wfn.org | Echols to be Installed as President of Lutheran School of Theology

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE NEWS BRIEF

August 8, 1997

ECHOLS TO BE INSTALLED IN CHICAGO

The Rev. James K. Echols, 46, will be installed as president of the Lutheran School of Theology at
Chicago on Nov. 9 at Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago.  He succeeds the Rev. William E. Lesher, who
retired June 30.  Echols is the first African American to head a Lutheran seminary in North America.
  He has taught church history at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia since 1982 and
has served as that seminary's dean since 1991.  Both are seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America.  Echols is well-published in the areas of church history, theology and African
American Lutheranism.  He has participated in Lutheran and ecumenical conferences in Africa, Asia,
Europe and South America.  Echols was born in Philadelphia.  He is a graduate of Temple University,
Philadelphia, and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.  He earned advanced degrees
from Yale University, New Haven, Conn., including a Ph.D. in History of Christianity.  Ordained in
1979 in the former Lutheran Church in America, Echols served as a pastor of Epiphany Lutheran
Church, Hempstead, N.Y.  He married Donna Rose Skinner in 1982.  They are the parents of two
daughters: Jennifer Hope and Courtney Lynne.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html