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| "Alfalfa Field Sunset" by Glendon Rolston |
We pray for the ministry and witness of our seminaries .
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A Greeting
Make me to know your ways, O God;
teach me your paths.
(Psalm 25:4)
A Reading
As for me, I was like a canal from a river,
like a water channel into a garden.
I said, ‘I will water my garden
and drench my flower-beds.’
And lo, my canal became a river,
and my river a sea.
I will again make instruction shine forth like the dawn,
and I will make it clear from far away.
I will again pour out teaching like prophecy,
and leave it to all future generations.
Observe that I have not laboured for myself alone,
but for all who seek wisdom.
(Sirach 24:32-34)
Music
This recording of Luther's Inshallah choir was made during a special gathering
in support of refugee resettlement in Kingston. The choir often travels from
its base in Waterloo for special gatherings and to collaborate with other choirs.
Meditative Verse
Teach me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
(Psalm 143:8)
A Prayer
Lord God of all wisdom, shine your brilliant light on the
path of all who study at theological schools. Pour out your
teaching like prophecy and guide those who study. Bless the
learning, provide the growth, and prepare the hearts and
minds of all, that we may see you and the love and grace
you intend for a broken and hurting world. Enable us by our
baptismal call to follow you more deeply, and to always
seek your wisdom, that we may speak your words of healing,
wholeness, justice, reconciliation, love, and peace.
We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
- by Pastor Fran Schmidt, LTS Saskatoon, Class of 2008.
Verse for the Day
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything,
and remind you of all that I have said to you.
(John 14:26)
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| "Sunday Morning on the Grand River" by Gary Simmons |
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In today’s reading, the pre-Christian era prophet Sirach uses water imagery to show how the education of faith leaders flows from Scripture as a watery source, and from which the one who is taught becomes like a canal or river. For Christians, these words have a baptismal echo, reminding us all of our baptismal call to discipleship. Seminaries in all denominations bring a variety of theological perspectives and experience to the guidance of people who come from an equally wide variety of religious formation. Seminaries form not just pastors and priests, but deacons and pastoral counsellors and those who do lay ministry in the unique ways they are called. Seminaries provide places for development of theological reflection as they interact with other forms of public space and public conversation by offering events and gatherings that bring together religious and non-religious alike. Sirach’s use of water imagery encourages us to think of our seminaries as places where the waters of Scripture transform into that which irrigates and grows the minds of generations of leadership. Quite often in our contemporary contexts, pastors and priests and deacons act in communities to stand in solidarity with those who are caught in systems of injustice. In John 14, we hear Jesus’ last words to the disciples include the promise of the ‘Advocate’, who will come and “teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you”. Those who are trained to spiritually guide us are reminded to listen at all times to the call of the Holy Spirit in their ministry, so that the waters can continue flowing into the communities they serve and live in. How has your own life been influenced by pastoral teaching? How can you uphold the spiritual leaders in your own communities?
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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada has two principal seminaries: Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (“LTS Saskatoon”) and Martin Luther University College in Waterloo, Ontario (“Luther”). Both seminaries train pastors and pastoral counsellors and both offer doctoral programs and a variety of graduate degrees (Luther also offers undergraduate programmes). LTS Saskatoon offers diaconal ministry training and its Graduate Theological Union offers partnerships with the United Church, Anglican and Pentecostal seminaries. In Ontario, Luther hosts three centres within its principal campus at Wilfrid Laurier University: the Kanata Centre for Worship and Global Song, the Delton Glebe Counselling Centre and the Centre for Public Ethics. Luther’s Inshallah Choir has grown over its decade-plus years to be over one hundred and thirty voices, drawn from the campus community and the wider Waterloo region. The choir celebrates multi-faith and multicultural diversity and recently published a songbook, Sing the Circle Wide.
This slideshow captures an evening of blessing the newly renovated
campus of Martin Luther University College in 2018.
LC† Journey for Justice is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto,
supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Join our Facebook and find us on Instagram. Follow us @LutConnect
