Former Dean addresses challenge:
How to minister with a global
perspective in a terror-filled age

Listen to remarks (requires free RealAudio player)

For the Rev. Dr. Faith Rohrbough, championing a global perspective in theological education is nothing new. As the first woman to serve as Dean of a Lutheran Seminary in North America at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, she was an advocate for seeing that every faculty member on leave at LTSP considered a multicultural and global focus in their reflection.

Faith Rohrbough

Now, serving as the first woman to be President of a Lutheran Seminary in North America at Saskatoon Seminary, Rohrbough returned to LTSP November 6, sounding a note of new urgency for the leaders of tomorrow in addressing the theme "Ministry in a Global Culture."

"On September 11 the world tipped crazily and our perspective changed," Rohrbough told a packed Amphitheater of students, staff, faculty and friends. Before the events of September 11 taking the lives of hundreds of World Trade Center occupants who represented some 80 nations, "our knowledge of the globe as depicted on CNN seemed far away and could be put out of our minds. Now those events and the threat of anthrax have caused us in the U.S. and North America to lose our moorings and be afraid. We know we are not in total control."

Rohrbough said being an American living in Canada has offered her a unique perspective through living in a land "affected by cross-border issues many people in America never hear of." The outcome of some of those issues can be devastating at times to Canada and creates a certain anti-American sentiment. "It's not a hotbed of such sentiment. There is an extraordinary loss and a true sense of mourning and grief in Canada," she said, but there is also a concern that the early shrewd diplomatic approaches of President Bush could lead to a widening conflict.

Philip D. W. Krey, left, and Faith Rohrbough

September 11 events, she said "have forced us out of our insulated lives and reminded us we live in the same world as 95 percent of the rest of us." The question for the church is, "How do we preach to those forced out of their splendid isolation? How do we help them deal with issues they have steadfastly refused to face, poverty, isolation, oppression?" She urged the future leaders in the room "to think long and hard about taking on the task of changing such lives. It will be hard work. You will be challenged and changed by it."

She expressed three ideas to consider.

1. "Remind them that their salvation is in Christ and not the things of this world," she said. This reminder is crucial for people coping with loss and fear of the future. The challenge is not unlike the experience faced by 17^th Century forebears in the faith, Huguenot refugees.
2. In order to embrace a global perspective, it is critical to understand one's own context. Without such a contextual understanding, a global perspective is inevitably abstract. Each focus "keeps the other honest," she said. "Christ is the light of the whole world, a light no darkness can overcome. Not everyone hears the Gospel the way we do," she said.
3. Recognize the causes we have in common with others around the world. To embrace such a common witness she said makes it crucial that we not build higher walls, but that we take ecumenical dialogues and interfaith discussions seriously. Today's and tomorrow's leaders will need to have clarity and knowledge about other faiths in their ministry and treat other kinds of believers fairly and with respect.

She listed seven factors crucial to training leaders to lead in the church with a global perspective.

1. Teach a practical knowledge of Bible and Biblical history that emphasizes quality and makes use of the best faculty and students with a real heart for the Gospel.
2. Make sure that each course taught has underlying global and contextual themes to imbue students with a global Christian consciousness.
3. Seminary faculty and staff need to expand their own horizons and deepen perspective in their own specialties with a global consciousness.
4. Signal students that acquiring a global consciousness is not just an add-on to their education.
5. Take advantage of every opportunity for open dialogues by inviting teachers and speakers from other contexts to the campus and encouraging students to study on other continents.
6. Require each and every candidate for rostered leadership to engage in some form of interfaith dialogue.
7. Address regularly the sinful proclivity for the strong and well-off to ignore the weak and the poor. "In the arenas of politics, economics and theology," she said, "it is time for us to be more humble, to listen and to learn," she said.

Rohrbough has been President of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Saskatoon since 1996. She served as Dean at LTSP from 1978 to 1991 when she elected to return to teaching and became the Anna Burkhalter Professor of the History of Christianity. She was instrumental as Dean in bringing about the 20-year-old Urban Theological Institute, working with co-founders the Rev. Dr. Randolph Jones and the Rev. Dr. Andrew Willis. The program supports African American leaders to expand their credentials while studying at the Seminary part-time.

On November 6 immediately prior to her address, a portrait of Rohrbough was dedicated in the Seminary's Hagan Administration Center gallery under the heading "Seminary firsts" to celebrate her pioneering endeavors. She also received honorary membership in the Seminary's Alumni/ae Association through a special certificate presented her by the Rev. Laura Csellak, Associate Director of the LTSP Foundation.