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08 April 2025

LTS is seeking your assistance as it goes about reexamining the Values section in its Strategic Plan. Your insights and feedback are always greatly appreciated.

This link will lead you to a short survey, which should take approximately 4-5 minutes to complete.

Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MG2CPZW

President Harrison is asking that surveys be submitted by April 15th, 2025, at the latest. Thank you for your input!

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05 May 2025

June 15-17, 2025 (online)

This year’s conference focuses on questions of sacred space, such as:

What is sacred space? How do we participate in co-creating sacred space? What theological responses and practices equip us for engaging hope in the world today?

The main speaker is The Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Y. Lartey, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spiritual Care at Candler School of Theology (Emory University), who will speak about how the various homes of the sacred are places of community and communal care. After his presentation, he will engage in dialogue with an additional scholar and then open the conversation to participants. A panel of STU Common Faculty members will also present on issues of sacred space from their disciplines.

This year’s conference also coincides with the biennial meeting of the International Academy of Practical Theology, offering participants a unique opportunity to engage with panels exploring Canadian and global perspectives on the theme of “imagining home.” Featured keynote addresses by Elder Maria Campbell and Joseph Naytowhow—both facilitated by members of the STU community—will deepen this exploration. The conference will conclude with a collaborative, guided session in which participants draw on the insights gained to co-create a “Christian Action Plan,” envisioning concrete ways to embody hope in their own communities and contexts.

The full schedule and registration are online: https://fourcollegeconference.eventbrite.ca

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17 March 2025

There is still time to submit an article for the upcoming issue of Consensus: A Canadian Journal of Public Theology, which focuses on how Lutherans and ecumenical partners engage the Nicene Creed in the 21st-century.

Manuscripts of 3000- to 4000-words can explore such questions as:

• What role does the Nicene Creed have in lifelong spiritual formation?
• How does the Nicene Creed serve as a foundation (both an opportunity and a challenge) in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue?
• What are the implications for contemporary pneumatology with the proposed removal of the Filioque?
• Why might a community continue to use the Nicene Creed when its language and style seem antiquated?
• How do modern creeds and professions of faith relate to the Nicene Creed? If modern texts are to be adopted by churches today, what might the process be?

Submissions are due April 15 to Prof. Kyle Schiefelbein-Guerrero, the journal’s co-editor. Additional information is on the journal’s website: https://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/about.html

Consensus is an online peer-reviewed journal co-produced by LTS and Martin Luther University College.

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10 March 2025

President Harrison is delighted to make two announcements: the first is that Dr. Kayko Driedger Hesslein, the William Hordern Professor of Theology, has been granted tenure effective January 1, 2025 in recognition of her significant contributions to the teaching and institutional life of LTS.

The second announcement is that Dr. Driedger Hesslein has been promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, granted by President Bill Harrison and affirmed by the LTS Board of Governors.

Dr. Driedger Hesslein joined the faculty in 2020 as a full-time professor, having previously served as a sessional instructor since 2015. She is the first person of Japanese descent to be granted tenure in the field of theology in Canada, and the second woman to hold a professorship in systematic theology at an ELCIC seminary.

“I am grateful to God, the tenure committee, President Harrison, and the LTS Board for this continued affirmation of my call to teach and form leaders for the church. I look forward with joy and excitement to continuing to serve the LTS community in our shared ministry,” says Dr. Driedger Hesslein.

Dr. Driedger Hesslein’s dedication to teaching, scholarship, and service to our seminary community is deeply appreciated. Congratulations on this well-deserved achievement!

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24 February 2025

On March 26^th, at 6pm SK time, LTS will be hosting a Storaasli lecture on Zoom by The Rev. Cody J. Sanders, PhD. Titled “Understanding Christian Nationalism, Practicing Christian Community,” this lecture will focus on the degree to which Christian nationalism has upset the U.S. political and ecclesial landscapes for the past several years. Now Canadians are witnessing its emergence north of the border in unsettling ways.

This lecture will help participants understand the contours of Christian nationalism and its diffuse aims and orientations. Building upon an ability to recognize Christian nationalist thought and activity when it arises, the lecture will also lead participants into analyzing its relationship to the ways that community is cultivated and how we might embody relational practices that curtail the lure and influence of Christian nationalism in our communities as we practice the ways of Jesus. 

Rev. Sanders is Associate Professor of Congregational and Community Care Leadership at Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. Prior to Luther, he served as a parish pastor in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as a higher education chaplain at both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has published several books including, Christianity, LGBTQ Suicide, and the Souls of Queer Folk (Lexington, 2020), Corpse Care: Ethics for Tending the Dead (Fortress, 2023), and Spiritual Care First Aid: An All-Hands Approach for Church and Community (Fortress, 2025). 

Olaf K. Storaasli was the President of Luther Theological Seminary from 1953-59. In 2000, he and his family set up an endowed Storaasli Lectureship. This fund is used to bring speakers from the United States to Canada, with the intention of enhancing ELCA-ELCIC seminary relations.

Here is the link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/my/kdh.lts

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