wfn.org | Furst, Director for Lutheran Disaster Response, Retires

[NEWS@ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 25, 2004

Furst, Director for Lutheran Disaster Response, Retires
04-050-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Gilburt B. Furst, director for
Domestic Disaster Response of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA), and director for Lutheran Disaster Response
(LDR), a ministry of the ELCA and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
(LCMS), will retire at the end of June.
     "This church is deeply grateful to Rev. Furst for embodying
the love of Christ to victims of natural and human-caused
disasters. He has been director of ELCA Domestic Disaster
Response and of Lutheran Disaster Response for nearly eight
years. Throughout this time he has brought the ministry of the
church to thousands of people in hundreds of communities, has
offered a pastoral presence to caregivers and established a solid
network of partner organizations working to prepare for and
respond to disasters. Gil Furst is a gift of God to this church
for which we give thanks," said Rebecca S. Larson, executive
director, ELCA Division for Church in Society.
     Furst was born June 2, 1941, in North Fogelsville, Pa.  He
graduated from Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., in 1963.  He
earned a bachelor of divinity degree in 1966, a master of sacred
theology in 1975, and a doctorate in ministry in 1983 from the
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP).  Muhlenberg
is a college of the ELCA; LTSP is a seminary of the church.
     Furst was pastor of ELCA congregations in Freemansburg,
Schuylkill Haven, and Cetronia, all in Pennsylvania, before
serving as executive associate to the bishop of the ELCA
Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod, Wescosville, Pa., from 1983 to
1996.  During that time, Furst also became involved with Lutheran
Disaster Response.  In 1991 he worked as a consultant in the
aftermath of earthquakes in Los Angeles and hurricanes in the
U.S. Virgin Islands alongside the Rev. Leon A. Phillips, LDR
director.  In 1996 Furst was named associate director for ELCA
Domestic Disaster Response.  He became director for ELCA Domestic
Disaster Response and succeeded Phillips as executive director
for Lutheran Disaster Response in 1998.
     LDR works to serve survivors of a disaster in "a timely,
compassionate and competent manner" through a coordinated,
community-based system involving Lutheran congregations, social
ministry organizations and others.  Formal agreements and
memberships are maintained between LDR and the American Red
Cross, Church World Service and the National Voluntary
Organizations Active in Disaster.
     Furst and his wife, Fern, have two grown children, Jonathan
and Jennifer, and one grandchild, Amalie.
-- -- --
     Domestic Disaster Response has a home page at
http://www.elca.org/dcs/disaster/ on the ELCA Web site.  Lutheran
Disaster Response has its home page at http://www.ldr.org/ on the
Internet.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news