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	February 18, 2004 ......................... LCMSNews -- No. 16

	Tietjen dies; sem president during controversy

	Dr. John H. Tietjen, president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis,
through the early 1970s and prominent in the Synods doctrinal
controversy at that time, died Feb. 15 at his home in Fort Worth, Texas,
of complications from cancer.

	Tietjen, 75, was pastor emeritus of Trinity Lutheran Church,
Fort Worth, where his funeral will be held tomorrow (Feb. 19), followed
by interment at Greenwood Memorial Park in the Fort Worth area.

	Tietjen was the seminarys president from 1969 to 1974, when he
was suspended by its board of control primarily on what was reported as
charges of malfeasance in performing the duties of his office and
advocacy of false doctrine.

	His suspension led to a walkout from the campus of the
majority of seminary students and faculty on Feb. 19, 1974 -- exactly 30
years ago tomorrow -- after which they formed Concordia Seminary in
Exile (Christ Seminary-Seminex) elsewhere in the St. Louis area.

	Tietjen was instrumental in formation of the Association of
Evangelical Lutheran Churches, a group of about 400 Missouri Synod
congregations that merged with the Lutheran Church in America and The
American Lutheran Church to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) in 1987. That same year, Seminex merged with the
Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.

	Tietjen was elected to be the first bishop of the ELCAs
Metropolitan Chicago Synod in 1987, but resigned four months later,
reportedly over differences regarding appointments to the bishops
staff.

	A 1953 graduate of the St. Louis seminary, Tietjen accepted the
call to the ELCA congregation in Fort Worth in 1989, shortly after
Seminex was dissolved.

	Dr. John F. Johnson, current president of Concordia Seminary,
St. Louis, expressed the seminarys sympathy and said, While Dr.
Tietjens years at Concordia Seminary were turbulent, we join in giving
thanks to God for calling him to faith in Jesus Christ and for the
eternal assurance this brings.

	In a statement for the Synod, David Strand, its director of
public affairs, noted that the seminary has recovered and flourished
since the time of the walkout.

	The seminary issued a news release Feb. 4 saying that its
enrollment has topped 800 for the first time in four decades.

	Tietjens survivors include his wife, Ernestine, of Fort Worth;
four children -- Catherine Ann Tietjen of Weatherford, Texas; Mary
Angela Mindrup, Olathe, Kan.; Sarah Elizabeth Ross, Abilene, Texas; and
Laurence John Tietjen, Town and Country, Mo; and seven grandchildren.

	******************************

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contact Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org or (314) 996-1231,
or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org or (314) 996-1230.

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