wfn.org | Anderson to Retire as President of Trinity Lutheran Seminary

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 29, 1999

ANDERSON TO RETIRE AS PRESIDENT OF TRINITY LUTHERAN SEMINARY
99-303-JB/AZR**

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Dennis A. Anderson, 62, president of
Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, announced he plans to retire
Nov. 30, 2000.  Anderson made the announcement at the Nov. 4-6 meeting
of the seminary's board of directors.
     Trinity is one of eight seminaries of the 5.2-million member
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  Anderson has served as
president since 1990.
     "I am making this announcement one year in advance to provide the
board time to complete a presidential search prior to my leaving office
and to allow for a smooth transition," Anderson told the board.
     "Dr. Anderson leaves a strong and healthy Trinity," said Dr.
Violet Meek, chair of the Trinity board of directors. "Our faculty
members are public scholars whose work is known and appreciated
throughout the church and beyond.  They lead increased numbers of
students with new emphases on leadership for mission."
     Meek said the board is forming a presidential search committee.
Mark Engel, a Trinity board member, has been named to serve as chair,
she said.
     "During this decade, I have had the high privilege and
responsibility for presidential leadership of  Trinity Lutheran
Seminary," Anderson said. "The Trinity legacy was strong when I arrived,
and I was graced to build a strong foundation.  I have sought to give
myself without reserve to this ministry."
     "These 10 years have seen rapid change in the life of the church,
society and in theological education," Anderson added. "As I have worked
with the faculty, staff, students and all the faithful supporters of
Trinity, we have completed an exciting chapter during the period 1990-2000.  
It is an appropriate and good time for new leadership for the 21st century."
     During Anderson's tenure, enrollment has increased significantly.
Trinity raised $26 million in the first phase of a major gifts project
and embarked on a second phase to raise an additional $15 million.  With
the funds, the seminary endowed five faculty positions and increased
faculty salaries, created the Center for Educational Ministry in the
Parish and began renovation of the dormitories and learning center.  The
funds also increased the seminary endowment fund from $11 million to $38
million.
     Trinity Seminary has also made significant strides in ecumenical
connections during Anderson's tenure. Trinity launched a combined
theological library catalog, available online, with the Methodist
Theological School in Ohio and the Pontifical College Josephinum.  The
combined catalog makes up one of the largest theological collections in
North America.
     Trinity is developing the Columbus Theological Outreach Project.
The Lutheran seminary has welcomed to its campus faculty members from
Bexley Hall Episcopal Seminary, so that Episcopal seminary students can
receive training in Columbus on Trinity's campus.  The seminary's
community outreach ministries have been expanded through music and
projects such as the "Promise for Life" sculpture, the only memorial to
the Holocaust in the country erected on Lutheran-owned land.
     Before he was called as president of Trinity, Anderson was bishop
of the Nebraska Synod in the former Lutheran Church in America and
later, in the ELCA, which was formed in 1988.  Anderson and his wife,
Barbara, live in Westerville, Ohio.  They have two married children and
four grandchildren.

[**Ann Z. Russell is director of communications at Trinity Lutheran
Seminary.]

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