News
By the staff of The Lutheran, ELCA News Service and Religion News Service
Johnson to lead Wartburg Seminary Baltimore solidarity
After the riots in Baltimore, Wolf- gang D. Herz-Lane, bishop of the Delaware-Maryland Synod, encour- aged people of faith across the coun- try to step outside their places of wor- ship May 3 for a moment of silence and prayer. Herz-Lane and other local religious leaders expressed con- cern over Freddie Gray’s death and appealed to citizens to express their “anger and frustration in peaceful and constructive ways.” He said what is happening in Baltimore “has root causes .… The continued challenges of poverty, race relations, unem- ployment and substandard housing [perpetuates] feelings of powerless- ness and hopelessness among people here … if we don’t address these root causes, then the symptoms are not going away—symptoms being mass demonstrations and rioting.”
Church is synagogue
For years, the Schlosskirche, or castle church, at the heart of Cottbus’ his- toric old city stood mostly empty. Like many other parishes in Ger- many, it no longer had its own con- gregation. Then word got out that the local Jewish community was looking for a synagogue to replace its cramped quarters around the cor- ner. Church officials jumped at the chance. “For me, it was the only pos- sibility to keep the church as a house of God in the long run,” said Ulrike Menzel, the regional superintendent of the Evangelical Church in Ger- many, the nation’s main Protestant body. With city and church back- ing, state officials offered to buy the building for the Jewish community and turn it into a synagogue—the first in Brandenburg since 1938.
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www.thelutheran.org L
ouise N. Johnson was elected president of Wartburg Theological
Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, effective June 17. An alumna of the seminary, she will be its 14th president. Johnson succeeds the
Rev. Stanley N. Olson, who has retired after serving Wartburg since Jan. 1, 2011. Previously Johnson served at the
Louise N. Johnson
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP), most recently as vice president for mission advance- ment. She was the first woman in the seminary’s history to hold so high an administrative office. Prior to her appointment in 2012, she worked as director of admissions (2006) and as associate director of admissions (2004) at the seminary. Prior to her time at LTSP, John-
son served as the associ- ate director of admissions at Wartburg and also as the pastor of Salem Evan- gelical Lutheran Church in Spragueville, Iowa. As president of the sem-
inary, Johnson will “extend Wartburg’s deep com- mitments, traditions and shape of mission forward
in bold visioning and holy experi- mentation,” said Stephen Cornils, chair of the presidential search com- mittee and of the seminary’s board of directors. Of her election Johnson said, “I
am proud to be part of this tradition and proud to lead the school that has formed valued leaders for 161 years and running. Wartburg is ready to serve God and the church.”
Eaton in China
FRANKLIN ISHIDA
On her first visit to China in April, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton sits among Sunday school children during a three-day vigil in a village church. Eaton and ELCA leaders met with Christians in Meile, where she participated in the dedication of a church building funded in part through ELCA gifts. The delegation also met with representatives of the Shanghai Christian Council. View photos of the trip at
www.elca.org/living-lutheran/photos.
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