Celebrating a son's graduation:
Pastor Lee Miller, II, and Dad, Bishop Miller.

A bishop whose son was among the graduates advised a Seminary commencement audience of emerging professional leaders to be "spiritual leaders at the gas stations" of life, where people are "being filled to go out into an alien culture."

"Religion is an option now, not central," said keynote speaker, the Rev. Lee Miller, bishop of the Upstate New York Synod, a jurisdiction of the 5.2 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. "We are aliens in our own land."

Bishop Miller is the father of Lee Miller, II, one of the 58 graduates involved in commencement exercises for The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia this month. The bishop urged the graduates going out into the world (or, in the case of second-career individuals, returning to it) to remember they have "a torch to carry -- new expectations because you're new and different now and in a new context, newly equipped for a brave new world. As leaders you will need to remember you are not called to do everything, but rather to have a vision, ideas on how to get there. You are missionaries who need not be afraid to proclaim boldly….You are called upon as spiritual leaders to do and be justice."

Miller also urged the graduates, as spiritual leaders, to discover "sacred spots, places where you can just be to reflect about God, to be in touch with your spiritual being. Read devotionally as well as for the next sermon. Seek to deepen and broaden your spirituality. Connect. Take time to play…"

He noted that he had observed that his son, as a seminarian, had "gained a passion for the Gospel. He has high energy, a passion for justice. He's learned at home, here (at the Seminary), on internship in the city. Together we look forward to the day when all of us know Jesus as Lord, when all feel welcome, cared for and fed in our faith."

The bishop's son, Lee, II, addressed the theme -- "It's about time…"

The younger Lee said it was about time to celebrate the results of an education and the relationships seminarians have enjoyed with pastors in internships, with gracious professors and with other people during days in seminary. "We couldn't have made it without friends. It's time to appreciate the relationships we've had with our families and at home. We've nurtured our faith and had time with God and with our own hearts. After wrestling with it all, we are still standing."

"This has been a time well spent with God, who has shaped us in God's own image," Lee Miller, II, said. "Now it's time to go, to commence, to go down the road to a new beginning that will lead to the transforming of ourselves. God will be ahead of you, ahead of us. God will lead us there."

The commencement exercises were held at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. A total of 58 graduates received First Professional Degrees (Master of Divinity or Master of Arts in Religion), certificates or advanced degrees.

The Seminary is one of eight across the ELCA, which has about 11,000 congregations. In the fall of 1997, the Seminary welcomed a record number of entering students in the First Professional Degree program (74). A new Student Residence, nearing completion, will be dedicated September 13. The building, with 64 living units, is the first new construction on the campus in decades. It's designed to accommodate a diverse student body ranging from single, recent college graduates to second-career candidates with families and children.