Charles Bang, MDiv 1980, after serving in Buffalo, New York for nearly 29 years, recently accepted a call to serve as senior pastor and headmaster of a parish and school in Hampton, Virginia. He begins there in August of 2011.
Susan Briehl, MDiv 1981, was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. The seminary awards the degree of Doctor of Divinity to individuals who have provided outstanding service to the seminary's mission to teach, form, and nurture women and men for the ministry of Christ's church. More here.
Dawn Gregg, MDiv 1991, serving 14 congregations in nearly 20 years in the Eastern Washington - Idaho and Oregon Synods as intentional interim pastor, received and accepted a call from Faith Lutheran Church in Albany, Oregon. She was installed on January 29, 2011.
Michael Johnson, MDiv 1994, is a half-time pastor of a UCC church. He teaches psychology and sociology at a local community college and continues mental health work in the area.
Mitch Jones, MDiv 1980, is currently serving as intentional interim pastor at Hope Lutheran in Bozeman, Montana. He has published in The Lutheran Journal of Ethics in October 2010 and in The Lutheran in December 2010.
Eric Luedtke, MDiv 2010, and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church were recently featured in an article in the Knoxville News Sentinel about the Easter Sunrise worship that has been a tradition in the congregation for more than 50 years. See the full article. Eric was nominated by the Bishop's Assistant of the Southeastern Synod to serve as a synod delegate to the Evangelical Lutheran Coalition of Ministries in Appalachia Assembly in May 2011.
Susan Lynch, MDiv 1996, is currently the Interim Pastor at St. John's Lutheran Church in Sumneytown, Pennsylvania.
Doug Nemitz, MDiv 1997, was installed recently at First Lutheran Community Church in Port Orchard, Washington.
Kari Reiten, MDiv 2007, has accepted a call to Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Renton, Washington.
Dr. Robert D. Hawkins, Leonora G. McClurg Professor of Worship and Music at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, will give a keynote lecture on the content of hymnody as it presents the full biblical narrative and music that make this possible. If music is indeed, following Luther, the primary "handmaid" of the biblical text and theology, then questions regarding style remain secondary to the faithful setting forth of the narrative. That the narrative is presented is of primary importance; how that happens needs to emerge from the type of texts crafted.