• Pastor Elect Stuart N. Floyd,  Redeemer Lutheran Church in Warsaw, Indiana, vicar 2004-2005
• Pastor Elect Peter A. Richert,  Our Savior Lutheran Church in Mt. Pocono, Pennslyvania, vicar 2005-2006
• Vicar Elect Christopher R. Gillespie, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Saginaw, Michigan
• Vicar Elect William Orr, St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lockport, Illinois 2007-2008

The campus was beautiful this time of year.  The grass was green from all of the rain and the skies were clear.  Eero Saarinen’s architectural skills were well represented here (he also designed the St. Louis Gateway Arch – so both seminaries are in a way connected through him).  Afterwards, we met the vicars-elect and pastors-elect and their families (which meant a group of over 20) at a local restaurant called Don Hall’s Factory.  It was marvelous to see all of them again (and for Vicar Orr and his family, to meet them).  Of course, Lutheran beverages were present…  and I might add the Muddy River I had was very very good.

Afterward, Pastor-Elect Richert and his son Patrick invited us back to his abode for some good Lutheran discussion.   Exahusted afterward, we returned to the hotel eager for our visit to church the next morning.

Sunday came, and after a delightful breakfast, we headed for the 8:30 a.m. worship at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church – a most glorious parish.  Kantor Resch was the preacher and also was able to baptize his grandson, Owen.  The church, which is over 100 years old, was a beautiful example of the sacrifices our forefathers gave to the church.  Clearly the church was prominent in the hearts of many Lutherans in the last century.  The sermon was outstanding and delivered from (as Doris says) a Luther style pulpit.  The service also included singing from both Pastor Elect Richert and his son Patrick (along with the choir of course).  Afterward, we left the church and made our way back to Lockport, saying good bye to Pastor Elect Richert and Patrick.

Please pray for these young men.  They will all be faithful shepherds in Christ’s church and I am honored that I have had the privilege to meet each of them…even if they are from that “other” seminary

The book itself is top-rate. The cover artwork is beautiful as are the pictures within. I am not sure of which parishes the pictures are from, though. Even though we are now using the LSB, it can be easily used as a guide for liturgical ceremony in today’s Lutheran parish. Remember, it was written for TLH’s communion service – which is DSIII in the new LSB. Well, I picked the book up and began reading it and have again gained a large respect for the liturgy. It is a good tool to use to assist a parish Pastor to reintroduce the Lutheran liturgical worship back into our churches. Truly, if the average pew-sitter understood the liturgy – understood where it came from (the Bible) then maybe they would be less interested in replacing it with a theology of glory.

Pastors – order a copy for every Pastor in your winkel (it makes a great gift). Anyone interested in ceremony – pick up a copy for yourself. A bargain at $30.00 shipped (or save $5.00 and get it in Fort Wayne).

And while your at it – get Ceremony and Celebration. Both are books that every parish pastor needs on their bookshelf! And let Fr. Petersen and Fr. McClean know how much you appreciate this reprint.

Well, then being catholic that I am, I just feel awkward eating chicken, beef, or a water buffalo on Ash Wednesday, so maybe I should skip the meat.  Or am I being a little rediculous skipping meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during lent?  I would go all vegetarian if I could get a good vegetarian or vegan cookbook….

So that leaves a side dish.  Or should I make a vegetarian main dish.  Have to decide.   What are your thoughts on fasting or skipping certain meats on certain days during lent?

Which reminds me, when my mother was a wee lad, her family didn’t eat meat or fish from Ash Wednesday through Easter.  This was in an LCMS church – so I suppose she was catholic…  (Can you tell, that I tell everyone I am catholic but not Roman during lent.  I promise to be on good behavior this year and not freak out any nuns telling them they left the catholic church back in 1521.)

Let me know your thoughts.   Goodness, I feel I sometimes make my Pastor seem liberal…and he is about as confessional as they can come.

So, here it is – Welcome to the Northern Illinois District.

I am excited, which is funny since I have never met Pr. Juhl, that he is coming to the NID. You see, my friend Jim is good friends with Pastor Juhl and (if I remember correctly) Pastor Juhl has make a few appearances on one of the mailing lists I am on. When I visited St. Louis last year, I thought about visiting Pr. Juhl and would have made the hundred and some mile trip out there to visit. Fortunately/unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) I instead visited a church who was having “pulpit supply” with their Pastor Elect the Rev. Ryan Fouts, so those plans were nixed. Now that Pastor Juhl is up around here, I can go and visit… Woo hooo….

Take a moment to welcome Pastor Juhl. He is in Pastor Loree’s circuit – so if you have been out visiting Immanuel, you can now go a little further and visit Pastor Juhl.

P.S. We’ll forgive the fact that he is a Cub’s fan.

In response to

The Psalms and their use

at Hot Lutheran on Lutheran Action

http://lpfankabe.blogspot.com/2006/11/psalms-and-their-use.html

AAT is An American Translation and is also referred to as the Beck translation.  The New Testament was translated by Rev. William F. Beck and published in 1963 shortly before Beck’s death.  The Old Testament was never completed by Beck, but in tern was updated by Elmer Smick and Erich Kiehl.  The bible was intented to be in the language of the people.  You can see one of the reason that it did not gain widespread use by looking at Ritewinger’s comments.  There is a review by Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago (think Seminex – it ended up part of this ELCA Sem.) at http://prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/Doc4/beck.pdf.    Yes, this review is from a pro-gay pro-women E*CA clergy.

I don’t know of a lot of reviews for this bible and I obtained mine from the only source I am aware of, Christian News in New Haven, MO.  We may not all agree with him, but he does have passion.

Sean, I was quite surprised to find that your (or I should say any) church uses AAT.

Anyway, that answers that, hopefully, what the AAT is.

Ok, Sean, I have been viewing your blog on and off for some time and was intrigued by this post.  Have you ever met the organist from Immanuel, Hodgkins, IL – he is very knowledgeable about all things musical in the Anglican church?

God’s blessings on the new year!

Andy Anderson
Lockport, IL

http://www.andeweb.info/