Former Dean is the eleventh President of The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (April 26, 2000)- Ceremonies installing the Rev. Dr. Philip D. W. Krey as the eleventh President of The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia are set for 3 p.m. Friday May 19 on the Seminary campus.

The installation will take place underneath a tent, which will also be the site for the Seminary's commencement exercises at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 21.

Professor Timothy Wengert, who teaches the Lutheran Confessions and Reformation History at the Seminary, will deliver keynote remarks at the installation. A reception will follow.

Dr. Krey was elected to the Seminary's top post by the Board of Trustees last October. He succeeds the Rev. Dr. Robert G. Hughes, who stepped down at the end of 1999 to resume his teaching career. Dr. Hughes is currently on sabbatical.

A Professor of Church History at the Seminary since 1990, Dr. Krey had assumed the post of Dean of the Seminary in July 1997. During his Seminary career, he has served as co-director of the LTSP Urban Program and as mentoring pastor both at Emanuel Lutheran Church in Philadelphia's revitalized Southwark section and for St. John's Lutheran Church in the city's Overbrook section. He has been an interim pastor for Trinity Lutheran Church in Philadelphia's Germantown section and held pastorates at churches in Chicago and Baltimore.

A graduate of The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Dr. Krey is a resident of Philadelphia's East Mt. Airy section. He holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts (1972), an M.A. from the Catholic University of America (1985), and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1990). His key interests have included the urban church and Medieval and Byzantine studies. He is the author of a just-released book, Nicholas of Lyra: The Senses of Scripture (Studies in the History of Christian Thought, Vol. 90) (Brill, 2000), written with Dr. Lesley Smith, a scholar and historian at Oxford University. Dr. Krey is a rostered member of the New England Synod and worships at St. Michael's Lutheran Church in the East Mount Airy section of Philadelphia.

Born in Brooklyn, Phil Krey hails from a family strongly rooted in the Lutheran tradition. His father, the late Rev. Rudolf Krey, was a pastor serving congregations in Germany, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Three of his brothers are ordained. His mother, Gertrude, and most of his other brothers and sisters have been leaders in their congregations.

Dr. Krey is married to Rene Diemer, the Seminary's Registrar. The couple are parents of five children, Jessicah, a first-year student at the Seminary; Lindsay, a University of Chicago senior; Jordan, 18, a Northeastern University freshman; Noah, 14, and Micah, 8.