ELCA NEWS SERVICE
April 9, 2010
Valparaiso University ELCA Pastor Darlene Grega Dies
10-111-JB
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Darlene E. Grega, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) pastor serving at Valparaiso (Ind.) University was a "beloved member" of the Valparaiso family, said the university's president, Mark A. Heckler, in an April 7 message announcing her death.
The Porter (Ind.) County Coroner ruled Grega's death as a suicide, the Merrillville (Ind.) Post-Tribune reported April 9.
Grega, 55, joined the staff of the university's Chapel of the Resurrection in August 2008. She was the first ELCA pastor called to serve on the chapel staff of Valparaiso University, an independent Lutheran higher education institution. She served on a staff that included two Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastors, the Rev. Joseph R. Cunningham and the Rev. James A. Wetzstein.
"We mourn the loss of someone who cared deeply for the members of this community. Our sympathy and prayers are with Pastor Grega's son, Nathan, her extended family, and her many friends here at Valpo and beyond," Heckler wrote in his announcement to the university community.
University faculty, staff and students paid tribute to Grega at an evening prayer service April 7 and at a morning prayer service April 8. The university will continue evening prayer services in Grega's memory through April 16, according to a Valparaiso spokesperson. A funeral or memorial service for Grega has not yet been announced.
"Pastor Grega has been a friend to many, and generously served our campus community since joining our chapel staff less than two years ago," Heckler wrote. "In particular she provided significant counsel and support to women on our campus and built relationships with our international students to help them feel welcomed here."
"We just lost a very fine colleague and are so saddened," Cunningham said in an interview with the ELCA News Service.
Grega presided at the April 4 Easter celebration at the chapel, a first for an ELCA pastor. "She had a great presence and was overjoyed. She did great, and we all commended her. That's why this is so shocking," Cunningham said.
Cunningham said Grega extended hospitality and care to many in the university community, including international students, women and Alliance, a community of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.
"My last image of her is the joy of the post-Easter celebration, and seeing her smile," he said. "As a professional, my last memory of her is her deep care and concern for others. It's just such a tremendous loss."
Grega's bishop was the Rev. James R. Stuck, ELCA Indiana-Kentucky Synod, Indianapolis. "My reaction was one of shock and sadness that this has happened," he said in an interview. "Her presence was very much appreciated by a lot of people. For her, it was a very rich ministry, and she would express that quite often. She provided a door for a lot of people in the community. It was a good and vibrant ministry for her."
Stuck recalled that Heckler's predecessor, the Rev. Alan F. Harre, led an effort to raise funds for an endowment for an ELCA pastor to serve on the Chapel of the Resurrection staff. Stuck said he fully expects the university will continue to have an ELCA pastor on the chapel staff in the future.
On behalf of the ELCA, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, extended condolences and sympathy for Grega's death to Heckler and the university community.
"Darlene's call to serve as the first ELCA pastor on the staff of the Chapel of the Resurrection has been the occasion for renewing and deepening our relationships with the University and its extended family of alumni and friends," Hanson wrote in an April 9 letter. "We have rejoiced in the strength of her service as university pastor with students, faculty and staff -- a ministry marked by her distinctive gifts of warm hospitality, gregarious compassion for the suffering and tenderhearted, and tenacious advocacy for those who have often been kept at the margins of Christian community and public life."
"Although the news of her death comes as a deep shock and disappointment, we entrust her to the mercy of God shown in Jesus Christ and share with you our hope in the promise of Christ's Resurrection," Hanson wrote.
Grega was born in Cleveland and graduated from Valparaiso University and the Lutheran Deaconess Program housed on campus. She earned a master of arts degree in theology from Duke University, Durham, N.C.; a master of arts degree in counseling from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks; and a master of divinity degree from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.
Grega brought more than 25 years of experience in higher education to Valparaiso. She was director of international students at St. Cloud (Minn.) State University and director of the international center at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va. She also had nine years' experience in campus ministry at colleges and universities in North Carolina, Minnesota and Texas.
---
Information about Valparaiso University and the Chapel of the Resurrection is at http://www.valpo.edu on the Web.
---
Rev. Darlene Grega, first female campus pastor at Valpo, has died of an apparent suicide. Her last official duties including celebrating Easter at the Chapel of the Resurrection. May she rest in peace.
---
A changing tide at Valparaiso
©Pretty Good Lutherans
Over the summer, the Rev. Darlene Grega purchased a condo and transformed its garish pink decor into calming shades of beige. She’s putting down roots in northwestern Indiana, where she took a job a year ago.
Grega accepted a post at her alma mater, Valparaiso University, that no woman or pastor in her denomination had ever held in the school’s 150-year history. Valparaiso is somewhat of an anomaly among Lutheran schools because of its independence.
For more, see the link to Pretty Good Lutherans. They will be happy to sell the story to you.
---
University Pastor Darlene E. Grega
Darlene.Grega@valpo.edu
Phone: 219-464-5099
Cell phone: 219 395-4952
Fax: 219-464-5049
AIM: vupastordarlene
Pastor Darlene Grega is the mentor for Fellowship House and the Residential Ministers (a.k.a. Piece Core). She leads the planning for the Chapel’s discernment retreats and has an abiding commitment to the spiritual needs of international students on our campus having worked, before ordination in 2006, over 20 years primarily with international students. She loves reconnecting at VU with the international community and offering them hospitality and helping others learn from them. A Valpo grad herself, she remembers the spiritual formation she received here and looks forward to being a new face in a crowd that is welcoming and committed to walking with you during your tenure here. By the way, you will also find her walking her Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Muffin, around campus, and keeping up with her son Nathan, a senior at the college of William and Mary who is studying neuroscience.
---
From <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>
Date Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:14:49 -0500
>ELCA News Blog
>August 14, 2008
ELCA Pastor Darlene Grega appointed to Valparaiso Chapel staff
>by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service
Valparaiso (Ind.) University appointed the Rev. Darlene
E. Grega, Trinity Lutheran Church, Canton, Ohio, to serve
as an associate pastor of its Chapel of the Resurrection
beginning Aug. 23. She joins the Rev. Joseph R. Cunningham,
university pastor and dean of the Chapel, and the Rev. James
A. Wetzstein, university associate pastor and associate dean
of the Chapel. Cunningham and Wetzstein are pastors of the
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS). Grega, a pastor of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), is the
first non-LCMS pastor on the Chapel staff. Valparaiso
University is an independent Lutheran institution.
Grega, 53, was born in Cleveland and graduated from Valparaiso
University and the Lutheran Deaconess Program housed on
campus. She earned a master of arts degree in theology
from Duke University, Durham, N.C.; a master of arts degree
in counseling from the University of North Dakota, Grand
Forks; and a master of divinity degree from Luther Seminary,
St. Paul, Minn. Grega brings 25 years of experience in higher
education to Valparaiso. She was director of international
students at St. Cloud (Minn.) State University and director
of the international center at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University, Blacksburg, Va. She also has nine
years of experience in campus ministry at colleges and
universities in North Carolina, Minnesota and Texas.
"We are delighted that Rev. Grega has accepted the call to
join the ministry team at the Chapel of the Resurrection,"
Cunningham said in a Valparaiso news release. "The ministry
of the chapel benefits from the presence of a pastor from
the ELCA. There are many areas of campus ministry where
Pastor Wetzstein and I are looking forward to cooperating
with Pastor Grega within the guidelines of our respective
church bodies." Cunningham said Grega will play a significant
role in residential ministry and will be encouraged to develop
new initiatives for international students at the university
while collaborating with chapel staff associated with the LCMS
in meeting the spiritual needs of the university community.
