wfn.org | William A. Janson Jr., Former Lutheran Synod Bishop, Dies

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

May 2, 2000

WILLIAM A. JANSON JR., FORMER LUTHERAN SYNOD BISHOP, DIES
00-122-JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA)   The Rev. William A. Janson Jr., who served as the
first bishop of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the former
Lutheran Church in America, died April 13 in Phoenixville, Pa.  He was
77.
     Services were held April 18 at St. John Lutheran Church,
Phoenixville, Pa.  A memorial Celebration of Life will be held May 10 at
Trinity Lutheran Church, Lansdale, Pa., a congregation Janson served as
pastor.
     Janson, a retired pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA), was synod bishop from 1969 to 1983.  The synod he served
included more than 180 congregations in Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware,
Chester and Philadelphia counties in Pennsylvania.
     While he was bishop, he led a 1971 "March of Penitence" after
shootings in Philadelphia, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.  That
same year, the paper said, he joined other religious leaders in an
ecumenical service for peace.  In 1976  Janson organized a symposium on
the nature of a humane society and the lessons of history.  In 1981 he
was one of several religious leaders who marched with 1,000 people
through the streets of Philadelphia to draw attention to hunger, the
Inquirer said.
     Janson was ordained in 1946.  He served congregations in
Lovettsville, Va.; New York;  Springfield, Ohio; Tiffin, Ohio; and
Lansdale.  Janson was also professor of religion at Cedarville (Ohio)
College.
     "Bill Janson brought a contagious joy and determination to his
ministry during the
15 years he served us as president of the synod and then as our first
bishop," said the Rev. Roy G. Almquist, current bishop of the ELCA
Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod. "We are diminished by his death."
     Janson was president of the synod when the church changed the
designation to bishop.  He was elected to three five-year terms.
     After he retired in 1983, Janson and his wife, Margaret, traveled
throughout the country and served as volunteers at various national
parks and historic sites, Almquist said.
     Janson earned a bachelor's degree in 1944 from Susquehanna
University, Selinsgrove, Pa.   He completed seminary training at the
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.) in 1946.  Janson later
received masters and doctoral degrees from Columbia University, New
York.     Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., awarded him an honorary
doctorate of divinity and Susquehanna University awarded him an honorary
doctor of letters. Muhlenberg and Susquehanna are higher education
institutions of the ELCA.
     In addition to his wife, Janson is survived by a daughter, Sandra
L. Spengel, Chester Springs, Pa.; a son, William A. Janson III, Horsham,
Pa.; and five grandchildren.

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