The Inauguration of Kristen Johnston Largen, Ph.D. as President of Wartburg Theological Seminary

Back at the Castle again. Students had dressed Luther up with cope and miter for the event.

I won’t win any awards for these photos, but they give a glimpse of the event. As others share their photos with me over the next week, I will add to this post.

Hanging out with Bishop Yehiel Curry, Metropolitan Chicago Synod.

Gulf Coast Synod candidate for ministry and member of Tree of Life Conroe Bunny Stoutes served as President Largen’s “handler.“

The Gulf Coast Synod Former Presidents of Wartburg Seminary Club. Both Louise Johnson and Duane Larson are rostered in our synod.

Big smiles from Guy Erwin, President of United Lutheran Seminary, and Mary Hinkle Shore, Rector and Dean of Lutheran Southern Theological Seminary.

The morning Inauguration was followed by a reception at the Grand River Center.

At 3:00 we gathered for The Presidential Inauguration Address in the Wartburg Chapel.

Gulf Coast Synod candidate for ministry and member of Christ the King Houston Marie Martinez participated with one of the readings.

“Life Together” was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s response to the rhetoric and politics of division in Nazi Germany.

“Life Together” is our identity here at Wartburg, and it is also our promise to the church and the world.

3 facets of Wartburg’s identity

Our clear sense of mission and purpose. Trining for ministry with both a castle presence and a digital community. Centered around worship. No classes or meetings during daily worship each morning. Weekly spiritual formation. Balance of core Lutheran theological commitments and an ecclesiology that allows flexibility in non-essentials.
Our Existence as a resilient community that learns and grows together. Justification and justice stand together in the proclamation of the gospel. Life together is messy and costly. We are as much a learning institution as a teaching institution.
Outward orientation to the world. The gospel is transforming the world. The steady faith of motley christian communities near and far participated in this.

Professor Winston Persaud gave one of the responses to the lecture.

Our connection with Wartburg Theological Seminary is long and deep. As Lutherans populated Texas, they gradually affiliated with the Missouri Synod (1847), the Ohio Synod (1818) or the Iowa Synod (1854). The Texas Synod (1851) affiliated with the Iowa Synod in 1896, becoming the Texas District of the Iowa Synod (founded in as the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa and Other States). Pastors in Texas came from many places, but Wartburg seminary, 1000 miles from Houston, became a training ground for Texas and Louisiana pastors. In 1929, the Iowa Synod joined in the merger that formed the American Lutheran Church, which through mergers eventually became the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Even today the Texas contingent at Wartburg is substantial.

An evening soirée gave people a chance to connect.