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Above the Fog
PLTS Newsletter
September 2009 |
| Greetings!
Founders' Day approaches! More than 150 people have registered to hear Martin Marty speak at PLTS. If you have not yet registered, please do so today. |
| A New School Year Begins |
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Dean Michael Aune (left) and President Phyllis Anderson (right)  congratulate Dr. Carol Jacobson on her promotion to Associate Professor of Practical Theology: Youth and Family Ministries. PLTS welcomed 27 new students (16 women and 11 men) into the PLTS community during the first week of school. Dr. Anderson's sermon from the opening chapel service for the 2009-2010 school year can be found on our website. |
| Founders' Day and Seminex Celebration |
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September 23, 2009
Building Cultures of Trust
The Rev. Dr. Martin E. Marty, Keynote Speaker
 The Rev. Dr. Martin Marty will be the keynote speaker at Founders' Day, September 23, 2009. We also gather to celebrate and remember the important history of Seminex. Please join us!
9:30 - Registration and coffee
10:00 - Keynote presentation
11:15 - Eucharist
12:30 - Lunch
1:30 - Award presentations
1:45 - Q & A with Dr. Marty
Christ Seminary-Seminex Celebration
2:30 - Hymn Fest and organ music
3:15 - Refreshments at the President's residence
5:30 - Seminex celebration banquet
Click here for more information .
Rooms are reserved at LaQuinta Inn in Berkeley for $74 plus tax. Call (510) 849-1121 and ask for the PLTS rate.
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| ELCA Service |
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Several PLTS graduates, as well as a faculty member and a board member of PLTS, were elected to various positions at the ELCA church-wide assembly last month.
Congratulations to:
Erik Samuelson (MDiv 2005), elected to the ELCA Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission Program Committee;
Lisa Smith (MDiv 2005) and PLTS board member, elected to the ELCA Global Mission Program Committee;
Jeffrey Thiemann (MDiv 2005), elected to the ELCA Board of Pensions Board of Trustees;
Herbert Anderson, PLTS research faculty, elected to the ELCA Nominating Committee;
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| Love is in the Hair |
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 Jeremy Fuerst, a fourth-year student at PLTS, spent two years growing his hair. On August 9th, it was gone, auctioned to raise money for his home congregation of Trinity Lutheran Church in Hildreth, Nebraska. The hair itself was donated to Locks of Love, a not-for-profit agency that provides hairpieces to children with hair loss. Read more about Jeremy's adventure here. |
| Luther Lecture 2009 |
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November 4, 2009
Finding a Credible Faith -- the Passion of Christ and Luther's Struggle to Believe
 Please join us in welcoming Dr. Guy Erwin as this year's Luther lecturer.
It is commonplace that the young Martin Luther wrestled with Scripture and his own demons to arrive at the distinctive understanding of faith and grace and salvation that we now call "justification by grace through faith." But what did Luther really understand by "faith"? Incorporating often overlooked sources, this lecture will relate Luther's emerging theology to his ongoing spiritual formation in its Augustinian monastic devotional setting, and give a more fully-rounded picture of his "Reformation breakthrough."
Dr. R. Guy Erwin holds the Gerhard and Olga J. Belgum Chair of Lutheran Confessional Theology at California Lutheran University. He is currently also chair of the newly-founded Department of Languages and Cultures and has a joint appointment in the departments of Religion and History. Dr. Erwin teaches survey courses on the history of Christianity. He also holds seminars in medieval, Reformation, and early modern history and theology, including courses devoted to the life and thought of Martin Luther and to St. Augustine's City of God.
Schedule of Events
9:30 - Registration & Refreshments
10:00 - Luther Lecture
11:30 - Divine Service
12:45 - Lunch
1:30 - Conversation
Click here for more information . |
| Dr. Martha Stortz in Turkey |
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 In May, Dr. Marty Stortz went on a pilgrimage to Turkey as a guest of the Pacifica Institute, a Turkish-American organization interested in "intercultural dialogue."
As she discovered on the way, the travel directly relates to her ATS research grant on pilgrimage. She wrote an extensive and informative travelogue of her trip, which we are presenting in weekly installments.
For the latest installment, click here. To read from the beginning, click here. |
| Graduate Updates |
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Scott Bartlett (MDiv 2004) is beginning a new call as pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church in the Miracle Mile of Los Angeles, as wife Alia begins nursing at Cedars-Sinai.
Joshua Burkholder (MDiv 2009) will be ordained on Sunday, October 25, 2009.
John Embree (MDiv 1974) just began a new interim assignment at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Coronado, California. Resurrection voted in February to leave the LCMS and unite with the ELCA. Their pastor retired after 35 years and had prepared them to make this move into a more open position on communion, the ordination of women, etc. John looks forward to an interesting year. He also reports that his brother, Bill Embree (MDiv 1974) has taken an interim position at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Salinas, California, beginning this month.
Lynn Enloe (MDiv 2003) was installed as pastor of Christ the King in Van Nuys, California, on August 30, 2009.
Sven Erlandson (MDiv 1999) just published his fourth book. Sven writes, "Geared toward a very specific, small niche -- the most intense, focussed and fiercest atheletes -- this book provides spiritual leadership to a group of people otherwise untouched by normal religion. . . . [and] is rooted in two simple concepts -- Jesus' First and Greatest Commandment and his personal ethos of radical, other-centered love." Sven has made his book available as a free e-book.
Edward Groop (BD 1964) retired from full-time work in 2000 and since 2001 has been serving part time at Our Saviour's in French Lake, Minnesota. He and his wife live in a house built by their sons on his wife's home farm of fifty acres.
Jon Haug (MDiv 2009) has been called to Saint Peter Lutheran Church in Battle Creek, Michigan, and will be ordained on October 25, 2009.
 Sue Lindberg (MDiv 1979) and her husband Rich met Paul Isaak (ThM 1978), Karen Bloomquist (MDiv 1974) and Bill Strehlow (MDiv 1974) in Geneva, Switzerland, in May of 2009. Karen is working at Lutheran World Federation in Geneva and Paul is teaching at the Ecumenical Institute in Bosley, just outside of Geneva. Sue and Rich visited with Bill and Karen in the French Alps near Mont Blanc and visited with Paul Isaak in the area north of Geneva during 3 weeks in and around Geneva.
Dorthy Nielsen (MDiv 1996) was called to serve Peace Lutheran Church in Pendleton, Oregon, and was installed on September 13, 2009.
Philip Petrasek (MDiv 1973), after serving for 36 years as pastor, announced he will retire on October 31, 2009. He was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's, which has resulted in the need to conclude active ministry. Most of his ministry was spent working with churches in conflict.
Kent Tuohino (MDiv 1987) has been called to be the pastor of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Riverside, California. The installation service is planned for Sunday, September 20, with Pacifica Synod bishop (and PLTS board member) Murray Finck preaching. Trinity is also the congregation where Kent did his internship in 1985-1986.
T. Brent Walsworth (TEEM 2005) has been serving United in Christ Lutheran Church in Morrisonville, Wisconsin, since September of 2007.
Rachel Wangen-Hoch (MDiv 2000) was called as the associate pastor for intergenerational ministry at Saint Mark Lutheran Church in Lacey, Washington, and will be installed this month.
Your Name Here -- please keep us up to date with your whereabouts and happenings here. | |
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