Events

The 2022 LSTC Middle East Travel Seminar, World of the Bible: Ancient Sites and Current Struggles in the Holy Land, hosted by Professors Klaus-Peter Adam and Barbara Rossing, will take place May 16-28, 2022 and will include a mix of students, alumni, LSTC leaders and friends.

While many Christian tours of the Holy Land focus entirely on the sites associated with the events and people of the Bible, this 13-day study tour does this and much more. Participants will visit key biblical sites in the Galilee (Nazareth, Capernaum, Magdala, Megiddo, Caesarea Philippi), Jerusalem (Temple Mount, Mount of Olives, Church of the Holy Sepulcher), Caesarea Maritima, and Bethlehem. We will dialogue with key persons and groups struggling for peace and justice today, and consider water resources from ecological and justice perspectives. In the best sense, this trip will be a pilgrimage for participants, because engaging “the world of the Bible” does indeed involve both ancient sites and current struggles, and how they are intertwined.

For further information, contact Barbara Rossing at brossing@lstc.edu.

The annual Scherer Lecture will take place Tuesday, October 4, 2022 from 4-5:30 p.m. It will be offered in person at the Augustana Chapel and will be livestreamed. The lecture will explore the concept of “resurrectional cruciformity” — cross-shaped ministry infused with the power and presence of the risen Lord—as the shape of Paul’s own sense of mission. We will explore certain Pauline texts in which Paul narrates how he seeks both to embody this spirituality and to see it embodied in the communities to which he writes. We will then consider how this same spirituality is relevant for the contemporary mission of the church locally and globally.

The lecture will be presented by Michael J. Gorman, the Raymond E. Brown Chair in Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he has taught since 1991. He has also taught or lectured throughout the U.S. and in Canada, New Zealand, and Africa. The author or editor of nearly twenty books and scores of articles, Dr. Gorman has devoted special attention to theological and missional readings of the New Testament, especially the letters of Paul.

Registration will open soon.

Save the date for LSTC's fourth annual LSTC Homecoming, taking place October 10-14! Together, we will reminisce and reconnect with former classmates, learn what’s new at LSTC, engage in special worship services and programs and celebrate our many years of ministry and service.

More information coming soon!

The Fall LSTC Seminary Sampler will take place in-person October 24-25, 2022. During this event, prospective students are offered the opportunity to meet faculty and fellow students; engage in individual and group discussions about discernment; listen in on a Fall 2022 class; explore campus housing and opportunities in Chicago (for those interested in living on or near campus); learn about the LSTC admissions process, including information about student services and financial aid.

More information coming soon!

The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) celebrated the class of 2022 (along with the class of 2020 and 2021) during graduation weekend, taking place May 14-15, 2022.

A baccalaureate service was held on Saturday, May 14, 4 p.m. Central Daylight Time, in the Augustana Chapel. Review a recording of the service on LSTC's Facebook page.

The 162nd Commencement took place on Sunday, May 15, 2:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church located at 5472 S Kimbark Ave, Chicago, IL. This event was livestreamed on LSTC's YouTube and Facebook pages. This year’s commencement speaker was Dr. Paul Pribbenow, President of Augsburg University, Minneapolis, MN. A reception followed in the LSTC Courtyard. The commencement program may be viewed in PDF form.

On Sept. 15, 2021, LSTC hosted a panel discussion on the overlap of Lutheranism and socialism, focusing on how socialist concepts apply to day-to-day ministry realities in the parish and in the world.

On April 27, 2022, a follow-up seminar focused on how pillars of Lutheran theology - theology of the cross, grace, sin, the priesthood of all believers, etc... - line up with socialist thought. A "Lutheran socialist" sermon was shared, and then all panelists debriefed with audience members.

Speakers were Erin Coleman Branchaud (2018, MDiv), pastor of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Logan Square; Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, professor of theological and social ethics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary; Tobita Chow (2017, MDiv), global labor organizer and director of Justice Is Global; Francisco Herrera (2016,ThM), Christian agitator and LSTC PhD student in world Christianity and global mission; Micah Uetricht, Lutheran PK, labor organizer, and deputy editor at The Jacobin. Angela Cowser, associate dean of Black Church Studies and doctor of ministry programs at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, was the moderator.

Review the event recording on LSTC's Facebook page.

The Dalit history month public lecture was delivered by Dr. Monica J. Melanchthon on “Framing the Widow in the Hebrew Bible: An Intersectional Reading.” The lecture was given in the Augustana Chapel and via Zoom on April 26 from 5-6 p.m.

Abstract of the Content: The paper attends to intersectionality as a theoretical framework, its antecedents and use in Biblical studies in India today. It then employs the intersectional lens to call attention to a marginal category among women, namely the ‘widow’ or the vidhavā , (both Dalit and dominant caste) as she is portrayed within the Indian social structure and the ‘almânâ in the Hebrew Bible with particular focus on Tamar (Gen 38) and Judith to showcase the impact of intersecting identities.

Review the event recording on LSTC's Facebook page.

It is Well was the theme of the 32nd Annual LSTC Gospel Choir Benefit Concert which took place Sunday, April 24, 2022 at 4p.m. It featured a special guest conductor and Gospel music legend, Dr. Loudella Evans Reid.

For more than 30 years, the annual concert has been a benefit for the Grover Wright Scholarship Fund and the Rev. Carole A. Burns Scholarship Fund. Since 1994, scholarships have been awarded to students of color supporting the education that undergirds their ministry.

Free will donations continue to be accepted - please make a gift here by choosing which scholarship(s) you wish to support.

Review the event recording on LSTC's Facebook page.

LSTC is committed to learning and developing a plan towards the implementation of a set of four of the fourteen Recommendations for Theological Education and Leadership (pages 14-15), a resource adopted at the 15th triennial ELCA Churchwide Assembly on August 9, 2019. LSTC has adopted “Authentic Diversity” as one of the core initiatives of this year’s strategic plan and are excited about partnering with community members to design our next actionable steps.

Community members participated in LSTC chapel with a service dedicated to Trans Day of Visibility and an authentic diversity panel presentation, among other activities.

The annual World Mission Institute, a collaborative event offered by the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, McCormick Theological Seminary, and Catholic Theological Union, took place March 10 at 7 p.m. on Zoom.

George Sabra, professor of systematic theology and president of the Near East School of Theology (NEST) Beirut, Lebanon, was the keynote speaker. Sabra's keynote was titled "Mission in a Collapsed State: The Church and Theological Education in Lebanon and Syria." Severe economic and nation-splitting political crisis have created an economic crisis unprecedented in the history of Lebanon since its independence in 1920. The keynote presentation examined the effects and consequences of the crisis on churches and theological institutions, addressed current responses of the Church, and explored the future mission and shape of the church and theological education.

Watch the event on McCormick's Facebook page or on Vimeo.

LSTC hosted several events and services in celebration of Black History Month. Visit our Black History Month web page to review event recordings!

Special thanks to the Albert "Pete" Pero, Jr. and Cheryl Stewart Pero Center for Intersectionality Studies and LSTC faculty, staff and students of color for their leadership and support.

On January 17, LSTC presented "History, Hope, and King: Where Do We Go from Here Amid Times of Political Unrest, Voter Suppression, and COVID?", a series of presentations led by Christian ethicists who took Dr. King's 1967 sermon "Where Do We Go from Here?" and put its themes in conversation with current events. Speakers included:

• Linda Thomas (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago)
• Reggie Williams (McCormick Theological Seminary)
• Stacy Floyd-Thomas (Vanderbilt Divinity School)
• Elyse Ambrose (Meadville Lombard Theological School)
• Michael Hogue (Meadville Lombard Theological School)

The event was virtual only and streamed on LSTC's YouTube channel. Access the event using THIS LINK.

LSTC partnered with Other+Wise for the 13th Annual Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium on November 16 and 17, 2021. The theme for this year's symposium was "On Our Way to Truth and Healing." The symposium educates seminarians, church leaders, and allies about the work of Vine Deloria Jr. and about Indigenous culture, movements, and activism. This year, symposium content focused on the intersection between Indian boarding schools and Christian and theological education.

Please visit the LSTC Facebook video page to review presentations and sermons.

Alumni enjoyed opportunities to participate in classes taught by LSTC faculty plus presentations centering on equity, eco-healing, decolonizing Latinequis semantics, and more. Guest preachers led worship services each day. Special recognition was given to classes marking 10-, 25-, 40- and 50-year reunions with distinct gatherings for each, and celebrating our 2021 Distinguished Alumni Awardees was a final event of Homecoming.

Visit the 2021 Homecoming and Alumni Awards webpages for further details and follow-up links to recordings (coming soon!)

The Center for Advanced Studies in Religion and Science (CASIRAS) hosts quarterly lectures grounded in how science informs our religious understanding of the cosmos which God has created.

Guy Consolmagno, SJ of the Vatican Observatory, presented "Your God is too Small" on Friday, October 1.

Review the recorded livestream of the lecture on Facebook.

In partnership with McCormick Theological Seminary and Catholic Theological Union, LSTC offered the 2021 Scherer Lecture virtually on September 28, 2021 at 4 p.m. The lecture featured Dr. George Hunsberger, one of the founders of the Gospel and Culture movement. The Scherer Lecture, titled “Three innovators in mission: Lamin Sanneh, Lesslie Newbigin, and Dorothy Day,” focused on three Christians in our own day who brought creative innovation to the practice of mission. Watch the livestream of the 2021 lecture on the LSTC Facebook page.