Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago - "Isn't It Rich?"

 

Isn't it rich?

Isn't it queer?

Losing my timing this late

In my career?

And where are the clowns?

There ought to be clowns

Well, maybe next year...

Rev. Dr. Brooke Petersen understands the profound mental health needs of today’s communities. Petersen, John H. Tietjen Chair of Pastoral Ministry, also believes that addressing mental health and trauma are part and parcel of the healing pastoral caregivers can offer. Through her dual expertise in pastoral care and clinical therapy, Petersen is preparing a new generation of church leaders at LSTC to meet contemporary challenges with courage and compassion.

“Moments of joy and deep suffering are intertwined in ministry,” Petersen reflects, recalling her early days as a parish pastor. These experiences sparked deeper questions, especially following the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) 2009 decision to ordain queer clergy. This milestone brought queer individuals into the church in greater numbers, including the trauma many had endured in previous faith settings. To better understand and address this lived experience of LGBTQIA+ individuals, Petersen focused the topic of her PhD research on religious trauma.

“The language of trauma fit the experiences that some queer people were bringing with them,” Petersen explains. Her work highlights how religious trauma manifests—feeling unsafe, a lack of focus, and disconnection—and how healing unfolds when inclusive spaces allow individuals to reclaim their narratives. Her book, Religious Trauma: Queer Stories in Estrangement and Return, examines these dynamics and offers practical insights for pastors and religious communities to help marginalized individuals find reconciliation and healing within faith communities.

“One needs to engage in explicit welcome – naming in a variety of ways that queer people are welcomed, beloved children of God,” Petersen says. This involves displaying visible symbols of welcome, participating in advocacy for marginalized groups, and repentance for the harms done by religion in the past. “We must help people reclaim their narratives and find love and connection where there was once rejection,” Petersen says.

KJV 1 Timothy 2;12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago is pleased to announce that the Rev. Dr. Shauna Hannan has been appointed as its next President. The decision was affirmed by the Board of Directors following a national search.

A distinguished homiletician, ELCA pastor, and leader in theological education, Dr. Hannan brings more than two decades of experience in the classroom, the congregation, and the broader church. She most recently served as Professor of Homiletics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California, and as core doctoral faculty at the Graduate Theological Union, where she taught and mentored students at the doctoral, master’s, and certificate levels.

Dr. Hannan is widely regarded for her innovative approaches to preaching, her scholarship on collaborative and contextual theology, and her passion for empowering emerging leaders. She is the author of The Peoples’ Sermon: Preaching as a Ministry of the Whole Congregation (Fortress Press, 2021), and co-author of Scripting a Sermon: Using the Wisdom of Filmmaking for Impactful Preaching (WJK, 2024), among many other publications. Dr. Hannan embodies the spirit of thoughtful faithfulness that defines our seminary. Her gifts as a teacher, preacher, and community-builder make her uniquely suited to lead LSTC into its next season of growth and transformation.

“I am honored and humbled to be called as the next president of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. LSTC’s vision for a church committed to justice, peace, and care for all people and creation is more vital now than ever. I look forward to working with LSTC’s dedicated faculty, staff, board, students, alumni and partners,” Dr. Hannan said. “Together, we will build on the seminary’s rich legacy to shape a new chapter that ensures LSTC’s long-term sustainability and deepens its capacity to steward the world God so deeply loves with determination and even a faithful dose of delight along the way.”

A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary (PhD, Practical Theology), Luther Seminary (MDiv), and Concordia College (Moorhead) (BA), Dr. Hannan has preached, taught, and led workshops across five continents. She is ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and has long been active in ELCA candidacy and leadership formation.

“The Board of Directors is honored to welcome the Rev. Dr. Shauna Hannan as LSTC’s next President,” said Greg Lewis, Chair of the LSTC Board of Directors. “Dr. Hannan brings a rare combination of pastoral wisdom, academic distinction, and visionary leadership. We are confident that under her guidance, LSTC will continue to grow as a seminary that prepares bold, faithful leaders for a changing church and world.”

Dr. Hannan will begin her term as President July 1, 2025, and will be formally installed in the fall of 2025.

James Nieman was the president of LSTC for many years. Liz Eaton visited the shrunken seminary and Nieman was suddenly emeritus - retired - and replaced by yet another woman, Shauna Hannan.

War Birds and Greedy Squirrels

 

Charlie Sue and I came out from the endless rain to have a sunny day for once. I expected politeness and gratitude, but the birds and squirrels went crazy filling up for tomorrow, when we could have another long rain for the day.

The squirrels were more like drunken brawlers in a Hollywood scene, being tossed through large glass windows. Some walked along the ledge to discover a way inside.

The majestic blue jays were the best, coming to the food and taking it back to the nest across the street. I noticed how one did a fake flutter of her wings to get rid of a greedy starling.

Charlie Sue loves to watch the variety of birds. 

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Ascension Second Sunday - "Therefore Christ must come, that he might go before the Father’s face, reconcile us to him, and obtain for us everything we lacked. Through this same Christ we must ask of God all we need. You have heard in last Sunday’s Gospel that the Lord says: “If ye shall ask anything of the Farther, he will give it to you in. my name.” Whatever we obtain from God, we must receive through this Christ, who has gained for us a merciful Father. For Christ is our support and refuge, where we may hide ourselves, like the young chickens hide under the wings of the mother hen."

Ascension Second Sermon: Christ Upbraids his Disciples with their Unbelief, and his Missionary Commission

8. What does it mean, then, to believe the resurrection of Christ, this thing which is so important, and concerning which the disciples were called unbelieving and faithless, and without which nothing else that they believed would help them? To believe the resurrection of Christ, is nothing else than to believe that we have a Mediator before God. Who is Christ, who makes us holy and acceptable to God the Father. For man’s possessions, by birth and nature, are but sin and corruption, by which he brings down upon himself the wrath of God. But God is eternal righteousness and purity, and therefore, from his very nature, hates sin. Hence there is always enmity between God and the natural man, and they cannot be friends and in harmony with one another.

9. For this cause, Christ became man and took upon himself our sins and also the wrath of the Father, and drowned them both in himself, thus reconciling us to God the Father. Without this faith, we are children of wrath, able to do no good work that is pleasing to God, nor can our prayers be acceptable before him. For thus it is written in Psalm 18:41: “They cried, but there was none to save; even unto Jehovah, but he answered them not.” Yea, even our noblest deeds, by which we had thought to obtain from God mercy, help and comfort, are counted to us for sin; as the prophet says, Psalm 109:7: “Let his prayer be turned into sin”; seeing God could not be reconciled by all our strength, for there is truly no strength in us.

10. Therefore Christ must come, that he might go before the Father’s face, reconcile us to him, and obtain for us everything we lacked. Through this same Christ we must ask of God all we need. You have heard in last Sunday’s Gospel that the Lord says: “If ye shall ask anything of the Farther, he will give it to you in. my name.” Whatever we obtain from God, we must receive through this Christ, who has gained for us a merciful Father. For Christ is our support and refuge, where we may hide ourselves, like the young chickens hide under the wings of the mother hen. Through him alone is our prayer acceptable before God and through him is it answered, and we obtain the favor and mercy of the Father; for Christ has made atonement for our sins, and an angry judge he has changed into a gracious and merciful God. To believe in the resurrection of Christ means, then, to believe, as I said, that Christ has taken upon his head our sins and the sins of the whole world, also the wrath of the Father, and thus drowned them both in himself, whereby we are become reconciled with God and altogether righteous.

11. Now, observe for yourselves how few Christians there are who have this faith, by which alone man is freed from his sins and becomes entirely holy; for they believe not in the resurrection of Christ, that their sins are taken away through Christ, since they attempt to become holy through their own works. This one runs to a cloister, that one becomes a nun, one does this, another that, in order to be free from sin; and yet they always say they believe in the resurrection of Christ from the dead, notwithstanding that their works prove the contrary.

12. The apostles have insisted upon and preached this article more than any other; thus St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians: “If Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:14. And shortly, after in verse 17 he says: “If Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” What sort of a conclusion is this? What is its logical analysis? This: If Christ be not risen from the dead, then sin and death have devoured and slain him, and we cannot get rid of our sins ourselves. Jesus Christ took them upon himself, so that he might tread under foot sin, death and hell, and become their master. But if he be not risen, then he has not overcome sin, but has been overcome by sin. Also, if he has been overcome by sin, then he is not risen: if he be not risen, then he has not redeemed you; then you are yet in your sins.

Likewise Paul speaks to the Romans: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt he saved.” Romans 10:9. There to all the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments agree. [GJ - But not the Waltherians.]