Newest faculty members
will share the same title

The Rev. Dr. Melinda Quivik and the Rev. Dirk Lange will both be assistant professors of Practical theology - Christian Assembly. Both earned degrees at LTSP

PHILADELPHIA, PA (May 6, 2005) - They will have the same faculty title at LTSP - assistant professor of Practical theology - Christian Assembly. But the Rev. Dirk G. Lange and the Rev. Dr. Melinda Quivik are dramatically different kinds of people.

Melinda Quivik

Quivik hails from the Minneapolis, MN. Lange was reared in Winnipeg, MN. While both are "cradle Lutherans," Quivik was greatly influenced not only through a scholarly focus on Liturgy but also by serving two small congregations in Montana. Lange spent nearly 20 years as a monk in the Community of the Taize in Southeastern France. The spirit of that ecumenical association profoundly influenced Lange "deeply touching me," he explains. Through travels in Eastern Europe during the 1980s he became a fascinated witness to the role liturgy and prayer played in not only nourishing the faithful in the underground church, but also in disrupting and overturning the economics and politics of places like East Germany.

Both savored the teaching of mentor Gordon W. Lathrop, the recently retired Charles Schieren Professor of Liturgy at LTSP. Quivik says she came to Philadelphia as an M.Div. candidate in 1989 in part because Philadelphia seemed like the best place for her and husband, Fred, to both accomplish their graduate studies objectives (Mindy at LTSP, and Fred studying for a Ph.D. in the History of Technology at the University of Pennsylvania). She hadn't really known much of Lathrop, but quickly discovered him to be "a very pleasant surprise." After learning the "very real routine" of the liturgy in the Community of the Taize, Lange decided to further his scholarly pursuits first at Saskatoon Seminary near his home turf, and then was told "you just have to study" with the Rev. Dr. Gordon Lathrop. Lange earned his STM in 2001 from LTSP and says that Lathrop's theological vision "really influenced me," giving Lange necessary academic tools for his teaching and passing on important knowledge about the pastoral study of liturgy. "He really expanded some of my thoughts," Lange says.

Now both will be involved in a unique undertaking that forges the relationship between the teaching of homiletics (preaching) and liturgy.

Dirk Lange

"We're after a more profound approach about how preaching may be integrated more deeply into the liturgical event," Lange says. Very often the two disciplines are kept separate, and he said he thinks as a consequence, liturgy has suffered. "We want to pick up on the pattern that there is a juxtaposition between Word, Bath and Table." He said Quivik and he have been talking about this juxtaposition for a long time.

Quivik said she has been impressed over hearing the excitement in the LTSP faculty over the idea of having two new faculty members with gifts in both disciplines working together on integrating the disciplines in their teaching. "The conversations have been bustling over the possibilities," she says. "And Dirk and I are excited about what our work together might look like. Our first challenge will be to explore and listen to faculty and students about their ideas, concerns and needs." Quivik says she likes a thought expressed frequently by Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. "He says the most significant Lutheran word is 'and'," she says. And in terms of the challenge ahead, she emphasizes "Word AND sacrament" as disciplines which in history have sometimes been depicted as being in opposition to each other.

Discussing influences, Quivik says her love of liturgy was a factor that drove her back into the church after a period of less attachment. At LTSP, from which she graduated in 1993, Quivik says she learned that "liturgy is really how faith is born and grows. She's quick to note that serving two small congregations with German and Scandinavian influences in Montana "taught me a great deal about what Sunday meant to my parishioners." She says that even though the congregations reflected Northern European cultures "that I learned much from them that can be translated for every community of faith today." Quivik was also deeply influenced for the better by studying at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, where she related to believers from Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Roman Catholic backgrounds. "That experience helped me to understand how diversity feeds our understanding of who God is," she says.

Lange says that the Lutheran congregation he attended in his early years in Winnipeg was noted for its great care in conducting the liturgy during worship. The congregation was a part of pilot discussions involving Anglicans and Lutherans in Canada. He said he came to embrace the work of the Taize Community and its practice of liturgy and prayer "that has had a profound impact on thousands of young people. Its ecumenical vision, understanding of community and open door approach really touched me." He was also inspired by witnessing the work of the underground church in the 1980s and its sponsorship of little prayer groups that secretly met "at great risk" in the churches and apartments of cities like Leipzig and Erfurt. "As time went on their actions became bolder, providing more space for open discussion" not only about faith, but the impact on their lives of the economic and political policies of the day, he recalls. "They would end their prayer groups by lighting a candle of hope." Lange described seeing these candles emerge eventually into the streets in a procession that confronted political authority and soldiers. "The practice of their faith gave them a kind of rootedness in the Gospel story that countered the myths of the political system they were a part of." He says that the practice of liturgy and prayer has the capacity to influence believers in the North American culture just as powerfully today as they strive to deal with the concerns of their context.

Ecumenism is important to both future LTSP teachers. Quivik believes that being part of a confessionally strong Lutheran seminary is essential to her. "You need to know your tradition well to engage fully those from other traditions," she says. "Knowing your own tradition enables you to ask questions of others that enable you to dig deeper." She said she believes that engaging conversations with those deeply committed to their own traditions "helps everyone grow stronger."

Lange said he believes prayer is at the root of any form of ecumenism. In his most recent teaching assignment as an instructor at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, he says he didn't have any Lutheran students but scholars from United Methodist, African Methodist Episcopal and Baptist backgrounds. He taught "Introduction to Public Worship" and taught according to the Lutheran Confessions about an understanding of liturgy, Word and sacrament. "I was astounded at the positive way the students responded to that teaching," he says.

Lange anticipates receiving his Ph.D. from Emory's Graduate Division of Religion this summer. He and wife, Ilona, have three children - Florence, 4; Julien, 1, and Noemi, 9 days old as of this writing.