They are among the students in the first professional degree program
of The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and they all have
a vision to make a key difference as professional church leaders in
the next century. Here are some of their stories!
Kathryn Andonian is an Episcopalian
seeking a Master of Arts in Religion Degree. Following undergraduate
and graduate degrees in gerontology, Kathryn worked most recently in
Sacramento, CA, as the legislative advocate for a health care organization.
"The policy work was confrontational, fraught with ethical dilemmas,
frequently disheartening but always exciting," she says. She experienced
the joy, with husband, March, of rearing a daughter, Caitlin, 10, and
also became involved in Sacramento as an advocate for neighborhood improvement
and found "I could bring together people with diverse opinions
and reach agreement on contentious issues. Despite my good work and
success, there was a sense of incompleteness and lack of focus for our
harried lives. I had lost touch with God's plan. I had long since ceased
to center on prayer and seeking spiritual direction. So we went back
to church and found more than we were looking for. I knew that direction
would become clear with prayer and an open mind." Last year, March
was offered a new job in Philadelphia. The move opened a path for Kathryn
to discover the Seminary. "So here I am. I hope to better understand
the role of the church in community ministry and what it means for me.
I have been blessed with a wonderful opportunity to walk a new path
-- even though the journey's end is yet unclear to me."
Arthur
F. Hebbeler, III, says getting to Seminary was a 20-year journey.
"It started my senior year at Culver, IN, Military Academy when
the school chaplain and I started a weekly conversation about preaching.
I thought then about going straight to college and on to Seminary, but
my pastor at the time gave me what I thought was great advice. He said
if I could find any reason NOT to go, then God was telling me it wasn't
time yet. So I served 13 years in the Air Force all over the country
in a wide range of assignments. It was a great career, but as time went
on I felt something was missing in my life. I met the Rev. George Keck
at LTSP, and he was clearly so excited about the school and my becoming
a part of the Seminary that I felt like I was being recruited for a
top 10 football program. I became convinced Philadelphia was the place
for me because students were genuinely excited about the faculty and
its programs. I'm not sure where I'll end up in ministry, but I've lived
all over the country, and so I'm sure no matter what happens it will
be the right challenge that God has given me."
Dan
Ruge was raised in a small town, Merrill, WI, and has steadily
felt the need to expand his horizons. "I felt the call to the ordained
ministry during the past year and decided to pursue the call wholeheartedly."
He had earned a B.S. in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and had been working in a University medical microbiology laboratory
when his sense of the call became strengthened."Pastor Franklin
D. Fry, an alumnus of the Seminary, encouraged me to pursue ordination
and persuaded me that LTSP would provide the greatest challenge and
best education for my needs," Ruge said. "The faculty's commitment
to urban education also drew me here. I am excited that the Lord has
led me in this direction. Although the metropolitan population of Philadelphia
is large, I am part of a diverse and talented family at the Seminary.
God has a plan for me that I am only now beginning to understand. A
year ago I could not have imagined myself studying in Philadelphia.
Now, I cannot imagine myself studying anywhere else…"
Margaret V. L. Tyson is a child
of a parsonage who has been involved in church activities since the
age of 12. "I thought I would be an artist or a lawyer, but in
1969 I acknowledged God's call on my life," Margaret says. "I
heard God telling me to preach, but I thought I'd teach. I didn't respond.
She remained active in the African Methodist Episcopal Church while
teaching first grade in a private school. In 1995 the call became so
insistent that I was not able to focus on anything else." After
much prayer, she approached her father, an AME pastor, and told him
she wanted to accept the call. He questioned her closely and prayed
with her. She became licensed to preach in 1996 but still wasn't ready
for Seminary. The idea of ordination became paramount in 1997, but so
did the notion of marriage to a Philadelphia man. "We made plans
for marriage, and I left a teaching position in Brooklyn, NY,"
she says. The marriage plans didn't work out, but her plans to enter
seminary solidified, and she soon felt that God was calling her to LTSP.
"I didn't make any other inquiries. I didn't look at the video
presentation. I didn't come to look over the campus. I don't know what
lies ahead, but I know after being here that this is a place where I
will receive something unique and significant from the Lord."
Sandy
Birchmeier has felt a call to ministry since the early 1980s.
Her home church called her to serve as a parish worker to develop programs
and ministries for adults. She actually began studying at LTSP in 1988
but soon became uncertain whether ordination was part of God's plan
for her. She became a counselor, earning a Master's degree in that field.
Moving to Nebraska, she felt a strong calling into the church during
an employment search. "I re-entered the candidacy process in the
fall of 1997, believing the time is right." Sandy says. "God
has taught and strengthened me in the nine years since I last took classes
at LTSP." She says she has been impressed with the concern administration
and faculty at the Seminary have shown for the emotional and spiritual
needs of students. "I feel a certain pull toward urban ministry,"
she says. "The experiences the Seminary offers give the opportunity
and training needed to test this 'call within a call'."
Twenty
years ago Barbara Caruana foresaw a corporate career
for herself. Following a career path with Armstrong World Industries,
she focused on various business aspects -- system management, program
analysis, litigation administration, financial administration and project
management. "I found myself going through the motions, rather than
doing what my heart was telling me to do," she said. She consulted
a career counselor and discovered her aptitudes were suited for business,
but by the way, have you ever considered the ordained ministry? She
spoke to her pastor, the Rev. Timothy J. Bettger of St. Matthew Lutheran
Church, Lancaster, PA. It soon became clear "that I wasn't running
away, but rather running toward something." By cruising the internet,
she came across the LTSP web site and discovered the Seminary has a
resident-commuter program that could allow her to maintain her Lancaster
home while studying Monday through Thursday. "I packed my car August
18, drove to the LTSP campus and began the process of following a dream
and answering a call to God's service," she says.
Jennifer
Ollikainen grew up near Rochester, NY, and "always felt
comfortable in the church growing up. I knew the church was a safe place
for me." When she went off to college in Berea, OH, the Lutheran
church was the first place she visited. Attending Baldwin Wallace College
Conservatory of Music, she pursued a double major in music performance
and music therapy with piano as a major and violin as a minor. "I
struggled for years to decide what my direction should be, all the while
actively participating in the local church with the choir, the youth
group and other activities. Nothing clicked. Nothing felt right vocationally.
Then the congregation called a new pastor, and she planted the seeds
with me for pursuing the ordained ministry as a vocation. She kept asking
me whether I was thinking of going to Seminary, and I thought she was
crazy. But she began a discernment process." Completing her education,
she moved to Philadelphia in search of a job. She visited LTSP because
her fiance was a student, and her father was a member of the Seminary's
Board of trustees. "I was always welcomed with open arms,"
she says. "Over time I became comfortable in the community. I became
a member of a local congregation that supported me in the questions
I asked about life. As I dug deeper into my life I realized my pastor's
suggestion had been the answer. As soon as I set my mind and heart to
pursuing God's call to vocational ministry, my world opened up. I knew
this was right like nothing before."
Gertrude Keasley is Dean of
the Church of God in Christ's State Sunday School Department and has
the responsibility of selecting workshop topics and instructors for
the program. Her background had impressed upon her the need for in-depth
Bible study. She also felt knowledge of Greek or Hebrew, knowing biblical
language as it originated, could make her understanding more effective.
She wanted to earn licensure as an evangelist and became persuaded that
studying at LTSP through its Urban Theological Institute might give
her the background and choice of courses she desired. At times she hesitated
to return to intensive study because she had found it a strain earlier
in life to juggle raising a son, traveling for a job, working for the
church and attending classes two nights a week and on Saturday. She
earned both a Bachelor's and Master's degree maintaining such a schedule.
"Part of me says, Do you want to go there again?" she says.
"But this yearning for more Biblical education and in-depth study
just won't go away! I am open to God's direction, because I believe
it is God leading me in this pursuit."
Donna Jean Kiessling considers
St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Douglassville, PA, to be her family.
"What gives me life are my various church activities, especially
in ministry and liturgy." She graduated from high school in the
secretarial curriculum with a focus to get a job and support herself.
"The day of my graduation I was hired as a secretary/receptionist
for a law firm in Pottstown, PA. I found after two years the legal profession
was not a lifetime career for me." Two other jobs in claims adjusting
and the travel profession followed. She attended Ursinus College at
night to learn of other career possibilities. She found religion and
philosophy courses most interesting but her company's tuition reimbursement
plan would not pay for a degree in theology. So she pursued a degree
in Business Management and worked 11 years for a large manufacuting
corporation. But her secular working life wasn't satisfying enough.
She discovered LTSP, and found out that by studying part-time through
the Seminary's Urban Theological Institute, she could afford the education
she desired while continuing to work. "Now, I believe God is calling
me to a six-year journey to achieve the educational goal which is my
heart's desire," she says.
Nathan
Pipho grew up on a dairy farm near Denver, IA, and was involved
in the same country church his great-great grandfather had been a charter
member of 140 years ago. He was elected to the church council at the
age of 14, served two years as President of the Luther League, volunteered
for two call committees and for seven years was the congregation's organist.
Seminary study was always in the back of his mind as he did undergraduate
studies at Wartburg College, Waverly, IA, majoring in political science
and psychology. During an internship with hospital chaplains, he discovered
that God had allowed him the chance to see his gifts in action. "When
I thought of seminaries, I thought of the rich heritage of my rural
midwestern background," he said. To fully appreciate the diversity
of the Lutheran church and to prepare myself for ministry to all of
God's people, I decided to open myself to study in an entirely new location."
The community aspect of life at LTSP impressed him. And while attending
classes he was further intrigued by the variety of student backgrounds.
"In my first weeks, I haven't been disappointed," Nathan says.
"My classmates come from Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, Wisconsin,
Indiana, Maine, Canada, Puerto Rico, Namibia, Slovakia, Argentina and
Egypt, and I feel we've all come together very well."
Nelson
H. Rabell-Gonzalez grew up in Bayamon, near San Juan, Puerto
Rico. His mother is a lawyer. His father is a businessman. His home
congregation, Sion Lutheran Church, is the largest Lutheran congregation
in Puerto Rico with many youth activities. "It was through youth
ministry that I found the call from God to become a minister of Word
and sacrament," he says. The 1991 Youth Gathering of the ELCA was
influential too. He was studying mechanical engineering at the time
at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. The Rev. Nelson Rivera,
now on the LTSP faculty, was the candidacy director for the Caribbean
Synod at the time, Nelson recalls, "and my home pastor, the Rev.
Gregory Villalon, helped me in my search for a ministry vocation. Nelson
Rivera influenced me quite a bit after I completed college." His
new wife, Fabiola Ramos, gave additional support to his ministry goal.
In visiting the campus last spring, Nelson found the kind of welcoming
community that "reminded us of our beloved Puerto Rico…I know
this will be an exciting year, filled with God's presence."
Nathan Lee Shaw, Jr. was born in
Sumter, SC, but grew up in North Philadelphia and has been active as
a licensed minister of evangelism and church development at Oak Lane
United Church of Christ, where he's been intensely active both in church
and community activities. "I have a real affinity for Black culture,"
Nathan says. "I'm always ready to give a ready ear to someone who
is suffering and to preach against what Paul called idolatry. "When
I consider the chaotic conditions of the world and the blatant defiance
of the reality of God, it is important that the church is steadfast,
unmovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord. We can no longer
afford to do theology in a vacuum. We need to reach out and address
people's spiritual, social and economic circumstances." Nathan
sees studying nights and weekends through the Seminary's Urban Theological
Institute as a strategy "to better prepare meto deal with the various
multicultural and multi-racial issues that confront the church."
He finds it an advantage that the Institute is housed in a Seminary
"so close to home, work and church."
Maritza Torres says her decision
to heed the call of God began about 10 years ago when she visited a
Lutheran church, "Principe de Paz," in Caguas, Puerto Rico.
"They opened their doors to me, and I began to see how the Lord's
peace could replace the doubts and fears in my heart. The members of
that small church watered and nourished a seed planted in my heart as
a child." Later on, living in Philadelphia, she was further nourished
by friends at New Creation Lutheran Church. She felt herself returning
to the questions of service that had surfaced before in Puerto Rico.
"I contacted Pastor George Keck at the Seminary and began to process
my application." She began her candidacy process. Influential in
her decision was support she received from her pastor, the Rev. Patrick
Cabello Hansell, and Luisa, his wife, also a seminarian. "Once
I said yes, all heaven broke loose and everything fell into place,"
she says "I am thrilled to be at this Seminary in the city that
I love the most and which helped form what I am today. The Lord has
brought me to a community of saints that now form my new, adopted family."
All
through high school I struggled between becoming a pastor and a musician,"
recalls Albert William Triolo. "I wanted to serve
the Lord, but I didn't think I was good enough." He recalls that
in growing up in Queens, New York, he hadn't been very good in Confirmation
class at first. Then he began to feel he had something to prove to himself
and others. "I began doing what I could around the church. I began
to learn the Gospel and sense the Lord in my life through my participation,"
he recalls. "I realized soon that I would never be a professional
musician -- not because I wasn't capable, but rather because the Lord
would never let me rest unless I thought about Seminary study."
While in college at Wagner, he realized that being a pastor wasn't the
only type of ministry. He considered campus ministries, youth ministry
and inner-city work. He finally decided to pursue ordination. He searched
the web to discover Seminary options and secured an application package
from LTSP. "Now at Seminary, my excitement grows by leaps and bounds
each day. I'm excited about being prepared to do service in an urban
community. Being a native New Yorker, I desire greatly for the Lord
to use me there."
