Save the date! You and a guest are invited to Berkeley for an evening of sharing, reminiscing, and celebrating over dinner. Watch for a formal invitation to come soon. If you have any questions, please contact Sara Wilson at 510-559-2717.

A friend of PLTS, we give thanks for the life and gifts of Arthur Hewitt.  He passed away on September 19, 2012, in Medford, Oregon after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.  Arthur was born October 1, 1931, in Fossil and was the eldest son of Leonard and Evelyn Hewitt.  He moved to Grande Ronde when he was 5 and graduated from Willamina Union High School.  He married Myrna L. Grosser on June 10, 1955, and they made their home in Brookings where Arthur logged for many years. He also built and operated a mini-storage business with the help of Myrna and their four children. Arthur and Myrna were married for 38 years prior to Myrna's death in March of 1993. 

 

On August 15, 1993, Arthur married Marilyn Cramer. During their 19 years of marriage they enjoyed traveling and golfing together. Arthur was an avid hunter and fisherman. He also enjoyed clam digging, masonry and gardening.  He was a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Brookings for more than 40 years. Having a beautiful tenor voice, Arthur sang in the church choir and performed many solos for holiday services and special events. 

 

Arthur is survived by his wife, Marilyn; his children Douglas, David, Deborah Steiner and Diane Bishop; his stepchildren Robert Oliver, Debra Steele and Karen James; his siblings Robert, Gordon, Jean Reeser, Joan Butler and June Story. Also surviving are seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; six step-grandchildren and six step-great-grandchildren.  As a member of the PLTS Remember the Future Society, we give thanks one final time to Arthur for his contribution to theological education.

Before returning home from PLTS Berkeley in Summer 1988, I felt like I had a "mission." What previously had only been a vague ambition was then turning into a rather detailed "vision" of my future in ministry.

 

The disillusionment started only weeks later: parishes and the church in Germany were not at all like my teaching parish in Berkeley nor like any other congregation I had visited in different parts of the US. I was missing the openness, the friendliness, and the good will of people hoping and praying for each other. Instead, I experienced members of my home church here in Germany as people who had nothing in common and who were not connected to each other, except for only a few minutes a week when attending the Sunday services.

 

I will not idealize the church life in the US, but I do think that if I had stayed in Berkeley, I would have become a Lutheran minister together with my classmates Gordon Hills, Joe Beal or Tom Hux, to name but a few. Never before and after have I had the chance to see the church as a family of loving and caring people. 

 

Life has led me to a different path then: instead of preaching I was meant to be teaching. For more than 15 years I have been a teacher for Religious Education (R.E.) and English now, teaching secondary students ages 10-18. R.E. is a subject not many of you in the US will be aware of, but thanks to God's grace and a "lucky moment in history" (in 1949), R.E. in Germany was declared a constitutionally guaranteed civil right that they cannot easily take away again. And R.E. in my opinion serves a double function: it can introduce potentially atheist people to God's love (but students can unselect R.E. and study Ethics instead, so it is voluntary) and it prevents religious fundamentalism from becoming too powerful. 

 

In the meantime, I have become an instructor at a teachers' college near Hamburg, training and supervising future teachers of R.E. My disappointment of not becoming a pastor has long vanished and I have grown to see my path as a fruitful, blessed alternative way of serving Christ. 

 

PLTS Berkeley will always remain my "dream paradise" of spiritual and theological growth. And yet I had to learn to accept that we cannot live in paradise in this life. I had to let go. Actually, I am still learning, because letting go is never easy. Nevertheless or all the more, I am truly thankful for the unique time I had during my studies at PLTS! 

 

May the Lord bless you and continue the good work among you!

 

Cordially yours,

 

Christoph Behrends

Class of '88

Elizabeth Joan Lepley was not the first woman to attend PLTS, but she was the first woman to receive a Bachelor of Divinity degree (later changed to Master of Divinity).  In a letter that Joan sent to then-President Charles Cooper in December of 1966, she expressed an interest in becoming a hospital chaplain.  It was still four years until the American Lutheran Church would permit the ordaining of women to pastoral ministry, and six years before her denomination, the Lutheran Church in America, would do the same.  She wrote: "From what my pastor has told me, and from talking to one of the PLTS interns who worked in Tacoma, I surmise that you might be cautiously in favor of admitting a woman."   She added, "[Admission] is not something I feel women should demand as a right - I'm not the trail-blazer suffragette type - but I feel I have a genuine calling to serve Christ and His Kingdom in this way."

 

Dr. Cooper responded that her application would receive normal consideration, and he gave her hope that the seminary to allow her to negotiate the program according to her particular needs.  He reminded her that getting a degree was not the same as being ordained, which her synod had responsibility for. He added, "There is no reason at all why we should not have women B.D. candidates...We would stand ready to give you every possible encouragement."

 

Joan came to PLTS as a 34-year-old mother of an eight-year-old daughter.  She had already earned a Master of Science degree in Bacteriology and Biochemistry from Oregon State University and had worked in that field for ten years.  Despite the obstacles and because of her dedication, Joan was ordained in December or 1973, becoming chaplain at Columbian Lutheran Home in Seattle, Washington.  She later assumed the position of Staff Chaplain at Emanuel Hospital and Health Center in Portland, Oregon, where she remained until her retirement twenty years later.

 

There are many students from the Northwest who were influenced and mentored by Rev. Lepley, and many other church professionals who benefited from her colleagueship.  She served on her synod's candidacy committee as well on numerous chaplaincy organizations.

 

This seminary is proud to have been part of  Rev. Lepley's training, and to have opened some doors to her courageous pursuit of call.  In fact, in 2003, she received from PLTS the Alum Award for Distinguished Ministry in Special Service, an award that is given once a year.

 

A memorial service for Rev. Lepley will be held on Sunday, April 21st, 2:30 p.m. at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 5431 NE 20th, Portland, where PLTS alums Rev. Terry Moe and Rev. Melissa Reed are pastors.

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