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| Richard Biese earned his MDiv at Seminex, the first (but not last) gay Lutheran seminary. WELS UOJ theologian Richard Jungkuntz chaired the board of Seminex. Jenswold and Lindemann's buddy in Fox Valley is another Seminex MDiv. |
Richard Bliese resigns as president of ELCA's Luther Seminary - News Releases - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
December 11, 2012
Richard Bliese resigns as president of ELCA's Luther Seminary
12-75-MRC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Dr. Richard Bliese has resigned as president of Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., according to a Dec. 10 announcement from the seminary. Luther is one of eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Bliese served as president since 2005.
“Throughout this church there are members deeply grateful for the gifted pastors and lay leaders who have been prepared for ministry during Dr. Bliese's tenure as president of Luther Seminary,” said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop.
“Dr. Bliese's consistent priority was for Luther Seminary to prepare evangelical leaders to serve God's mission in a rapidly changing and increasingly diverse context. He was committed to developing partnerships with congregations with particular focus on stewardship, leadership and preaching,” said Hanson.
Bliese “built upon Luther's strong faculty with new appointments that brought ecumenical and global perspectives. He led Luther through the expansion of distance learning offerings while maintaining a commitment to the benefits of learning in a seminary community that gathers for worship, study and conversation,” said Hanson. “I thank God for Rick's leadership.”
The Rev. James M. Lindus, chair of Luther’s board of directors, expressed gratitude for Bliese’s leadership and “for all Rick has done during his years at Luther Seminary.”
Bliese’s “compelling vision, unwavering commitment to Luther Seminary’s mission and aggressive strategic plan have helped the seminary maintain a healthy enrollment of students, a stellar faculty and strong financial support from loyal and dedicated donors,” said Lindus.
While the seminary continues to function at “a high level,” said Lindus, Luther is facing “a difficult combination of challenges, not unlike those faced by many other institutions of higher education. These challenges include deferred maintenance charges related to aging buildings, the costs of delivering a wide variety of educational programs and a nationwide drop in the number of students attending seminaries.”
Lindus said that the transition in leadership comes at a time when the financial performance of the seminary has lagged expectations. The seminary is taking positive measures to ensure its financial health, which has included the naming of an interim chief financial officer.
Prior to his presidency, Bliese was the seminary’s dean of academic affairs and associate professor of missions from 2003 to 2005. Before joining Luther, he served as the director of graduate studies and as the Augustana Heritage associate professor of global mission and evangelism at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, an ELCA seminary. While there, Bliese served as a part-time pastor at St. Andrews Lutheran Church, Glenwood, Ill.
A graduate of Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, Bliese earned a master of divinity degree from Christ Seminary Seminex, St. Louis, in 1981. His first call as an ordained pastor was to St. Stephanus Lutheran Church in Herne, Germany. After serving four years there, he accepted a position with the United Evangelists Missions in Germany as director of the continuing education program for pastors and evangelists in Zaire and Rwanda.
From 1986 to 1990, he led a small urban congregation in Bukavu, Zaire, and focused on directing continuing education programs at the Centre D'Accueil Protestante Ecumenical Center, School for Evangelists in Zaire and Rwanda. There he established the center’s schools of music, evangelism and language, and co-founded a regional development office for research and technical assistance.
After 10 years overseas, Bliese returned to the United States and earned a master of theology in 1992 and a doctorate in confessional theology from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 1995.
In addition to his teaching and pastoral career, Bliese has led mission and evangelism seminars and workshops as an independent consultant, administered the Hein-Fry Lecture Series, and served as president of the Center for World Christian Interaction. He has published articles throughout the world and co-edited “The Dictionary of Mission: Theology, History, Perspectives” (1997) and was co-editor of “The Evangelizing Church: A Lutheran Contribution (2005).”
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3 comments:
Richard Bliese read the tea leaves and resigned just in time. Under the fiscal cliff taxes will go up, and the charitable deduction will diminish, and student loans aren't subsidized like they used to be. And like the article said, there are fewer students.
Notice how they blame it on the students! Jack up the price of seminary education and yet it's the students fault for not wanting to become indentured servants to Sallie Mae the rest of their lives.
I always have mixed feelings about people resigning and retiring just when the going gets tough. Here they had the job while the remuneration was good and the job was easy, but when the job gets hard and they might have to take a pay cut, they hand the job off to someone else. Remember back in 2008 when many senators and congressmen resigned? That was a bid to avoid the inevitable rancor and partisanship that the recession brought on in Washington DC.
I like how the Luther Sem president had to leave after the seminary lost a mere $4 million, but for years student debt has been rising, and that was a-o-kay with the seminary regents.
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http://www.startribune.com/183099441.html?refer=y
School announces search for new president after losing nearly $4 million last school year.
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http://www.luthersem.edu/about/quickfacts.aspx
Tuition and living expenses
$15,000 annually for full-time study
$32,870* annually for full-time study, living expenses and books
*Reflects cost for students living on campus and reflects the 2012-13 academic year
Student debt
31% graduate without seminary debt
69% graduate with seminary debt
Median indebtedness is $42,279
Financial information is current as of October 2012 and is based upon the 2012-13 fiscal year.
The only candidate left for the Luther Seminary presidency resigns after it is revealed in the student newspaper that's he's a LCMS member. Could that be because many Luther Seminary M.Div. students looking to go into the ministry are women. 46% of the seminary students are women, and they only have a small music ministry program there, so one can guess most of them are ministerial students. Moreover, the big fad on campus there is multiculturalism and anti-racism. Also, one seminary student was a Lutheran pastor who has conducted numerous same-sex marriages in the past, and even wrote a letter to the new pope about the subject in 2010:
http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=28005
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http://www.luthersem.edu/about/quickfacts.aspx
Male/female enrollment
54% male
46% female
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Students cultivate anti-racist, multicultural identities:
http://www.luthersem.edu/gmi/newsletter/article.aspx?article_id=92&issue_id=11
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http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/03/14/mn-man-has-papal-connection-over-hot-button-issue/
Now studying at Luther Seminary, [Andrew] Albertsen sent an email from St. Paul when Bergoglio made harsh statements about gay marriage in 2010.
“I told him whenever you say something about gay marriage, think about that you are also issuing a judgment about me,” Albertsen said.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blessing_of_same-sex_unions_in_Christian_churches#cite_note-24
Argentina: The Danish Church in Buenos Aires performs marriages between same-sex couples.[24]
Footnote 24: 2 June 2010). "A church blesses gay couples who want to give themselves to God. La Nacion (Buenos Aires). Retrieved 25 July 2012. "However, not all Protestant churches have the same position. Such is the case of the Danish Lutherans, whose temples are blessed unions of same-sex couples and from which it is supported gay marriage in Argentina. in fact, in Buenos Aires, Roberto Pastor Andrew Albertsen, held in a five religious civil unions between same-sex and hopes to do the same with the marriage, if they are enabled in civil matters. "
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