennonite reconciliation process is an invitation to

extend discussion to a wider circle.

A key challenge for seminar participants is to live out this

reconciliation in an intentional, congregational way. "The heart

of ecumenism is that we get engaged at a local level," emphasized

Trice. "You are on the front line," he told the North American

synodical staff.

Dr Johnson seconded the need for seminar participants to

facilitate local reception of the action: "Look for the process,

help it in your own communities."

>Diaconal Church

The seminar also took a closer look at the diaconal calling of

the church, seeking to uncover realities underlying response

strategies to natural disaster, hunger, poverty, climate change

or illegitimate debt.

Walking daily with people in their pain and struggles has

"strong potential to transform churches into listening and

compassionate communities," remarked Rev. Martin Junge, LWF Area

Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, during a session

under the theme of the Eleventh Assembly, "Give Us Today Our

Daily Bread."

Junge, who was elected in October 2009 to succeed Rev. Dr

Ishmael Noko as LWF general secretary, underlined that a

missional church is a diaconal church. He invited the North

America region to contribute actively to ongoing LWF discussion

on diakonia.

During the remainder of the seminar, participants will

contemplate what it means to be Lutheran Christians in an

interreligious world; hear about the joys and challenges facing

churches today in the different LWF regions; and engage questions

of ecology and economy.

The program also includes worship in the Ecumenical Center,

sessions with the director, dean and students of the Ecumenical

Institute at Bossey, a trip to the Taizé Community in France, a

visit to the United Nations and dialogue with staff from the

World Council of Churches and the World Alliance of Reformed

Churches.

According to Valeriano, the participants will be looking to

"bring home" what they have learned. "We will find ways to

support each other," she promised, so that the church leaders can

give back what they have learned to their communities. (802

words)

*      *      *

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the

Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF

currently has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the

world, with a total membership of 68.9 million. The LWF acts on

behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as

ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian

assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects

of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in

Geneva, Switzerland.)

Geneva: A Sense of Forming A Communion

2009-12-08T16:06:00.003-05:00

From Geneva
This was my last day with the class - and the focus was on forming a sense of the 'communion of Lutheran Churches' in North America. We've all had so many presentations and been almost overwhelmed by the range of activities that are generated here in Geneva, and also by local churches. And there is also a rich life of faith for people who live and work here. Yesterday was a farewell to the president of the WCC, Samuel Kobia, who is finishing his term. The open concourse at the ecumenical center was filled with visitors and with tables for a reception. Meanwhile we sat upstairs in salle 2 and 3 and heard about the Latin American Lutheran Churches and their work to share resources, and also to address the issue of illegitimate debt.
Tomorrow the group will visit the UN and address issues of global economic disparity. But in between these kinds of sessions we go out to see Geneva.

On Sunday I attended church at the Lutheran Congregation, where the focus was on stars - but in true Geneva Lutheran Church style, the service was imaginative. This time physicists who work at CERN - where the particle collider is producing collisions this week - talked about their faith, black holes, stars, mass, and gravitational pull - and the pastor, Lusmarina, made some creative suggestions about how we might think about creation being pulled, or even ourselves being pulled, by the spirit, towards our neighbors.
Tonight we went out for Fondue. I was afraid of all the cheese, so I had a platter of meat instead, served over sauerkraut. I am now full. Success! I am looking forward to being home again!
Maria Erling

Interfaith Prayer, the Bishop of Lund, and Making a Difference with Chocolate!

2009-12-08T15:38:00.002-05:00

I want to begin today's post by saying how meaningful it has been to be here in this embodied world-wide community. I know that the world comes to us via the web every day, and I know that the internet can take us to all ends of the globe. Nevertheless, there simply is no way to compare this virtual encounter with the physical experience of being shoulder to shoulder, eye to eye with particular individuals, who have specific names and stories, who come from Japan, Tibet, Ghana, Italy, Brazil, Australia, the Netherlands, India, South Africa, etc., etc., etc. To see their faces, to hear their voices, to touch each other--it is a powerful, tangible reminder both of the larger world community and the larger body of Christ of which I am a part; and I am profoundly grateful to feel myself a part of this vast body. It is a invigorating jolt to the system, and a wonderful antidote to the incurvatus in se that can affect all of us, in our tendencies to think of ourselves, our families, our communities, our churches, our states, and our countries, all to the exclusion of others.

The first session I attended this morning was on the thorny topic of interfaith prayer. The presenters were all from Melbourne, and grounded their presentations in what are called the Black Saturday bushfires, which were burning in and around the state of Victoria on Saturday, February 7^th, 2009. Somewhere around 400 fires were documented, and they resulted in the greatest loss of life from a fire in the country's history. All three of the presenters [Orthodox Jewish, Catholic, Tibetan Buddhist] were involved in the interfaith prayer service that was held to commemorate the event. All three talked about their belief that it is important for us to be able to pray together as people of faith, but it is a very difficult practice. Certainly, we don't all share the same language, nor do we pray the same way. The Buddhist representative, Dr. Diane Cousens, was helpful in that she corrected the misperception that Buddhist prayers are all about emptying the mind: one of the most common Buddhist mantras is "May all beings be happy," and by all beings, they mean every single living thing--"including bacteria in another galaxy, if scientists can find them!" This is a gift that Buddhists can bring to the table--the reminder that our prayer should be radically inclusive. Each of us has something to offer the other in our prayer traditions, and we can learn from each other and come to appreciate something that often at first feels alien and uncomfortable to us.

The Orthodox rabbi, Ralph Genende, named what is in some ways the most vexing issue of interfaith prayer when he admitted that, "It rankles for me when someone says I pray for all people in the name of Jesus. I don't pray in that name." We have to admit, he said, that sometimes the language that is most valuable and precious to you is something I can't accept, and is a barrier to me. This is a hard word to hear, but a truthful one. He also talked about the "orderedness" of Jewish prayer--there are specific prayers for almost everything; and many prayers are very particular. He laid out a typology that I hadn't heard before: he said that the three of the patriarchs are used to typify the three daily prayers Orthodox Judaism requires. Abraham is the man of the morning, up early and optimistic about the day; Isaac is the troubled man of the late afternoon, when the sunshine and the shade are mixed, and there is a lack of clarity--it takes courage to pray in this situation; finally, Jacob is the man who struggles at midnight, who discovers himself in the deepest darkness. Each of these, then, represents a different type of prayer. [I just thought that was interesting!]
As part of their presentation, each presenter offered two prayers from his/her tradition, on which we were invited to meditate for a minute or two. The Catholic priest chose, as his first prayer, Ephesians 3:14-21, which, frankly, I thought was kind of an odd choice. It got me thinking what I would have chosen: if it had been you as the Christian representative, what prayer "from the tradition" would you have offered?

The last thing I want to comment on from this session was one of the comments from the floor. One woman stood up to advocate for the activity of interfaith prayer, saying several times, "We should be able to leave our labels at the door." My response to that statement? Yuck! Religions are not simply 'labels' we slap on arbitrarily to the same universal experience, event or reality--I find that idea terribly problematic, as it simply does not do justice to the depth to which we are not only shaped and but even created by the different religious beliefs and practices that fundamentally structure our lives. This certainly doesn't mean that we cannot or should not come together in prayer with people of other faith traditions--I think we can and should--however, it does mean that such an activity is fraught with challenges, and must be undertaken with humility, respect, and integrity. [Clearly, this is why, interestingly enough, there are no official interfaith prayer services at this Parliament.]

The one part of her long statement [which only turned into a question at the end, after direct prodding by the moderator!] that did resonate with me was her statement that today we live in a post-religious age, where many people do not affiliate with a church, but nonetheless, are not devoid of spiritual yearnings: What language for prayer do we offer those people? How do we include them? This is a good question for many contexts in the US, I think.

The section session I attended was on "The Doctrine of Discovery and Indigenous Peoples." In case you didn't know, the doctrine of discovery refers to the series of papal bulls [and other subsequent documents] that gave European nations the right to seize what was considered to be uninhabited land [because it wasn't being "properly cultivated"] and enslave any people they found there. Christianity was an explicit partner in this colonization, and Christian people/nations were given specific permission [better said--imperative] to "subjugate barbarous nations." What is important to note about this is that the Doctrine of Discovery continues to provide a key piece of the foundation for property law in the United States, having entered our legal framework in the decision Johnson vs. M'Intosh, an 1823 U.S. Supreme Court case which, on the grounds of the Doctrine of Discovery, ruled that American Indians have a mere right of occupancy to their lands. [Note--occupancy, but not ownership.] It remains determinative in US federal law, particularly in the context of decisions involving Native Americans. As one of the presenters said, "Catholic Doctrine of Discovery morphed into a Protestant nation-building project."

One of the presenters in this session was Chief Oren Lyons, who is what is called "the faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan," the Onondaga Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy [sometimes called "the Six Nations"]. Among people who know, he's quite famous! In 1982 he helped establish the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations; and in 1992 he was invited to address the General Assembly of the United Nations which inaugurated the International Year of the World's Indigenous People. He reminded us that Benjamin Franklin got the idea of a democracy from the Iroquois, who had been functioning that way for centuries before the Europeans arrived here. [I haven't checked this with my American history-loving husband yet--since he is convinced I didn't learn anything about American history in my Colorado public schooling, we'll see if Virginia had anything to say about this….]

Anyway, lest you think all this is merely a history lesson, let me submit the following for your consideration. While the ELCA was wringing its hands and thumping its Bibles about gay and lesbian ordination this summer, the Episcopal Church, at their national assembly in July 2009, overwhelmingly passed a "landmark" resolution [Resolution D035] repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery and urging the U.S. government to endorse the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Part of their rationale for the decision was their conviction that such a doctrine was "corrosive to themselves" and to their faith. Something to be learned there, I think.

Before I went to my afternoon sessions, I ran into an acquaintance, Antje Jackelé n, the Bishop of Lund, Sweden. It was fun to see another Lutheran, and we caught up on what has been going on in each other's churches. She told me that in April, the Swedish government voted to abolish the government's gender bias in its marriage laws: before that time, only heterosexual couples could be legally married in Sweden; same-sex couples could register domestic partnerships only. Thus, the Church of Sweden only legally married heterosexual couples; it blessed the civil unions of registered domestic partners. So, once this happened, the Swedish church had to decide if it was going to forgo acting on behalf of the state altogether and only bless all marriages, or if it would begin to legally marry all couples. [The Church decided in favor of the latter, to the consternation of some.] I wonder if the ELCA will be faced with a similar decision in a few years.

The two afternoon sessions I went to are linked, in that they both could have been cause for despair, but instead, both were sources of hope. The first session was on human trafficking, a terrible subject. However, the two speakers, one of whom was a Catholic nun [more proof that overwhelmingly, nuns are unstoppable forces of good in the world!], the other of whom was the social justice director for The Salvation Army in Australia, refused to allow us to wallow! They showed us a video, which you can find on the website of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [www.unodc.org], and also pointed us to the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report of the US State Dept. [available at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/]. There is some great information on both those websites. It's a terrible situation, but there is reason to take heart, and there are many ways to get involved. One of the easiest, and yet most effective things you can do was pointed out to us by Danielle Strickland, the woman representing The Salvation Army: commit yourself to eating only fair-trade chocolate!! Because of how and where chocolate is grown and sold, almost 80% of the mass-produced chocolate in the world is tainted by slave labor. Thus, the network of organizations working to stop human trafficking have targeted the largest chocolate companies, to try and persuade them to use only fairly-traded chocolate. She was happy to report that Cadbury, the first group they targeted [because of its Quaker roots] agreed in 2009 to change its practices. Mars followed, with a commitment begin producing free-trade chocolate in 2010, and to be "traffic-free" entirely by 2020. As of just yesterday, Nestle announced that its "Kit-Kat" would be fair-trade ASAP, and they would follow suit with all other chocolate products. Pretty amazing! Think about adding such a commitment to your New Year's Resolutions, please!!! [Or, even better, your Advent practices!]

The second session I went to this afternoon was another film, "Pray the Devil Back to Hell," a documentary about the Christian and Muslim women in Liberia who came together, organized, and in effect, ended the terrible civil war that occurred in Liberia between the military dictator, Charles Taylor, and the rebel warlords who had come together to try and oust him from power. The atrocities on both sides were unspeakable, and the entire nation was terrorized. The women finally had had enough, and under the leadership of Leymah Gbowee, they met together at her church, St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Monrovia, to form the Christian Women's Peace Initiative. Soon, they were joined by Muslim women, who wanted to work with them for peace. Over the course of two years, these women prayed, demonstrated, and laid their lives on the line to push for peace and democracy in Liberia. This is one story that has a happy ending, too: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president in 2005--the first woman ever elected to hold the highest office in an African nation. She continues as president today, and the country continues to be peaceful. If you can find this film, I highly recommend it--it's an amazing story! [Incidentally, it concludes back at St. Peter's Lutheran, with the celebration of a Mother's Day service in 2007.]

Such presentations, linking one's faith to the practice of justice in the world--a hallmark of the Parliament, I would say--have both convicted and inspired me. Convicted me, because I know that not only do I not do enough to put my faith into action, I doubt the power of my faith, and the power of God working in and through God's people to change the world. However, it also inspired me, because it's never too late to start making a difference, and no difference is too small to matter.
Advent blessings, everyone.

Kristin Johnston Largen

Mandala in Melbourne

2009-12-07T17:07:00.001-05:00

More pix from Perth, er, no, that is, mandala's in Melbourne. ..

Editor's note: This post allows us to post some additional photos that are not fitting into the text spaces, both the signs of disengagement and Kristin observing a mandala taking shape.

A Different Take on Myanmar and Thailand--and Gorgeous Indian Music!

2009-12-07T03:50:00.002-05:00

I am sitting in my hotel room watching Sunday's football highlights [thank you, God, for ESPN in Australia], and I just heard Drew Brees say, "I believe in karma--what goes around comes around; maybe now it's our turn." Funny.
Before I get into my day, I want to make sure to thank John Spangler, who, while he was helping me with fonts and things via email, made the mistake of saying that if I had "a picture or two" that I wanted to post, I could send it to him and he would post it for me. Well, that was all the camel needed to get her nose under the tent [as my grandmother used to say--what a great image!]--and since then, I have emailed John multiple pictures & he has dutifully posted every one. So, if you have appreciated the pictures, thank Pastor Spangler!!
I think that one of the most common perceptions of Buddhism in the West is that it is a thorough-going non-violent religion. Many people, I think, who become enamored of Buddhism do so because, unlike Islam or Christianity, for example, Buddhism does not seem to have periods of violence in its history. Certainly, there is a large measure of truth in that statement, but I heard a presentation today that persuasively challenged that conventional wisdom. The presentation was on "Religious Conflict and Persecution: The Cases of Myanmar, Thailand and Iran." It was the first speaker, Dr. Helen James, who spoke about Myanmar and Thailand, arguing that Buddhism is the de facto state religion in both countries; and that, contrary to the perception in the West, both governments are oppressive, both governments use Buddhism to legitimize their own ends, and historically, Buddhists in both countries have been associated with violence, particularly against the minority Muslim populations--either directly or indirectly.

This, I must admit, came as a shock to me: Myanmar, of course, is a military dictatorship, but Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, and is widely believed to be democratic in sensibilities. I asked Dr. James specifically in the Q & A time on what grounds she linked Thailand and Myanmar, and what the role of Buddhism was in both countries; and her answer was unequivocal. She was emphatic that the Western dualist construct of Thailand as peaceful & democratic, and Myanmar as oppressive is false. Not only from her research, but also from her years of living in Thailand extensively off and on since the 1960s, she is convinced that the two countries have much more in common than is typically assumed; and actually, both governments perpetrate the same type of violence. Sadly, Buddhists have been complicit in both. In her view, the main reason for the misconception is that since the Cold War, the United States has cultivated Thailand as an ally, and we like our allies to have the veneer of democracy, whether that accords with reality or not. Now, of course, currently, Buddhist monks are in the forefront of the resistance movement to the regime in Myanmar--I don't want to downplay their role in that. However, as is usually the case, things are more complicated in reality than they seem on the surface, especially when you start talking about violence against women, and state-sponsored discrimination, including gender discrimination within Buddhism itself.

The other presenter in this session was Dr. Natalie Mobini-Kesheh, a Bahá'í , who spoke about the oppression Bahá'ís have experienced in Iran, where they are the largest minority group. This is ironic, given that Iran is where the religion was founded in the mid 19^th century by the prophet Bahá'u'lláh. She argued that particularly since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, there has been a concerted effort to wipe out the Bahá'í, not only in Iran, but even abroad: people have been killed, shrines have been razed, students have been dismissed from universities, etc.

One of the really enlightening, enjoyable things about this Parliament is the way it has created space for people to dialogue on both sides of religious issues--and mostly, I am happy to say, this has been done very politely, even if intently. This happened in the Q & A time this morning, when a man from Iran stood up to challenge Dr. Mobini-Kesheh, arguing, first, that Bahá'í is not a real religion, because Bahá'u'lláh was not a genuine prophet [That is very interesting in and of itself, right? Who gets to say whether a religion is genuine or not?]; and second, Bahá'ís simply have not experienced oppression in Iran--those claims are false. This raises the issue of whose testimony is trustworthy, and whose stories get to be told. He questioned her respectfully, and she answered respectfully.

By the way, if you don't know what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is, you should. [It has been referred to here more times than I can count.] It was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948, and among the many relevant articles for people of faith working for peace and justice in the world, Article 18 is of particular importance. It reads, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

I ended my day, as has become my custom, with an Indian artistic performance, again rooted in the worship of Hindu deities. Today, it was two different performances: the first was an ensemble that featured the classical vocalist Manjiri Kelkar, her harmonium player, Suyog Kundalkar [who was introduced as "the best harmonium player in India], and her tabla player, Milind Hingane. She sang sacred music from north India. This is a picture of the trio, and another picture of me and Mr. Kundalkar. The second was the flautist Dr. Natesan Ramani, his son, the flautist Thiagarajan, and the mridangam player, Ramadas. They played Carnatac music, which comes from south India. Both performances were gorgeous--extraordinarily skillful and technical, very different from anything you hear in the West.

Let me close this post with my favorite quote from the day. It's from a presentation on "Returning to Right Relations between Christians and Indigenous Peoples." The presenter was Caleb Oladipo, a professor at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond, VA. He lifted up very powerfully the importance of community for indigenous people, and the need for Christians to learn from them a more holistic way of thinking. In that context, he even quoted the one of the refrains of the 2003 ELCA National Youth Gathering: "I am because we are." [Ubuntu! Remember?] He also made a statement I am still pondering. He said that the fundamental ontological problem of the Western missionary enterprise was that they were convinced that "God had not proceeded the missionaries." [Incidentally, this was in response to a retired Catholic priest who was one of those European ministers sent to "bring God" to the Aborigines; and confessed that he is ashamed now of the enthusiasm and ignorance with which he undertook that work.]

Anyway, here's the quote: in the course of his talk, he identified one of the key problems in the West right now as "The incessant desire for pleasure without responsibility." Hard to argue with that.

Until tomorrow…

Kristin Johnston Largen

Jainism, Veils and More Great Dancing!

2009-12-06T04:59:00.003-05:00

The first presentation I went to this morning was on the role of karma in Jainism. The presenter was Dr. Narayan Kachhara. The doctrine of karma, of course, is the teaching that auspicious activities [both mental & physical] produce peace, happiness, and harmony; and inauspicious activities produce the opposite. One's karma determines everything: God is completely uninvolved & doesn't do anything--God neither blesses nor curses anyone. This is because [interestingly enough] God is pure and perfect, which means that God has no desires and no hatred. [Incidentally, this is the logical extension of a doctrine of divine impassability, which I don't think it fits Christianity very well!] Thus, we are really in control of our whole lives: he noted that the saying, "You reap what you sow" is absolutely true. Your present state is a result of your past karma, and you shape your future state absolutely. Part of generating good karma is to have equanimity in the face of adversity: you should be the same in the face of joy or sorrow, failure or success. I know this sounds absolutely incredible--impossible and unrealistic, but that is because Christians have a very different understanding of God, the world, and salvation, of course. Such a view would be illogical in Christianity, which worships a God who willingly suffered out of love for creation.
If you know anything about Jainism, you know that ahimsa, or nonviolence, is one of their most important tenets--so much so that all Jains are vegetarian. The reason for this is that they believe that all souls are alike, and all have the same potential: plants, fish, birds, mammals, and, of course, humans. Thus, one must respect and have reverence for ALL life forms. Christianity could use more of that, I think….

After that, I popped my head briefly into the last presentation of a session on "The Headscarf Debates," and it was worth it to hear the presenter, Janaan Hashim, and some of the remarks from the audience. If you ever hear anyone say that there is no discrimination against Muslims in the US [would anyone say such a thing?!], please remind them that is simply not true. This is how she closed her presentation. Ms. Hashim is an adjunct professor at McCormick Theological Seminary and a lawyer in Illinois. In her small practice, all the lawyers are Muslim women. There was a picture of a few of them around a table that appeared in her local newspaper. Subsequently, she received a terrible piece of hate mail from a Christian, a letter telling her that all Muslims should go back to their war-torn countries [she is American], and that they should burn in hell with Allah. "This is a Christian country," he said, "God bless Christians." He sent along a doctored copy of the picture, with beards drawn on the faces of the women, and crosshairs drawn on their foreheads.

The remarks that followed the whole session reaffirmed what I have read, which is that the wearing of the headscarf is fiercely debated among Muslim women themselves. One woman came to the microphone to gently chide the speakers for not giving enough mention of the fact that many women do not have a choice to wear the hijab, but must wear it at the insistence of their husbands. For them, the hijab is a sign of oppression. The next woman came to the mic complaining that not enough time was given to the fact that 'hijab' is not just about the veil, but about a woman's entire dress. She gave the example of the young women she has seen who may wear a veil, but they wear it with tight jeans, and low-cut, tight blouses--they are not observing hijab, in her opinion!

All along, it has been interesting to see what sessions are packed, and what sessions are, well, under-subscribed. I am happy to report that the session I went to over the noon hour, "A Tale of Two Women: A Multifaith Reading of the Sarah/Hagar Narrative," was so full we actually had to move to larger room. It was just great to be in a room with people from the three Abrahamic faiths [among others, of course], listening to different, but complementary interpretations of a story we all share. There was a beautiful picture up behind the speakers, too, that highlighted the connections we all have to the stories. Most interesting to me, of course, were the Jewish presenter, Rebecca Forgasz, who shared how different rabbis have dealt with the tension between honoring Sarah as the matriarch of the Jewish people, and censuring her treatment of Hagar; and the Muslim presenter, Rachel Woodlock, who described the importance the Hagar story has for all Muslims, most obviously in the role it plays in the Hajj.

All this was great--as was the Sufi presentation I went to, which I'm not even going to mention--but far and away my favorite experience of the day was more Hindu dancing! This time, it was the Odissi dance, which is the traditional dance form of the Indian state of Orissa. This dance, like all traditional Indian dances [and all traditional Indian art forms, really], originated in a religious context, as it was originally a religious rite performed only by devadasis. The dance group performed a variety of dances, all of which told stories about different deities. My favorite was the dance that re-enacted Krishna's encounter with the gopis, the young cowherd women who loved him. One day, when they were bathing, Krishna snuck up on them and took their clothes. They pleaded with him to give them their clothes back, for they were ashamed of their nakedness, but Krishna chastised them, and told them he already could see into their hearts and he knew their purity. Dr. Chandrabhanu, the artistic director, said that this an allegory: we are the gopis, desiring God, and the clothes are the trappings that get in the way. Krishna is the loving God who strips us of the things we hide behind, that prevent us from coming before God fully and openly. You can't imagine how beautiful the dancers were--both their costumes and their movements, all of which elaborate, intentional, and deeply meaningful.

I ended my day with an Advent Lessons and Carols service at St. Paul's Anglican cathedral. It was such a lovely service, and I was happy to be there. I miss my husband John [and my sweet little dog Henry, of course: every time I see someone walking a dog I want to burst into tears. He would love it here, except I haven't seen any squirrels thus far--I wonder if Australia perhaps doesn't have any squirrel species...]--now where was I? Oh right, missing John! Anyway, it felt nice to be at the same traditional Advent service at which John will be presiding down at Southern Seminary on your Sunday night. OK, it wasn't the exactly same service [even though the Dean of the cathedral did mention Martin Luther in his homily], for example, when do you hear Ave Maria sung by a boy's choir in a Lutheran church?! However, it was comfortingly familiar. I have loved every minute of all the new things I am experiencing and learning, but it was nice to balance that tonight with the things I know and love about my own Christian tradition. I am so firmly convinced that holding those two experiences in tension really strengthens both, and the more you learn and appreciate about other religions, the more you learn and love about your own. I wish more Christians got that, instead of assuming it is either/or: either you are a good Christian and stay home where you belong, or you philander and lose your integrity. It's beyond ignorant--it's dangerous.

Good night, dear community.

Kristin Johnston Largen

A Mandala, Jesus, and Mr. Anti-Parliament

2009-12-05T22:09:00.002-05:00

I'm sitting here in my hotel room with a veggie ball for lunch--don't ask. It comes with chutney, and it's actually very good: chick peas & veggies rolled up somehow into a soft ball with breading on the outside. Ooh--I think I just made it worse by trying to describe it….

Just a couple remarks before I head back for the afternoon sessions. First, my favorite sign of the day today is "Don't Trust Religions--Trust Jesus Christ Only." Now, while Karl Barth may have approved, it is an interesting idea, isn't it? It doesn't say "trust Christianity," it says, "trust Jesus." So, what does that mean, exactly? Is there some non-mediated experience of Jesus that I am to trust? What does that look like? How do I experience this trust? Reading the Bible by myself? What reinforces & solidifies my trust? What happens when I doubt? Where and how do I live out this trust? As you can see, I find the whole idea complicated; and, to me, it is a rejection of all non-Christian religions, as well as [perhaps] mainline Christian denominations in favor of a more personal, confessional experience of Jesus. Not everyone is open to all perspectives, although that is certainly the dominant ethos of the Parliament!
For another example of this, I want to mention a Hindu man I have named "Mr. Anti-parliament." I have been with him now in a few of the sessions, and let me tell you, he is feisty! He's dramatically critical of all other religions, particularly Islam and Christianity, and he says the most outrageous things to the presenters in the Q & A time: people have been extraordinarily patient & good humored with him, I think. Again, not everyone here is happy with all the respecting and celebrating of religious diversity! [Perhaps you can think of some other folks closer to your homes who might share that perspective…I can.]

I also meant to report that one other cool thing that is going on during the Parliament is that a group of Gyoto Tibetan Buddhist monks are constructing a mandala in one corner of the convention center. It has been amazing to watch it come into existence day by day, from the diagramming of the template, to the painstaking labor of gently shaking into place each colored grain of sand. It's a marvel.
Last thing: I bought the video "Praying with Lior" today--it was for sale in one of the booths. If you want to see it, you can borrow it from me when I get back, while I try to see if the library can order it for the Seminary.
Afternoon blessings--and, while I've gloated horribly about the sunshine & warmth here, truth be told, I miss the snow: it's winter, after all!
Kristin Johnston Largen

Reflections from a Sunday Morning Run

2009-12-05T16:19:00.002-05:00

I keep forgetting to mention one of the small but important blessings for which I am thankful: thus far, I have neither run into anyone [and I mean that literally], nor had an uncomfortably close encounter with a car. Why is that more of a blessing than usual? Because, of course, Australians drive [and walk] on the "wrong" side of the street, and the sidewalk. That means that when faced with an approaching group of fellow pedestrians, I have to remember to zag, instead of zigging. It also means that I have to keep reminding myself to use the proper escalator, instead of walking up to the wrong one and then standing there wondering what the problem is. Mostly I'm taking the stairs [and trying to remember to walk up the correct side of the railing]. Obviously, this is a more serious issue when it comes to traffic, as I have curtailed, but not entirely abandoned, my bad habit of jaywalking. It is a challenge to remember to look the "right" way before crossing the street, but I really don't want to end up like a bad cartoon, looking intently one direction down the street while I step out and get beaned by a bus coming the other way.
Anyway, this morning I found Cook's Cabin, which was my goal, but I could never retrace the route--let's just say it was circuitous in the extreme. I was sure I could find it without carrying the map. That was a mistake. Ultimately, in what was a serious blow to my sense of direction, I had to stop and ask someone where the park was--I hate that. It was worth it, though--I saw more of the city; and who can complain when it was another gorgeous sunny morning. [Did I mention that I ran not only in shorts, but in a sleeveless top? What's it like in Gettysburg today?!]
Happy second week of Advent--more later.
Kristin Johnston Largen

Youngest at the Parliament

2009-12-05T10:30:00.000-05:00

Young Sikhs Know Their Pennsylvania Geography
Here is a group of the youngest Parliament participants I have met thus far: a group of young Sikhs from India. They were all thrilled to be in the picture, and interested in where I was from--they assured me they know where Pennsylvania is!

-- Kristin Johnston Largen

On Torture, Arabic, and the Chosenness of Buffalo--Day Two

2009-12-05T04:27:00.001-05:00

This is a long post, so grab your coffee and get comfortable!
I began my day with a splendid run around the Royal Botanical Gardens--gorgeous--and when I got back to the hotel and turned on the radio "Down Under," by Men at Work was playing! Perfect!
The first session I went to this morning was titled, "Reviving Indigenous Spirituality: Reclaiming Strength and Identity." There were two presenters, both of whom spoke about the beliefs of their religious traditions, and the guiding principles that shape their lives.

The first presenter was Tsugio Kuzuno, an Ainu elder from Hokkaido, Japan. He emphasized their belief that God exists everywhere in the universe, and lives within everything. "Ainu" means "human," that is, one who can communicate with God, nature, and other humans "calmly and gently." There is an interesting dynamism in Ainu belief, in that Kuzuno talked about 'God' and 'gods' somewhat interchangeably--for example, he said that Ainu pray and make offerings of rice wine to the god of fire before the other gods, not because he is considered higher or greater, but because they believe that their prayers to the other gods will reach them more quickly through the god of fire. [This echoes Vedic belief, in which Agni, the god of fire, also mediated the offerings people would make to the different deities in the Hinduism of the Rig Veda.]

After a person dies, her body is buried, and through the work of microbes, it is recycled into the earth; her spirit, however, lives on, and returns to watch over its descendents. [We saw an example of what that means for the Ainu when, at the end of his presentation, Kuzuno brought out and showed us his father's and mother's kimonos. This was a way for him to honor them, and a way of acknowledging their presence with us, too.]

One of the most interesting ramifications of the Ainu belief in the deep, pervasive inter-conntectedness of all existence is their attitude toward human-made objects. The Ainu do not reject such objects as artificial--they are a part of the universe, too; however, they believe that we have a ethical relationship to what we create that endures as long as it does. This means two things: first, there should be integrity in what people produce; and second, you are responsible for whatever you make for as long as it exists, not just until it is thrown away or buried in the ground. This is, of course, a logical consequence of the belief that God dwells in all things. One example of this is the prayer that is typically said before building a house: "Please allow us to use part of Your body to build our house."

The second presenter was Francois Paulette, a Dene from Canada's Northwest Territories, who is a former chief of this particular group of First Nations. The framing idea of his presentation was the concept of "Diné Chanié ," which literally means "the path we walk," but signifies something like what we mean when we say "the natural order." It is an all-encompassing term that includes every aspect of life; and the Dene are similar to the Ainu in that they live out of a reality in which the whole cosmos is profoundly interrelated. The connection between the people and the land is of particular importance: I thought it was interesting that Paulette teaches occasionally at the local college, but only on the condition that he take the students to the land and not come to the campus to teach. This is because "the land is the teacher"--it is impossible to learn anything about Native culture and religion apart from the land.

One idea that both presenters mentioned was the belief regarding the spiritual nearness of infants and children to God. Paulette elaborated on this idea, saying that the Dene believe that the 'soft spot' babies are born with on their heads is a door to God--once that door shuts, we have a harder time communicating with God. One way in which the Dene facilitate prayer and communication with God is through fasting. Paulette himself practices an austere fast once a year--four days and four nights with no food or water--in order to "remind myself who I am" and be called back into relationship with God.

It is clear that for the Dene, not only relationship to land but also relationship to animals--the buffalo in particular--is extremely important. At one point, he said that the buffalo are the most sacred of four-legged animals, and when a person in the audience asked why, he said, "That is the job the buffalo have been given." In my view, this is a fascinating application of the concept of 'chosenness' to an animal--isn't it provocative to think of God 'choosing' animals for a certain type of existence, as well as humans? As you can imagine, I love this idea!!

Now, watch carefully as I transition seamlessly between two very different presentations. Paulette emphasized that the concept of Diné Chanié governs all aspects of one's life, and that those different aspects are fundamentally in relationship--family life, life among the people, and one's public life in the world. Not only does Paulette live this out by teaching for the college, but he also told us that after the Parliament, he is flying to Copenhagen for the Climate Change conference. One lives out one's spirituality in the world; and one's faith is intimately related to all the other commitments one has--personal, ethical, and political. This leads me to the second presentation I went to, by George Hunsinger, who is professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton, a Presbyterian minister, and the founder of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. He was powerfully affected by the terrible facts and details he recounted in his presentation--so much so that he had to stop and compose himself several times. What was patently clear is that the reason for his emotional reaction was not because he is an academic, not because he is a political activist, but because he is a Christian, a person of faith; and for Hunsinger, torture is a religious issue, an issue of faith that should concern all Christians.

[I want to say as an aside that this really resonates with the book I just finished last night, Enfleshing Freedom, by M. Shawn Copeland. That book is all about the importance of bodies in Christian thought; and she emphasizes how the body is the medium through which an individual realizes his or her essential selfhood in relationship to God and to other "embodied selves." Thus, when bodies are abused--she talks specifically about black bodies--victimized and tortured, those individuals are de-humanized, and their existence as imago Dei is fundamentally compromised.]

The title of Hunsinger's presentation was "Violence Finds Refuge in Falsehood," and he used the ideas of both Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and George Orwell to talk about the awful connection between violence--specifically torture--and deception. Solzhenistsyn is the famous survivor of the terrible Soviet forced-labor camps, which he described and exposed in his writing, particular in The Gulag Archipelago, and a winner of the Nobel prize for literature. From his own experience, he argued that "violence is necessarily interwoven with falsehood;" and "anyone who chooses violence as his method necessarily chooses falsehood as his principle." This resonates with George Orwell's descriptions of "linguistic falsehoods," whereby things are mis-named in order to avoid calling up mental images of them. So, for example, in our time, torture goes by the name of "enhanced interrogation techniques;" and we use the term "taking the offensive against terrorist brutality" to define the practice of rounding up anyone who is deemed 'suspicious,' detaining them in secret prisons, deporting them, threatening their families, etc. This linguistic slight-of-hand is necessary for such horrible violence to occur unchallenged; and, unfortunately, such activities are being condoned and practiced by our own government. Hunsinger was blunt about how he has been disappointed by President Obama, and how he worries that the promised changes in this area that the new administration heralded will not come to pass after all.

Let me be blunt as well. Frankly, the terrible torture practices that he describes so vividly [and if you want to read the particulars of his argument, check out either his Dialog article in the Fall 2008 issue, or his new book, Torture is a Moral Issue] make me question the fundamental demand of obedience made by the US military. This demand seems designed to trump all other loyalties--including loyalty to peace and justice, loyalty to the neighbor, and even loyalty to Christ--as it provides a blanket justification for the most atrocious behavior. Imagine, if you will, that upon arrival at the seminary, the faculty were to demand an oath of obedience of all the students: "You are to believe unquestioningly everything your teachers tell you." Can imagine such a thing? What would it serve, in the end?

The fact is, torture practices are not only morally unjustifiable, they are ineffective [they "pollute the interrogation stream"], they evidence a dark psychological side of human nature that is demonic, and torture "always comes home"--that is, it damages the torturers just as much as it damages the tortured: both are irreparably mentally and emotionally effected. Hunsinger concluded his presentation with some words from Albert Camus, from the interview he did at a Dominican monastery in 1948. He said, "What the world expects from Christians is that they should speak out loud and clear….to confront the bloodstained face that history has taken on today." This is Hunsinger's message as well. We may not succeed, but we should do it anyway, and we shouldn't despair.

As you might imagine, after that, I needed something entirely different. So, I went to two very fun presentations in the afternoon. The first was a Hindu dance presentation--the "Bharat Natyam," which is an ancient dance form from South India that is performed for the divine. Two Moscow ballerinas performed it for us, and it was magical--gorgeous and exuberant.
I ended Day Two with John Myers' presentation on "Learn Arabic Letters in 90 Minutes." It was fun and funny, and was grounded in the idea that "humans fear that which they do not understand." Thus, learning another's language--even on the most basic level--is an act of interreligious understanding that promotes respect for another's culture, reduces hostility, and fosters dialogue. Obviously, I didn't learn it all in 90 minutes, but I have to say that his system [which he teaches in a series of three workbooks, taking three weeks to go through] is pretty compelling.
Now I'm beating the sun to bed!
Evening blessings.

Kristin Johnston Largen

From Geneva: A Focus on Diakonia

2009-12-04T14:19:00.002-05:00

From Geneva’s Short Course in Ecumenism
(sent digitally by the Rev. Dr. Maria Erling)

Today our discussion was all about Diakonia, and how essential it is as a dimension of the church, locally and globally. There is a new text approved by the LWF church council that will be published soon. For a pre published version of it, ask Bree Tomlinson, or Mark Oldenburg. I shared an earlier PDF of the document with them, and I think it is okay now for them to share their pirated copies more widely. And I think our diaconal ministers, and really everyone will like the text.

Tomorrow we head for Cluny, and then to Taize. I am interested in what kinds of Advent signs I will see. So far the weather and views in Geneva have been remarkably like Gettysburg, except of course, for the mountain mists, and glorious views of snowy slopes, and all the peaceful Swiss Cows. No cannons here, but there are traces of violence in the past.

Tomorrow in Switzerland there is an anniversary of an event in 1602, the escalade, when a woman poured soup on some attackers. This glorious episode is commemorated in soup tureen shaped chocolates.

Hey! who said that food was peaceful??

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend feasting for St. Nicholas,

Maria Erling

(People are learning slowly to pronounce my name.)

John Hick, Under My Skin

2009-12-04T12:02:00.002-05:00

I awoke with a start at 3:48 this morning, thinking about Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, and a host of other Eastern Religions that don't have "God" at their center--regardless of how much I or John Hick would like to generalize 'God' as the name of the Divine, the Eternal One, or the Other. Clearly, my distinctions are Western Christian ones, too [which still allow me to disavow a "religious" categorization for Scientology, I feel….], that simply don't work when applied globally as a template. And yet, I don't want to give up the distinctions entirely….

The other complicating aspect of distinguishing between a religion, a philosophy, and a psychology is how it does and does not take into account the interplay between beliefs and actions--one's religious 'life in the world' is a key component in all this, too, right? Furthermore, the role of one's larger community should be considered here, too: is there some way in which religions are inherently communal, the way a philosophy and a psychology are not?

More food for thought; now, onward and upward [as my mother says!] to new and different things today.

Kristin Johnston Largen

Thoughts from Down Under on Religions and Faith

2009-12-04T03:06:00.002-05:00

G'day mates! [OK, no one has actually said that to me yet, but it's only Day 1: I remain hopeful....]. I made it to Melbourne safely, and what a beautiful day it has been! I won't venture to guess what the weather is like in Gettysburg, but please keep the weeping to a minimum when I tell you that it has been around 70 degrees and sunny all day--oh, and at 6:30, the sun has just barely begun to set. I can't wait to see how early dawn comes tomorrow! After 25+ hours on the plane, and in desparate need of some sleep, my day is ending early, but I did want to share just a few reflections from my afternoon.

First, just walking around the Exhibition Hall, I was reminded of Ernst Troeltsch's distinctions between a religion [more of an organized, inclusive institution], a sect [more of a voluntary association with high personal standards from its members], and mysticism [more individual and spiritual], distinctions which were, of course, heavily shaped by his European Christian bias. As I passed booths for The Gnostic Movement, Scientology, and half a dozen others I had never heard of, I thought about my own bias in how I distinguish, for example, between a religion [God-centric], a philosophy [universe-centric], and a psychology [self-centric]--recognizing, of course, that all reality is always "cosmotheandric," to borrow a neologism from Raimon Panikkar. In my view, Scientology, for example, is a self-help psychology, regardless of what it calls itself, but I'm sure my distinctions are equally problematic.

The second observation I want to make concerns indigenous religions. One of my goals during my time here is to be particularly attentive to the presentations that concern indigenous religions,which are, in some sense, the polar opposite of Christianity, as they are closely tied to both place and space, and are thus neither easily transportable nor translatable; this makes them very fragile. One of the two performances I heard this afternoon was by Kevin Locke, a member of the Lakota tribe and a master of the Northern Plains flute. In bewteen songs, he talked about the languages of the many different tribes in North America, and how almost daily Native langauges are dying, as the elders--the only ones who can still speak them--are dying. Knowing how much language itself shapes reality [thinking of Wittgenstein here, particularly] I tend to think that with the death of each language comes the death of a particular world view--a particular way of seeing God, and interpreting God's relationship with the cosmos. That is a loss to all religious people, not just one particular religious community.

This need to recognize and respect the special particularity of indigenous religions, then, made the second performance I heard all the more puzzling: it was Lavalla Catholic College Liturgical Choir singing Taize chants that they have translated into the language of the indigenous Gunai Kurnai people. Frankly, I wasn't sure what to make of it. It was beautiful, of course, but since there was no introduction or explanation beforehand to put the performance in context, it was hard to know what the relationship was between the Gunai Kurnai & the Catholic choir, and what the songs meant to the people themselves. Who were they for, and what were they for? It pushed me to think about why we faciliate such interreligious cross-cultural experiences, and what we hope to gain from them. What sort of guiding principles ought to shape our actions in those situations? It's not always clear to me.

Finally, I ended the day with a screening of one of the most powerful movies I have seen in a very long time--"Praying with Lior." It is a documentary about Lior Lebling, a thirteen year old Jewish boy with Down's Syndrome who is getting ready for his Bar Mitzvah. It is perfectly clear that Lior cannot with any depth or consistency articulate anything beyond the most basic truths of his religion--and sometimes, he can't even come up with those. But it is at the same time equally clear that when he prays [Davening], he is both experiencing himself and conveying with others a deep, passionate connection to God; so much so that at the end of the movie, when he has has Bar Mitzvah, as the camera scans the room practically the entire assembly is weeping--and I can assure you that more than one person was blowing her nose in our room here, too! It recalled to mind some of the issues we have been struggling with in the Confessions course around the concept of faith--how much of faith is based on our assent and/or our understanding, and how much of faith is solely God's work. Watching Lior pray, I would have to say that faith is the experience of God doing something, and our rejoicing in it. If you can find it, rent the movie!!

One more thing--as I left the Parliament to head back to my hotel, I passed a few protestors outside the building [By the way, who protests an event with a theme of "Make a World of Difference: Hearing each Other, Healing the Earth"?!] with signs like, "Think--Don't Believe!" My personal favorite, however, was the guy wearing the sandwich board that read, "You think your religion is true? PROVE IT! $10,000 Reward." We'll see if that crowd grows over time.

A good evening to you all.

Kristin Johnston Largen

Post Card from Geneva

2009-12-02T16:58:00.003-05:00

2^nd Guest Blogger for the week
From the Rev. Dr. Maria Erling, who is co-teaching a special 9 day course (December 1-9, 2009) on Ecumenism in Geneva, Switzerland. Erling is the Seminary’s Associate Professor of Modern Church History and Global Mission.

Erling writes:
I've been in Geneva all of 24 hours and hit all the hot spots - the Ecumenical Center, the Reformation Museum, and... The Archives! I've already found traces of our own A R Wentz in the Michelfelder files. “A.R.” lives once again!

The weather has been very nice, too, and there are mountains here, just as the postcards promise. Snow on Mont Blanc is nice. There were protests today in the downtown section of the city as groups were conducting a tour of offending global warming corporations present in Geneva. It reminded me of a tour my husband John and I took of the Jewish settlements around Jerusalem last June. Young people are organizing around this global issue more actively than we see in the US.

The group that I am working with this time is mostly composed of assistants to the bishop, and regional coordinators, who are here to learn to know the work of the LWF and WCC more closely. Staff from Geneva include Kathryn Johnson, who is the assistant for ecumenical work to the General Secretary, Ishmael Noko, and Tita Valeriano, who is the North American regional representative of the LWF. Her office is shared between the ELCA and the ELCIC. There are two leaders from Canada, David Pfrimmer and Paul Johnson, and 3 other participants also from Canada. The ELCA leaders are Lanny Westphal, Michael Trice, and me, and the participants hail from California, Washington, Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware, Alaska, Oregon, North Carolina, Iowa and Texas. What I've noticed about our discussions so far is that the experience with companion synods and with immigrant church groups in the US - and leadership needs associated with this outreach - is commanding more attention from synods. I'm also realizing that for most of our congregations, the work of the synod represents the wider church - there is virtually no distinguishing among national, international, ecumenical for most members of congregations. This presents a challenge for synod leadership, because they have to interpret so many different types of relationships.

Tomorrow we go to the Bossey Ecumenical Institute, where I will no doubt find more small stones with little white lines.

What is the Parliament of the World's Religions?

2009-12-01T19:49:00.001-05:00

^{For those who will be following my postings as I travel to the Parliament, I thought it would be helpful to provide some orienting background to the event.}

^{The Parliament of the World's Religions has its origins in what was called the "The World's Congress of Religions," held in 1893, in Chicago, Illinois. It is considered to be the first official meeting between representatives from Western and Eastern religious traditions, and, according to the website for the Parliament [www.parliamentofreligions.org], it represented the "birth of formal interreligious dialogue worldwide."}

^{In 1988, a group of religious leaders, led by two monks from the Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago, came together to organize a centennial celebration of that 1893 event. At that time a Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions was formed as a non-profit organization for "extending the spirit and legacy of that event through subsequent Parliaments of the World's Religions." The Council continues its work both in Chicago and globally, cultivating harmony among religions, honoring differences and working together for peace and justice around the world.}

^{In 1993, then, the first Parliament of the World's Religions was held in Chicago, with over 8,000 participants from all over the world. There, various religious leaders endorsed a document titled, "Declaration Toward a Global Ethic," which condemned poverty, hunger, economic disparities, and abuse of the earth's resources. The document affirmed that the basis for a global ethic to which all could subscribe existed in a common set of core values found in the world's religions. It called on all peoplereligious or notto subscribe to this global ethic and work together to create a more just and peaceful social order, to commit oneself "to this global ethic, to understanding one another, and to socially beneficial, peace-fostering, and nature-friendly ways of life." Subsequently, Parliaments were held in Cape Town, South Africa in 1999, and in Barcelona, Spain in 2004.}

^{Participants in these Parliaments were able to attend worship services, paper presentations, meditation sessions, performances, workshops, and large plenary presentations by such speakers as His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. The idea was not just to listen and learn, but to participate and grow in one's understand and appreciation of the religious otherand perhaps even to learn something new about one's own tradition. In this vein, at the gathering in Barcelona the stated goals were "to deepen our spirituality and experience personal transformation; recognize the humanity of all and broaden our sense of community; foster mutual understanding and respect; learn to live in harmony in the midst of diversity; seek peace, justice and sustainability; and actively work for a better world." These goals continue to inspire Parliament participants today.}

^{In Melbourne, similar learning opportunities will be available, including such diverse offerings as a presentation on Celtic Mysticism, Preksha meditation led by two Jain nuns, a Shinto ritual, a session in the art of Qur'an recitation, a film on the History of the Inupiat, and a panel discussion on the Divine Feminineand that is all on Saturday morning! Clearly, the hardest part is going to be choosing where to spend my time. [Does anyone know where I can get my hands on a Hermione-esqueTime-turner?!]}

^{Kristin Johnston Largen}

Guest Blogger-- Dec. 2-9, 2009

2009-11-30T10:20:00.001-05:00

Our guest blogger for the next week is the Rev. Dr. Kristin Johnston Largen, Gettysburg Seminary's Associate Professor of Systematic Theology. She will be blogging during her time at the Parliament of the World's Religions, December date through date. Watch for her posts!

On Marina Grace and God's Time

2009-11-25T16:34:00.001-05:00

From the Gettysburg Seminary President's Office
by Michael L. Cooper-White

Over the years I have made several promises, to avoid patterns and behaviors found annoying in others when repeated to excess. I will seek to avoid waxing eloquent about the “good old days,” in which, of course, I played a major leading role. I will confine to a bare minimum any comments on the state of my health, especially should some dire disease or perilous condition befall me. I won’t even ask friends and associates if they want to see pictures, slides (do these even exist anymore?) or videos of my most recent travel adventures. And, I will avoid excessive bragging about the accomplishments and attributes of my children and grandchildren.

Now I must confess that keeping the latter self-pledge is the most challenging in this moment when our family has just welcomed the birth of Marina Grace Ramirez Cooper to parents Melissa and Aaron, the Chicago contingent of the Cooper-White clan. She is, quite simply, one of the finest little ones God ever created! My recent Chicago trip for the ELCA Church Council meeting afforded me the opportunity to meet and hold this wonderful new baby. As so many other grandparents have testified, it’s a unique and awesome experience embracing a newborn child of one’s children.

In Marina’s name itself—meaning “of the sea—is a reminder of the ever-flowing tides of life, its cycles and seasons. The great Isaac Watts hymn, “Oh God, our Help in Ages Past,” reminds us that time is indeed “an ever-rolling stream,” which far too quickly “bears us all away.” And yet, in every moment of never-ceasing and fast-escaping chronological time, there is the possibility that God’s kairos-time might just break in.

Included in a Bible study I was asked to lead for the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was a reminder of this twofold nature of time reflected in the distinct words employed by writers of the New Testament—“chronos” and “kairos.” Chronos—clock time, marches onward and indeed bears us all away. But kairos—often translated as “God’s time” or the “fullness of time”—connects this world with the eternal and unending, with a time-beyond-time where clocks either grind to a halt or are completely irrelevant.

“What time is it?” I invited members of the Church Council, churchwide executives and other advisers to ponder. Amidst their prolonged discussions of budget shortfalls and reactive anxiety abroad in the church as a result of ELCA decisions to allow for the ordination of gay and lesbian baptized brothers and sisters in publicly accountable, monogamous lifelong relationships, council members and others suggested the times are turbulent, filled with anger, and threats to divide the church in some quarters. Others commented that it’s also a time for new opportunities to expand our church’s mission and faithfulness.

Holding the precious gift-bundle of flesh and spirit Marina’s parents and God have bestowed upon us all, my own answers to the question point in the following directions: It’s time to get on with building and being a better, more welcoming church than we have been heretofore. It’s time to get more serious about a “green tomorrow” and steps both large and small, which give hope that a hospitable planet will endure for our children, grandchildren and generations thereafter. It’s time for forward-mission-movement despite the economic challenge of scarcer resources. More than ever, it’s time to be both faithful and fervent in fielding theological education that equips current and future church leaders not to just endure but embrace all the challenges that lie ahead as denominations may reconfigure, congregations find new forms, and the “profession” of ministry grows in directions we can only begin to imagine.

And for now, it’s time for me to carry around the little folio with this granddad’s collection of Marina photos . . . I’ll only show them when asked, and I promise they won’t bore you!

On Crashing Planes and Faithful Preaching

2009-11-23T13:44:00.001-05:00

On Crashing Planes and Faithful Preaching
From the Gettysburg Seminary President's Office

by Michael L. Cooper-White

In this venue and elsewhere, I’ve confessed to a fairly typical troubled relationship with “history” during my grammar, high school and college student days. Memorizing dates, learning about past events that didn’t hold much interest, and looking backward in general just didn’t much “grab me” as a schoolboy. Also shared before has been my growing interest in history as I’ve come to appreciate not only bygone events, but their interpretation and how the past holds meaning for the present and offers guidance for the future.

Rarely do I use this P.O. musing space for book reviews per se, but a historical autobiography of sorts that I’ve been reading of late seems to merit the occasional exception. In “Down Around Midnight,” (Viking Press, 2009) author Robert Sabbag reveals his personal journey into a painful past moment 30 years ago when he was among the survivors of a commuter plane crash short of the runway at Barnstable Municipal Airport on Cape Cod. Sabbag explains how he recovered quickly from the traumatic event and went on his merry way for over a quarter century, having no contact with others aboard that ill-fated aircraft flown into the trees on a foggy night by an overstressed pilot who had already made 14 previous landings during a long summer day in 1979. As Sabbag systematically contacted and interviewed other survivors, his understandings of the horrific landing and its aftermath changed dramatically. Things he had never understood—including his own actions and shock-shrouded conversations—began to fall into place.

Toward the end of the book, survivor Sabbag reflects on returning to the Cape Cod crash site, where new meanings were derived from his courageous delving deeply into long-past events most of us would fear to dredge up again. And he observes our ambivalence about the past, especially sad and tragic occurrences: “Here we lay twenty-eight years ago . . . I remember little of how the time passed. And the things I remember are among those things I continually have to remind myself to forget. Quite a thing, as someone said, for a summer evening on the Cape.” (p. 211)

Beyond my interest in all things aviation-related, including sad tales of planes, pilots and their passengers who never make it to the gate at an intended destination, I think the reason “Down Around Midnight” so captured my attention lies in what it may have to teach about the nature of “history,” including the “history of salvation” recorded in Holy Scripture. As I read Robert Sabbag’s autobiographical account of his quest to grasp new meanings from a long-ago traumatic scene, I couldn’t help thinking of the New Testament authors who sought to “write an account” decades after the death and resurrection of our Lord. Unlike Sabbag, the gospel-writers apparently had little if any opportunity to engage in dialogue with eye-witnesses or those who experienced Jesus’ life and ministry face-to-face. And even if some such eye-witnesses were in fact still around, like Sabbag’s fellow travelers, they were groping to recall details of both joyful events and traumatic incidents that occurred decades before.

Pondering the nature of the biblical historians’ work gives me all the more admiration for the Scripture authors’ courageous efforts to preserve for all time the events and words by which the Word—Jesus—is preserved and propelled forward. My anxiety about the task of faithful proclamation (including preaching) was also ratcheted up considerably in pondering just how awesome a thing it is to engage ancient texts, seeking to discern not only what they meant “there back then” but what they mean “here and now.” My comfort comes in being surrounded by a host of others—including colleagues here on the Seminary campus—committed to the historical search for “what really happened” and the hermeneutical task of “making meaning” for our hearers and for ourselves.

No Mere Dialogue

2009-11-23T13:16:00.001-05:00

THEOLOGIAN PUBLISHES INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN ORIENTATION TOWARD WORLD RELIGIONS
No Mere Dialogue: Engaging World Religions by Lawrence Folkemer

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Folkemer, a Systematic Theologian, traces his quest into the realm of world religions guided by classic Christian sources and theologians who were foundational figures as Christians began to encounter interreligious dialogue. The study first treats the theme Proclamation and Dialogue in ten theses underlining the communication of the Gospel and the significance of interreligious dialogue. Second, he examines selected biblical passages as the ground for understanding the theme of Christian proclamation and religious dialogue. Third, he treats some of the Christian theologians in the patristic period of Christianity who in their theological formulations dealt with Greek and Roman philosophy and religious thought. Finally, Folkemer discusses four major issues in interreligious encounter, namely, God and the world, textual sources, incarnation and Christology, and salvation.

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(Gettysburg, Penna.) Dr. Lawrence Folkemer, Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg published a new book designed to help Christians understand and engage Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism. Entitled No Mere Dialogue: Engaging World Religions, the treatise serves as a general introduction to world religions and the religious pluralism of the modern world.

The book, published by Thomas Publications, goes on sale on Wednesday, October 28th at the Lutheran Theological Seminary Bookstore on Seminary Ridge in Gettysburg, PA for $15.

The book offers a Christian point of view by a Christian Theologian who for many years had engaged in the study of world religions and taught the subject in universities and theological seminaries in the Unites States and India. In addition to his teaching at the Gettysburg Seminary, Folkemer taught at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., the University of Madras and United Theological College in Bangalore, India. Folkemer traces his quest into the realm of world religions guided by classic Christian sources and theologians who were foundational figures as Christians began to encounter interreligious dialogue.

The study first treats the theme Proclamation and Dialogue in ten theses underlining the communication of the Gospel and the significance of interreligious dialogue. Second, he examines selected biblical passages as the ground for understanding the theme of Christian proclamation and religious dialogue. Third, he treats some of the Christian theologians in the patristic period of Christianity who in their theological formulations dealt with Greek and Roman philosophy and religious thought. Finally, Folkemer discusses four major issues in interreligious encounter, namely, God and the world, textual sources, incarnation and Christology, and salvation.

Folkemer, 93, is a graduate of Gettysburg College and Gettysburg Seminary and completed his PhD degree at Hartford Theological Seminary in 1946. As a pastor and theologian, he founded the Religion Department at George Washington University, Washington, DC (1947-1954) and served as senior pastor of Reformation Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC before teaching at the Seminary (1960-1985). He was also a founder of the Washington Theological Consortium and first director of Gettysburg Seminary’s Lutheran House of Studies in the nation’s capital. He retired in 1985.

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Contact the Seminary Bookstore: 717.338.3005 to order

Advent is Coming -- So is Festival Choral Vespers

2009-11-23T13:12:00.001-05:00

FESTIVAL CHORAL VESPERS FOR ADVENT TO LIGHT UP THE DARKNESS NOVEMBER 29
Music includes Bach, Schütz, Eccard and more

Music, Gettysburg’s! Schola Cantorum will begin the season of Advent and light up the winter darkness with a festive choral setting for vespers on Sunday, November 29, 2009 at 7:30pm. in the chapel of the Lutheran Theological Seminary. The one hour festival choral setting for evening prayer is free and open to the public.

The Schola Cantorum of Gettysburg, under the direction of Stephen P. Folkemer, will augment the evening prayer liturgy with Bach cantatas for Advent, Wake Awake! (Wachet Auf) and Come Now, Savior of the Nations (Nun Komm, Der Heiden Heiland) and the lovely early choral setting of the “Magnificat” by Heinrich Schütz, musically set psalms, and hymns.

The full list of music to be performed during the hour long vespers includes Johanne Eccard’s German song “Over the Hills, Young Mary Hastes,” a traditional Advent hymn Fling Wide the Door newly arranged by Stephen Folkemer, a medieval setting of Psalm 146 newly arranged by Andrew Rosenfeld, and more.

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Mark Calendars now for “O Little Town: An American Christmas”
Music, Gettysburg!’s Christmas Offering, December 20^th at 7pm.

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Sent by John Spangler

On Heresy and Humility

2009-10-01T11:17:00.003-04:00

From the Gettysburg PO
By Michael L. Cooper-White, President
Mcooper@ltsg.edu http://www.ltsg.edu/

When teaching about conflict, I advise folks to expect some rhetorical excesses when individuals or communities are anxious and engaged in a heavy duty struggle. So while it’s no surprise that some things appearing in speeches and print following the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly are “over the top,” I would feel remiss without challenging one of the most blatant—the accusation that by its decisions in adopting a social statement on human sexuality and changing ministry policies the Evangelical Lutheran Church has “fallen into heresy.”

The English word heresy is derived from Greek roots and meant originally “able to choose.” Those regarded as heretics made the wrong choice, departing from right belief or orthodoxy. ”Heresy” is appropriately invoked only in matters of doctrine, therefore, with regard to what stands at the heart and center of the faith. In one way or another, the various heresies denounced in the Lutheran confessions and elsewhere all orbit around the two great doctrinal foci of creation and redemption. Heresies like Arianism or gnosticism fall short of a fulsome Christology, thereby shortchanging the cosmos-transforming redemptive impact of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The belief system of apartheid, racial separation and repression enforced in South Africa, was a 20^th century heretical posture denounced by the Lutheran World Federation precisely because it denied the full humanity of persons of color and mocked the Creator Yahweh who made all people of all races in the divine image.

For more than a quarter century, during which I have studied and discussed broadly the biblical, theological and pastoral dimensions of human sexuality, I simply have not found a convincing argument that sexuality is at the heart of the Gospel message. How can Lutherans, who cling fiercely to justification by grace through faith, say that one’s convictions about matters of sexuality define correct belief? I do understand that some creation theologies, which point to divinely instituted “orders of creation,” find any form of homosexual behavior “against nature.” But the Bible also points to a number of other practices—like men wearing long hair!—as being against the natural order. For me, the most compelling biblical perspective on the proper “place” of sexuality is Jesus’ response when asked by the Sadducees about the eternal status of the woman married sequentially to seven husbands: “In heaven there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage.” Sexual expression is a penultimate matter, which therefore falls into the realm of ethics and “right living,” not doctrine or “true belief.”

Calling another person’s or group’s convictions heresy should be done rarely if ever, and only with a great deal of fear and trembling. In 1 Corinthians 4, St. Paul says that faithfulness is finally judged only by the Lord. When it comes to whether or not one is a trustworthy steward of the mysteries of God, says Paul, “I do not even judge myself.” To say one believes the church may have erred in its judgment regarding important ethical matters is one thing; but to escalate conflict by branding those with whom one disagrees as having fallen into heresy is inflammatory, divisive and not in keeping with St. Paul’s exhortation to a spirit of humility.

For all his blustery confrontations with a whole host of theological opponents over the course of his life and ministry, in the end Martin Luther seemed to grasp Paul’s wisdom: “We are all beggars; this is true,” were the last words enscribed by his prolific pen shortly before he died. Beggars we are—in search of the Bread of Life, which will not be grasped by getting it all right in all matters of ethics and right practice, but only by clinging to a blood-stained cross and straining to hear the promise whispered forth from a tomb, “He is Risen!”

A Statement on Gettysburg Seminary’s Ongoing Service to the Church

2009-09-17T12:09:00.000-04:00

Representing the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, the Rev. Michael L. Cooper-White, 12th President, and the Rev. Glenn Ludwig, chair of the Board of Directors, issued the following statement following the August 2009 churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:

September 14, 2009 (Gettysburg, Penna.) As it has for nearly two centuries, Gettysburg Seminary continues preparing faithful Christians who will serve the Church as pastors and other leaders. The Seminary is centered around the Word of God, grounding students in the Holy Scriptures, and enabling them to be faithful proclaimers of the gospel. Together with persons of varying perspectives in the ongoing discussions regarding human sexuality, we rely upon the Bible as the “inspired Word of God” and “the source and norm for proclamation, faith and life,” as our approach to Scripture is described in the constitution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

As a Seminary of the ELCA, we are guided by its policies and teaching stances. At the same time, as a school solidly grounded in the Lutheran tradition, which while “catholic” is also “reforming,” we value academic freedom and uphold the right of all—students, faculty, staff and our many partners—to express their views regarding official church policies and social statements. This seminary has always been a place where informed discussions of vital issues can take place, and where differences of opinion can be expressed, valued and embraced.

Amidst a variety of responses and reactions to recent decisions by the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA, the Seminary is committed to offering the many resources developed by faculty, guest lecturers and others who have addressed matters related to human sexuality over the past several years. We are providing seminarians with multiple opportunities to discuss ELCA decisions and how those decisions might affect their future ministries.

We seek to honor and live out among us the call issued from Minneapolis to work and serve together in mutual respect, honoring conscience-bound convictions that result from differing interpretations of Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions and Christian tradition.

We recognize the Church, and our Seminary, have moved through many periods of conflict and controversy over a host of issues down through the decades. And we are confident that just as God has brought us “thus far by faith,” so God’s guiding hand will enable this “school for the prophets” to continue fulfilling our mission now in the 21st century.

A Christian Positioning System: Navigating by Faith and Reason

2009-05-18T16:41:00.002-04:00

From the Gettysburg PO
by Michael L. Cooper-White, Seminary President
mcooper@ltsg.edu www.Ltsg.edu

A greenback I’ve saved for several years now was defaced by some prior possessor, who crossed out “God” on the dollar bill’s backside and wrote in “reason.” “In reason we trust,” was this anonymous (and perhaps agnostic or atheist?) spender’s creed.

Theological debates over the appropriate boundaries of faith and reason date back centuries, and are associated with the names of some of the great thinkers of earlier times. Often the debates are cast in either/or dichotomies. One either trusts reason, scientific facts and the laws of physics OR one places faith in a Divine power and doesn’t worry much about the reasonableness of conclusions reached. These debates have not lessened in intensity across the centuries.

Today’s contentious struggles over the teaching of evolution vs. “creationism” or “intelligent design,” for example, continue unabated. Often the polarized parties talk past one another and do not really enter into deep dialogue that just might alter perspectives all around.
Lest we raise our eyebrows over “those other folks” engaged in tension-filled faith/reason discussions and even diatribes, it must be acknowledged we “mainliners” have our own squabbles, which often degenerate rapidly into name-calling and other unchristian behaviors. As the ELCA prepares for important decisions related to human sexuality and ethical conduct—first in synod assemblies and then at the Minneapolis Churchwide Assembly in August—one hears and reads a variety of statements. Sadly, some assert that those who come to different conclusions are not just wrong, but unchristianly wrong in their convictions. Some are convinced that the Bible is unequivocal about how we must steward our sexuality; others see ambiguities and conflicting scriptural “vectors” that point one in various directions, with considerable need for reasoned communal discernment.

Surely, people of faith must heed Jesus’ mandate that we not be conformed to commonplace convictions that appear entirely reasonable. Clinging to faith convictions, perhaps especially in times like the present, is not altogether reasonable. The resurrection of a crucified dead man cannot be proven by the regular rules of science, which among other things demand repeatability and external verification. Regardless of one’s conclusions on the timing of the original creation (whether in six 24-hour days as we know them or through prolonged eons of prehistoric periods), is it reasonable to cling to promises of a New Creation that God holds in store at the end of time as we measure it now?

Luther and other theologians have suggested (wisely in my judgment) that the faith-reason dialectic is just that—a pulsating rhythm back and forth on a spectrum whose opposite ends may not be all that far apart. If a good God created the universe, as we confess in our creeds, would such a loving Creator stack the deck in unreasonable and indecipherable ways so as to cause us human ones to always be in a state of confused chaos? On the other hand, wouldn’t the one who surprised the whole creation on Easter morn not be holding some cards yet to play that we cannot begin to imagine and must anticipate in faith?

To determine a precise location and reliably chart a course toward an intended destination, Global Positioning systems must locate and receive signals from at least 3 different satellites orbiting high in outer space. The great “catholic” tradition claims that revelation comes to us through the Scripture (Word of God) as we embrace the Bible and broad Christian tradition with reason in communal discernment. By means of receiving and reading signals sent to us from the Bible, backed up by the wisdom of the ages and our best reasoning, however stormy the current environment, we can navigate our way toward a faithful future.

While I will be attending several Region 8 synod assemblies, I’m eager to hear reports from others far and near on what transpires, and how you find the “state of the church” in your corner. Would you send along some brief reflections?

Response to Reed's "The Difference"

2009-02-16T09:23:00.001-05:00

An alumnus, Jim Brandis, writes:

Kathleen, I appreciated your comments in the Alma Mater News. I was a bit surprised that you recalled one Dr. Ridenhour’s bold expressions. I graduated a few years before you but I was part of the same era. I am a ’75 graduate. As for an incident, I remember visiting with Dr. Bengt Hoffman. I was already in the parish and was in a difficult situation at the time. I visited with Dr. Hoffman, looking for some wise, fatherly guidance and support. We were in his office. It was in the summer. At the close of the visit, Dr. Hoffman offered prayer. There was something about his prayer that was unlike other experiences I have had.

Through his simple words and his humble presence I felt as if Dr. Hoffman had just invited the Holy One to be with us. There was a sense in which Dr.Hoffman, like Moses, was speaking with God face to face. Dr. Hoffman ended the prayer as simply as he began it, but something unusual happened in that brief moment. A few years ago, I filled out a student recommendation form. One of the questions on the form was, “Is this person intellectually curious?” I thought to myself, “This is a wonderful question.” This is a rare quality to be found in individuals, even among those who commit themselves to the academic rigors of seminary. So many, it seems, stop learning as soon as they graduate from seminary.

I think the seminary experience is designed to create an atmosphere for the discipline of study of a wide variety of topics related to ministry, but also to invite people into the process of being perpetual students whose curiosity never ends. How our American culture today has squelched the love of learning and the intellectual disciplines. After completing the M.Div. degree I went on to complete an S.T.M. at LTSG, completed clinical training and became board certified as a chaplain. I also appreciate the seminary’s integration of spiritual formation into the curriculum. That is so important for the task and process of ministry. That is what Dr. Bengt Hoffman embodied in his teaching and in his personal life. I must say that after 30+ years of ministry, I find myself saying, “Now I understand what my professors were trying to teach me!”

Gratefully yours, Pastor Jim Brandis

The Difference An Hour Makes

2009-02-16T09:11:00.004-05:00

Reprinted from ALMA MATER NEWS
by Kathleen Reed ('80)

The Difference An Hour Makes It was the first month of my first semester 32 years ago. I can still hear the tremolo in a classmate’s voice as he said to the professor, "Dr. Ridenhour, I have to admit that I have some days when I am not sure that I believe in the Resurrection." To which Dr. Ridenhour responded: "You’ve had days? I’ve had weeks! I’ve had months! I’ve had years!"
I don’t recall how the classmate took that comeback, but for me its implicit permission to risk raising fundamental questions in matters of faith without fear of being silenced or condemned was a revelation.

To this day, whenever I enter a room as a teacher, I strive to extend to others the same hospitality of authentic inquiry that Dr. Ridenhour extended in that hour to all of us. My list of the memorable seminary hours which continue to shape my ministry is pretty long. I won’t bore you. Instead, I invite you to start making your own list. Whether you graduated recently or 60 years ago, it is possible to see how the number of lives touched by one such hour grows exponentially, according to a kind of "loaves and fishes" math.

As these memories occur to you, consider sharing them! Send me a note, an e-mail, or pick up the phone, and we will print them here for appreciation and thanksgiving.

Kathleen Reed, Director of Advancement: kreed@Ltsg.edu.

ON VALENTINES AND CHURCHLY MATCH-MAKING

2009-02-16T08:52:00.002-05:00

by President Michael L. Cooper-White

Little cellophane-wrapped boxes of valentines in the late 1950’s came in standard lots. Each contained 20 or so small roughly 3-inch square cards printed with an endearing message on one side, leaving room on the other for one to sign before inserting in the envelope and addressing to a classmate. In our grade school classrooms, “mailboxes” created by covering common shoeboxes with colorful paper awaited the delivery of valentines from all the classmates. Each box of valentines also included a couple of special cards. One was for the teacher, which required no deliberation, unless one was on the outs with her (few men taught elementary school in those days in our parts) and contemplated tossing the teacher’s greeting in the trash. But the other was an oversized card quadruple in size to all the rest. Therein lay the delicate decision. Upon whom should I bestow the special valentine? And will s/he reciprocate or leave me embarrassed by bestowing hers/his on someone else? Ah, the anguish of childhood infatuations or lack thereof . . .

Well, it’s the annual season of multiple “match-making” processes that I’ve discovered spreads an unusual level of anxiety here on campus and around the church. First-year students await their selection for Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) summer assignments in hospitals, nursing homes and other settings. Our “middlers” or second-year theologs are about to plunge into the internship matching workshop. This brings to campus several dozen pastors and lay leaders from congregations that will serve to mentor future pastors during a crucial portion of their ministerial formation. And our ELCA seniors, of course, now await assignment to regions, synods and ultimately call by a congregation, while our ecumenical students likewise may be wondering where they will serve post-graduation.

By and large, the church and our seminary seem to do fairly well in these important match-making processes. When I served as the ELCA’s director of synodical relations, the churchwide unit then responsible for the first call assignments, a survey revealed 90% of the newly rostered leaders had landed in a setting of their preference, albeit seldom the “ideal call” (there really are none!). Likewise, the vast majority of internships proceed rather seamlessly to mutually satisfying conclusions. While an intense growth-producing CPE is seldom without some measure of challenge, again most students return to campus in the fall saying something like, “If I had it to over again, I’d choose the same place.”

There are, of course, both modest and glaring exceptions. Sometimes a candidate, bishop, call committee or others involved in churchly match-making processes “read” one another wrong, and favorable first impressions give way to the reality that this is not a match made in heaven. If important information is withheld in a process of mutual discernment, disillusionment can set in quickly after a ministry or learning covenant is actually set in motion. And for some there’s the inevitable disappointment of “unrequited love” akin to that experienced back in grade school when the beneficiary of a scholar’s big valentine failed to reciprocate. A half-dozen classmates may desire the same internship. Congregations perceived as “plum calls” (I’ve discovered there really are none of those either—every place has its challenges and problems) are sought by dozens of rostered leaders whose annual reports to their bishops indicate “open to a new call.” In a bishop’s election or other “selective/competitive” process, many well-qualified candidates make themselves available, and only one finally can be chosen.

How one responds amidst all this flurry of ecclesiastical and academic match-making may depend on the operative theology of call or vocation. If you believe that there are perfect matches made in heaven, then the failure to land a place of preference may cause a theological and even existential crisis. Personally, I’ve always thought God has bigger things to deal with most days than my personal preferences or search for a perfect parking place; in most big lots there are a lot of them! Likewise, given a measure of openness and flexibility, in a church with more than 10,000 congregations, a host are places of good and vibrant ministry where one’s gifts may fully flourish and a good time may be had by most on most days. If disappointment comes, one must also allow that in very human selection processes, human errors are made with some regularity. If you feel you would have been a “better match” than the one ultimately chosen for that perceived “perfect” internship or call, you’re probably right. But rather than wallow in bitterness or languish in regret, move on and embrace the place and people who did recognize your gifts and are eager to embrace you. A few decades down the road, you’ll probably not even recall the names of most places and people who caught your fancy in a moment of infatuation. You will remember those who gave you the big valentine and invited, “be among us.”

Signs of Spring in South America

2008-08-18T11:15:00.000-04:00

From the Gettysburg PO

By the Rev. Michael L. Cooper-White, M.Div., D.D.
www.Ltsg.edu Mcooper@ltsg.edu

Here in mid-August, for the third time in the past year, it is my privilege to sojourn for a few days among the saints of Argentinas Iglesia Evangelica Luterana Unida (United Evangelical Lutheran Church). IELU leaders and executives of the ELCA’s Global Mission unit have kindly invited me to serve as consultant or "coach" for an ongoing process of strategic planning and ecclesial restructuring--part of a comprehensive effort to achieve long-term sustainability amidst a challenging context of limited financial and human resources.

With all genuineness, I conclude each session with our Argentine sisters and brothers assuring them that I receive far more from these encounters than I could possibly contribute. Such is the nature of the ELCA’s approach to global mission, encapsulated and summarized succinctly in one unusual word: "accompaniment." We accompany one another on the journey of faith, as Luther put it, "showing one another where to find bread."

South of the equator, where the seasons are reversed from the northland cycle, my "summer sojourn" occurs late winter, on the verge of springtime in Buenos Aires. As I ponder all I have seen and heard over the course of the past 13 months since first coming back to South America (after a hiatus of more than three decades since I interned in Chile), I am struck that "springtime" is an apt metaphor for much that is occurring, both in the churches and wider societies.

Both Chile and Argentina are ahead of the global curve, served by women presidents. Unthinkable in societies dominated by "machismo" just a generation ago, what many thought impossible seems to be working out quite well. This societal embrace of women’s leadership is mirrored in the churches, with Pastor Gloria Rojas the Lutheran bishop in Chile, and women a majority in the lay leadership gathering I co-keynoted here in Argentina with ELCA colleague Raquel Rodriguez, who heads the Latin America work for Global Mission.

Church leadership has shifted in just one generation from being "foreign missionary dominated" to indigenous and contextual. Whereas I served my South American internship in the mid-1970s surrounded by American and German pastors, today the churches leadership is solidly in the hands of South Americans. Yet these are by no means mono-cultural faith communities. The clerical cadres in each country contain the names of pastors from other Latin American nations. And students from all over Latin America, as well as "overseas" study here at Argentinas ISEDET seminary, my base of operation while in Buenos Aires.

Just as they have swirled among us in the ELCA and broader North American scene, so the Spirit-winds of liturgical and evangelical renewal are blowing in the southern hemisphere. In every IELU arena where I have been privileged to observe and interact, I hear and see signs of renewal and a passionate mission-mindedness. The questions raised in the leadership development retreat for congregational presidents and treasurers were exciting ones: "How can our parochial schools develop a greater sense of evangelism and community outreach? What concrete steps can we take to welcome spiritual seekers from our neighborhoods and broader communities? What changes do we need to make in our parish life in order to deconstruct barriers that are keeping non-members from crossing the threshold?

In this one short P.O. piece with a Buenos Aires "postmark," it’s simply not possible to share all I’m seeing, hearing and feeling. Upon my return to the U.S. and LTSG campus, I will seek opportunities to share further my “learnings” from this South American sojourn. Suffice it for now to pass along these few reflections and glimpses into the signs of impending springtime, hoping that as the fall season is upon us in the northland, you too are seeing many signs of ever-greening Gospel!

P.S. When you see me, ask about my encounter with the world’s oldest living Olympic gold medalist, followed in short order by my first tango lesson . . .

A Marriage of Seven Decades

2008-08-15T13:49:00.000-04:00

A Marriage of Seven Decades

From the Gettysburg PO by Michael L. Cooper-White

Gettysburg Seminary President
www.Ltsg.edu

At the end of the service, the pastor offered an addendum to Jesus’ long list of parables in Matthew 13 concerning the nature of the Realm and Reign of God: “The Kingdom of God,” Kirk Anderson declared, “is like a couple married for 70 years!” The couple to whom he referred are my parents, Alice and Bennie Cooper, married in Milbank, South Dakota on July 30, 1938.

A GOOGLE search reveals the nature of the times in that year when Time Magazine concluded Adolf Hitler was “man of the year” who most influenced the world for good or evil. War was on the near horizon. That the Great Depression still lingered was evident both societally, with unemployment at 19%, and personally, with my folks “hiring out” together to a local farmer for $450 per year. Their early decades together were ones of perennial hardship. Their stories still abound with recollections of scarcity, back-breaking farm labor on summers’ most sweltering afternoons and winters’ coldest mornings, and periods of prolonged prairie isolation for a teen-age bride and her young husband.

On occasions like the one we celebrated the last weekend in July, it is only natural to pose questions to and seek wisdom from the actors at center stage. “So tell us the secret to staying married for 70 years.” “What were the hardest times? How about the best?” As the years have gone by since we celebrated Mom’s and Dad’s 50^th two decades ago, I have noticed each has gradually become a person of fewer words. Often the response to our queries these days is only a smile, a nod, or a sigh. “We just kept on loving each other through thick and thin,” is about the essence of their testimony. Perhaps Alice offered the most profound witness at Emmanuel Church when prayer concerns were invited by the assisting minister: “I want to thank God for our 70 years together,” she said simply, then added, “I have thanked God every morning for this man named Bennie.”

Among the cardinal virtues long espoused by Christians and others are the tandem pair of constancy and fidelity—“staying put, hanging in there, keeping on keeping on”—however you wish to define them. They can, of course, be exercised to a fault and exploited to an unhealthy or even dangerous degree. No one should stay in a relationship that has become abusive or death-dealing. Even a vociferously anti-divorce theologian/professor once said to a group of us seminarians about marriage and divorce, “We promise ‘til death do us part and if it’s killing you, you may need to get out.” Perhaps it is because they recognize a long-lasting marriage is more gift than something merited or even earned by fidelity and constancy, my parents have long been among the most understanding and accepting of others whose relationships end painfully.

In this year’s Summer Institute at the Seminary, Roy Oswald reported on the decades-long research he and others of the Alban Institute have conducted surrounding “long-term pastorates.” “We learned of their value for vital, thriving congregations,” would be a succinct summary of a far more complicated conclusion. Rome was not built in a day. Significant pastoral and leader-follower relationships do not deepen to the point of fostering long-term systemic congregational health and vitality in even a few years, the typical duration of a vast majority of pastorates. “Go and plant your feet with a commitment to constancy,” is the advice of the Alban folks, many bishops, and this seminary president who in one fashion or another tries to include that message in almost every annual commencement address.

I am fully and humbly cognizant of the extraordinary gift my brother and I and our large extended family enjoy in the continuing presence among us of Bennie and Alice (now—following our sister’s death a decade ago—known to us alone as Mom and Dad). Given life expectancies in his era, of course Jesus did not include in his laundry list of “like-the-Kingdom” parables one about a couple married for 70 years. But if he knew back then, what Dave and I and a small minority of other children whose parents reach such milestones in marriage know now, I suspect our Lord might have added Pastor Anderson’s example to his declarations about mustard seeds, yeast, pearls, nets and hidden treasures . . .

You Were Really Good!

2007-05-03T09:47:00.000-04:00

From the Gettysburg PO
by Michael L. Cooper-White,
Seminary President
www.ltsg.edu

In a baccalaureate sermon to the Gustavus Adolphus College class of 1980, the Rev. Richard Quentin Elvee, GAC chaplain at the time, recounted a hurried graduation week encounter with another member of the college staff. “Only Thursday, on my way to the Barn, after declining to come with me, Hamrum shouted after me, ‘Padre, tell them that they were good’!” *

Undoubtedly, it could be said of the student body of each and every one of our Seminary’s 180 years, “You were good!” For so indeed they all have been. Each year has been marked by many days full of grace and goodness. Amidst the inevitable tensions and conflicts, challenges and difficulties that arise within any Christian community, every year there are the healers and helpers, those whose calm steady presence encourages others when times are tough, when the waters rage turbulent. As we once again welcomed so many alumni back home to campus for our Spring Convocation and Alumni Banquet, I caught glimpses into just how good were their classes, even those who sojourned here in the turbulent times of the 1960’s and 70’s.

But this year, you were really, really good! In classroom, coffee shop and quiet one-on-one conversations that occur on a daily basis, you listened and learned from our faculty, but also from one another, and most of all, from God. There seemed to be a special measure of fellowship in some quarters, extended to others last fall in the touch (well, by the end more mud-wrestling!) Lutherbowl tourney. It continued throughout, manifested again at year’s end in another Crump-crowned croquet contest.

When faced with disappointment at the announcement that the campus pastor position will be suspended at least for a while as Pastor Kathy Vitalis Hoffman concludes her marvelous tenure, student leaders went to work with the dean and others to find new ways of providing pastoral care and mission-mentoring. In the aftermath of last summer’s multiple retirements coupled with painful “downsizing” and increased workloads for continuing staff and those newly hired, everybody pitched in and kept us marching full swing in our mission.

Theologically, of course, we acknowledge that all goodness comes from God. Properly humble, we are appropriately reticent to claim too much credit for our feeble efforts to foster community, encourage one another spiritually, lead vigorously and at times even courageously. But, dear friends of this great and growing Gettysburg Seminary community, remember those times when Jesus said to one or another of his followers, “Good job! You got it right this time! Not perfect, but good enough to offer up to God.”

So in this final P.O. entry of the 180^th academic year, allow me as your president to offer this benediction on the LTSG community of 2006-07: You were good. You were really, really good! Thanks, and have a great summer.

^* Richard Quentin Elvee, Kingdom of Identity, Gustavus Adolphus College 1987, p. 125

The Search for Words

2007-04-17T11:35:00.000-04:00

By Christine Reimers

As a member of the seminary staff I had the privilege to meet and get to know [Gettysburg Seminary's late 10th President] Herm Stuempfle a little over these last four years. Today, the day after the tragic shooting at VA Tech -- as on other days when I have been at loss for words and filled with emotion – I found myself at my piano looking through Stuempfle hymns for one that spoke to the pain, grief, and violence of these recent events. I found two. On Emmaus’ Journey is a wonderful witness to our human struggle to meet the risen Christ: “Who are you who walk in sorrow down Emmaus’ barren road, Hearts distraught and hope defeated bent beneath grief’s crushing load?’ Nameless mourners we will join you, we who also mourn our dead, We have stood beside graves unyielding, eaten death’s bare bitter bread.” This is, of course, only the first verse and Stuempfle moves from this poignant description through to the resurrection appearance and in-breaking of new hope. The second text is for choir, A Christmas Dialog and brings to life the power of the incarnation in the midst of the violence of the world: “Where nights are torn by siren’s wail an din of blaring horn, on streets where threats of violence lurk, the Child again is born. . . where life is harsh and hard, he comes with love for all.” This text is in dialogue through the piece with the vision of the Peaceable Kingdom where beast and humans alike will “all live in peace.” I give many thanks for the poetic gifts and vision of the Gospel in the world expressed by Herm Stuempfle in many many beautiful hymn and anthems.

The Rev. Christine E. Reimers, Ph.D.
Advancement Associate
Lutheran Theological Seminary Gettysburg