Recently there has been an uproar on the campuses of United Lutheran Seminary (ULS). The cause of this uproar is over President Theresa Latini’s former ministry twenty years ago as director of OneByOne, a Presbyterian Church-USA (PCUSA) organization whose mission was “to educate and equip the church to minister the transforming grace and power of Jesus Christ to those in conflict with their sexuality.” President Latini states that her views have changed regarding the LGBTQ+ Community and I believe her.
That being said I saw this train wreck coming. While I did not see this particular issue creating the firestorm it did, and rightfully so, I did not think the merger of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg was the proper course of action to take. You see the merger was born out of chaos, secrecy, and speed.
For financial reasons one of the seminaries was not going to survive. The thought processes of the powers at the time was how best to salvage this institution without closing it. The decision was to merge the two seminaries into one unit and start fresh. New name, new logo, get rid of tenure, drastically change curriculum to attract new students, and fire unnecessary staff. Sounds simple doesn’t it. It is if you are not one of the folks being fired, losing tenure, or an alum whose institution where you graduated from no longer exists. I am not against change per se and have even been a change agent in my life. One cannot serve in the United State Air Force for thirty-three years and not see and make change happen often.
However, the changes to create ULS were accomplished at lightening speed without careful due diligence while keeping stakeholders in the dark. To say it was a done deal would not be inaccurate. While change may have been necessary folks were hurt by this process and were hurt by the church. To make matters worse the Board of Trustees did all this without full transparency and that is unacceptable.
While the church is comprised of people and people can and do make mistakes I believe the angst currently be felt throughout the ULS community could have been avoided with a more careful and deliberate approach. As it stands now the Board of Directors, President Latini, and other the officers of ULS have a huge job in front of them trying to regain the trust of all stakeholders.
Can this be accomplished? I hope it can but it will not be easy. There is anger, sadness, loss of trust, and despair felt by many. I pray that this major chasm can be repaired but a new way of moving forward needs to be instituted. A way forward that is transparent and Christ Centered. That is my hope and prayer.
David's Den 