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Pastor Matthias Loy, Delaware, Ohio

Loy, Hymnary

The Story of My Life - by M. Loy - Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry

I must pull myself away from said Lutheran Library, before I download just about everything there. Notably, Loy's autobiography. I had a post last year looking for Lutheran hymnody in the 18th and 19th century for a music program. "Do not neglect Loy" was some solid advice!

C. George Fry - On M. Loy

GJ - ELCA merged Hamma (Lenker, alumnus) and Capital (Loy, Lenski, Leupold, and many more). ELCA shrank it like a raisin - and now the Leftwing school is just a department at Cap U.

John N. Lenker

Trinity Lutheran Seminary's merger into Capital University part of US trend. Cap/Hamma Merger Becomes Trinity/University Merger. Mainline Seminaries Failing Too - Not Just LCMS, WELS, ELS.

Lenski taught at Capital's Seminary, ALC, after serving as a pastor and a district president.

 John N. Lenker graduated from the ULCA seminary at Wittenberg College - Hamma Divinity School. Hamma had to merge with Capital during the warm up to
ELCA, but that was not enough to keep enrollment up.

Who was Hamma?

Trinity Lutheran Seminary's merger into Capital University part of US trend: 

"“The traditional model of seminary education is predicated on the traditional church scene,” said the Rev. Kathryn “Kit” Kleinhans, who is to be installed as dean of Trinity Lutheran Seminary on Tuesday. “The landscape of religion in the United States is changing. Traditional mainline denominations are growing smaller, and there’s large growth in those who are spiritual but not religious.”

The merger, which became official in January, has been in the works since Capital’s 16th president, Beth Paul, started at the university in July 2016. The impetus was financial, Kleinhans said.

“The seminary’s budgeting and operating expenses were not sustainable, which has to do with a decrease in student enrollment,” Kleinhans said.

Trinity and Capital are just two of several seminaries and religious institutions in the country that are merging resources to keep the theological schools viable, said Tom Tanner, director of accreditation and institutional evaluation at the Association of Theological Schools in Pittsburgh.

“As goes the church, so goes the seminary,” he said.

Nationwide, enrollment in seminary programs declined for more than a decade before leveling out in 2015 and 2016, according to the Association of Theological Schools, the national accrediting body for theological institutions. At Trinity, enrollment declined from 116 in fall 2013 to 80 in fall 2016 before rising again to 85 in 2017."

 Bexley Hall Seabury Western Eucharist 9/10/2013 Gloria Dei Chapel, Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
Note that three other seminaries are involved,
all shrinking down, sometimes moving on to another location.

From Wiki:

Seabury-Western was formed in 1933 by a merger of Western Theological Seminary of Evanston (founded in 1883 in Chicago), and Seabury Divinity School of Faribault, Minnesota(founded in 1858). The new seminary endeavored to hold in tension the "High Church" and "Low Church" identities of its predecessors. However, for most of its history, SWTS occupied a place within Anglican churchmanship akin to that of The General Theological Seminary in New York: a liturgical bent toward Anglo-Catholic practices and an acceptance of modern theology and social tolerance.

In the fall of 2008 the seminary stopped accepting seminarians for the traditional Master of Divinity degree. In 2009 Seabury's property was acquired by Northwestern University with Seabury allowed use of the property for five years. In January 2012 Seabury formally left the Evanston site, functionally ending its presence as residential seminary, and the various buildings are now used by the Northwestern University. The seminary moved its operation to the national headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) near O'Hare Airport. In March 2012, the boards of Seabury-Western and of Bexley Hall Seminary in Bexley, Ohio, voted to federate.^[1] Roger Ferlo was named as the federation's first president.^[2]

Inaugurated April 27, 2013, Bexley Seabury seminary initially offered the Master of Divinity degree at the former Bexley Hall campus in Columbus through a partnership with Trinity Lutheran Seminary.^[3] From its Chicago campus near O'Hare Airport, the federation offered its Doctor of Ministry in Congregational Development in Chicago and the Doctor of Ministry in Preaching through the Association of Chicago Theological Schools.^[4] The Diploma of Anglican Studies was offered in both Columbus and Chicago.^[5]

In July 2016, Bexley Seabury consolidated on a single campus location at Chicago Theological Seminary in Chicago's Hyde Park/Woodlawn district.

'via Blog this'

Rev. Michael Wolfe Hamma (1836-1913) | Historical Archaeology at Wittenberg

 During his time in Altoona Reverend Hamma became the President of the General Synod in 1897.

Rev. Michael Wolfe Hamma (1836-1913) | Historical Archaeology at Wittenberg:

Rev. Michael Wolfe Hamma (1836-1913)

Rev. Michael Wolfe Hamma is one of Wittenberg’s most famous graduates. He dedicated his life to service as a Lutheran pastor and a patron of Wittenberg’s theological education. Hamma Divinity School is named in honor of him. The first two buildings that housed the Hamma Divinity School were built with funds donated by Rev. and Mrs. Almira Hamma and his second wife, Mrs. Clara Hamma.

Reverend, Michael Wolfe Hamma, D.D. was born in Richland County, Ohio, on 25 December 1836 to David Hamma and Susanna Wolf Hamma. David Hamma’s father, Balthazar Hamme, fought in the Revolutionary War from 1777-1778 in the 1st Battalion, 4th Company, York County Militia. David changed the spelling from Hamme to Hamma sometime before he married Susanna on 8 November 1821. The Hammas had eight children, six sons and two daughters. The first seven children were born in York, Pennsylvania, and the family then moved to Richland, Ohio, sometime in 1832-1836, where Michael, their last child was born. The family lived three years in Richland, Ohio, before moving once more to a sixty-acre farm near Yellow Springs, Ohio. This is where David and Susanna lived the rest of their lives and buried; their grave markers are still present at Glen Forest Cemetery in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

After growing up in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Michael Hamma continued his education at Wittenberg College where he received his A.B. in 1861 and graduated from the Seminary in 1862. He received his license from the Miami Synod in 1862 and ordained by the same in the following year. During the time before his ordination, Reverend Hamma married his first wife Almira V. Crothers on 9 February 1862. The marriage license indicated they were married in the State of Ohio, Clark County Probate Court.

Almira was born 28 May 1840, in Frankfort, Clinton County, Indiana, to John P. and Elizabeth Crothers, a wealthy family. The Crothers family moved sometime in 1850-1860 from Indiana to Springfield, Clark County, Ohio according to the 1860 Federal Census and Almira was the eldest of five daughters.

From 1862-1863, Reverend Hamma was pastor in Euphemia, Ohio just north of Lewisburg near Dayton. On 26 November 1862, Ellie E. Hamma was born, the couples’ only child mentioned. Ellie lived only nine months and died on August 8th in 1863 and the reason for the infants’ death not given. The burial was at Roselawn Cemetery, Lewisburg, Preble County, Ohio, USA, at Plot: Section 1, Row 60, and Grave 26. No other records indicate Rev. Hamma fathered other pregnancies or other children.

In 1863, Reverend Hamma became pastor in Bucyrus, Ohio about half way to Lake Erie from northern Columbus and served until 1867. During this time, Reverend Hamma received his A.M. from Wittenberg College in 1864. Another move came in 1867 to Reading, Pennsylvania where he became pastor for two years until 1869 when he and Almira moved back to Springfield, Ohio where he served as pastor of the English Lutheran Church (now the First Lutheran Church) until 1878. It seems Reverend Hamma was quite an international traveler. Almira, was mentioned on her husband’s passports on a few occasions, suggesting she may not have accompanied the Reverend on all of his excursions. A passport of Almira Hamma’s gave an address that she was from the County of Clark, in the State of Ohio, in 1872. The Hammas traveled to Europe spending several months in Norway and Sweden, and letters from Reverend Hamma, part of Wittenberg University’s archives, are written about travels to Palestine and other areas of the Middle East as well. Reverend Hamma even wrote a poem about the sphinx in Egypt. In 1871, Reverend Hamma became president of the Wittenberg Synod and in 1876; Reverend Hamma received his Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) from Wittenberg College.