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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

September 30, 1999

LEADER OF ELCA HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS TO RETIRE
99-240-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. W. Robert Sorensen, executive director
of the Division for Higher Education and Schools of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), announced his retirement at the
division's board meeting here Sept. 24-26.  Sorensen will retire at the
end of the 1999-2000 academic year.
     "It has been a great privilege, an honor, to have been the leader
of this division, elected three times by you and affirmed by our
presiding bishops, through all the years of the ELCA," Sorensen told the
board.
     Sorensen is responsible for the church's educational mission in 28
ELCA colleges and universities, in 2,100 ELCA congregations that operate
early childhood centers, elementary and secondary schools, and in 144
campus ministries.
     "The number of those in ELCA early childhood centers, elementary
and secondary schools, campus ministries, colleges and universities has
grown to about 500,000 children, youth, young adults and non-traditional
learners since the beginning of the ELCA in 1987," Sorensen said.
     The ELCA's Division for Higher Education and Schools "is a very
strong division," said Sorensen.
     "I can tell you no other denomination that has the strength in
campus ministry as does the ELCA.  I can tell you no other area of the
church is growing more rapidly than that of our educational ministries
through early childhood centers and schools.  And no church body has the
kind of relationship with its colleges and universities as do we.  I
know of nothing like it," Sorensen told the board.
     Sorensen said the ELCA Division for Higher Education and Schools
supports the highest quality of education for all students in both
public and independent schools.  "Lutherans are no enemies of secular
education, but we do think it can be too narrow and lack intellectual
freedom," he said.
     "No education that probes only the deep things of the mind and
ignores the deep longing of the human spirit, is an adequate education.
No secular education that rules out questions about values and virtues,
God and religion, the Spirit and service to others, is sufficient," he
said.
     "I have wanted to build a division with a second mark upon it,
which is to integrate the Christian theological heritage rooted in Word
and Sacrament into academic settings in order that the Christian story,
and reflection upon it, will be a part of the learning experience in the
institutions and ministries we serve," Sorensen added.
     A graduate of Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., and Luther
Northwestern Seminary (now Luther Seminary), St. Paul, Sorensen studied
at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, from 1959 to 1960.  He served
as pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Tabor, Minn., from 1960 to
1962, and pastor of St. James Lutheran Church, Burnsville, Minn., from
1962 to 1966.
     Sorensen was chaplain and adjunct professor of religion at
Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill., from 1966 to 1973.  From 1973 to
1979, he was campus pastor and adjunct professor of religion at the
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.  From there, Sorensen accepted
a call as senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Davenport, Iowa.
In 1987, he was elected the first executive director for the ELCA
Division for Education.
     "I have reached the point where I want the freedom to do other
things, including spending more time with my family.  I may do some
teaching.  I may do some work in campus ministry or with schools.  I may
do something with other expressions of the church," Sorensen said.
     "I may do some consultation or something entirely outside the
church.  I may live in Germany for a time.  This two-world approach I
have taken in my life leaves open a lot of options, but I want to do
these things on my own schedule," he said.
     Sorensen and his wife, Gwen, are the parents of three children --
Nicholas, Christopher and Katherine.  They have four grandchildren --
Kendra, Jamial, Lindsay and Chelsey.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html