PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

One of the most poetic and powerful portions of the Bible is found in the book of Ecclesiastes. At the beginning of the third chapter, the writer declared:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

The next couple of years at the seminary will be a time to build.

On January 23, 2001, ELCA Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson participated in the official groundbreaking ceremony that will lead to the construction of a new building for McCormick (Presbyterian) Theological Seminary on our campus. When completed in the fall of 2002, LSTC and McCormick will be in a unique position to assist the Lutheran and Reformed communities in living out the promise and possibilities of full communion in the area of theological education.

On May 7, 2001, in connection with the spring meeting of the seminary’s board of directors, the design for our new chapel will be unveiled. This will coincide with the beginning of the public phase of the Campaign for Worship and Spiritual Formation. If all goes according to schedule, construction will commence late this year or early next year. The completion of this building pro-ject, along with the addition of a new dean of the chapel & Cornelsen director of spiritual formation position, will strengthen the seminary’s spiritual formation of students for ministry.

It is indeed a time to build at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and I invite you to share in the excitement of it all. Please feel free to check out the seminary’s Web site (www.lstc.edu) for information and pictures as these projects proceed.

Thank you for your prayers and your partnership in this ministry.