IN HER OWN WORDS

Ruth Ann Deppe

Ruth Ann Deppe moved to Chicago as the spouse of a Christ Seminary-Seminex faculty member in 1983. She joined the Lutheran School of Theology staff nearly a decade later as an administrative assistant in the Office of Advancement. Here, she shares a few fond memories she experienced at LSTC.

When Seminex came to LSTC from St. Louis, they brought the adoption of computers. At that time, LSTC was still doing everything with pen and pencil. The woman I replaced in the development office would record all the gifts on 3 X5 index cards. When I was hired in the early 1990s, I used an electric typewriter to produce acknowledgment letters.

There were three development officers when I came to LSTC. The development officer I reported to worked mainly with churches. He would look for alumni in congregations, set an appointment to visit the pastor, and, while visiting the pastor, also identify congregants he could contact who might be interested in supporting LSTC. I typed many thank you notes to alumni and individuals he visited for LSTC.

One development officer had a pickup truck. He would “hit the road” with a list of people from a certain area, pull into a gas station, and from the phone booth at the gas station, he might call the person or knock on their door. He’d cover a whole area with individual calls before returning to LSTC.

Many good memories come from my nearly 25 years of working at LSTC.

Students and faculty stage a walk-out of Concordia Seminary on February 19, 1974.

faculty members of Christ Seminary-Seminex and a new faculty colleague from Minnesota relocated to Chicago and began to teach at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

On December 31, 1987, the two schools merged so they might enter as a unified seminary into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) as it officially came into existence on January 1, 1988.

Dr. Kurt Hendel, Bernard, Fischer, Westberg Distinguished Ministry Professor Emeritus of Reformation History, was one of the Seminex faculty members who came to LSTC. He says that when the group arrived in Chicago 10 years after leaving behind the conflicts within the LCMS, he was overwhelmed with gratitude because of the gracious hospitality that the LSTC community extended to Seminex students, faculty, and staff.

“LSTC’s building was much larger than the space we rented in St. Louis, and the windows that are a chief feature of the building consistently invited us to focus on the world which the church is called to serve. My office faced north so I could enjoy the downtown skyline,” said Hendel. “The classrooms were spacious; the JKM Library was a marvelous pedagogical and scholarly resource; and the undercroft chapel, which served as the seminary’s chief worship space, became the new home of the small organ and the altar, built by one of the Seminex students, that had enhanced the worship of the Seminex community.”

Hendel noted that regular worship was an essential part of the Seminex experience, and this continued to be the case after the merger with LSTC. In Chicago, the worship services were often enriched by organist Paul Manz, the Seminex faculty member who came to Chicago from Minneapolis. Manz was such a talented and influential musician that in the early 2000s, the new organ in

Augustana Chapel was named in his honor.

Hendel said that it was not difficult for the Seminex faculty to blend with the LSTC faculty. They shared many priorities, including LSTC’s attentiveness to diversity. As a united faculty, they recognized that this commitment must be reflected in the institution’s curriculum, staff, and student body. Hiring a more diverse faculty was made a priority. Attention to issues of justice, civil rights, diversity, and women’s rights was woven into the curriculum.

Hendel identified Dr. Richard Perry, Professor Emeritus of Church and Society and Urban Ministry and Director Emeritus of the Urban Ministry Program, and Dr. José David Rodríguez, Augustana Heritage Professor Emeritus of Global Mission and World Christianity and Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology, as two faculty colleagues who personified the seminary’s commitment to build a more diverse faculty. He named these two colleagues specifically because both are also graduates of LSTC. He also noted that Dr. Linda Thomas, who is still an active faculty member, is an example of both the ethnic and denominational diversification of the faculty.

As we transition to our new location and the next phase in the seminary’s history, Hendel continues to see LSTC’s mission as a dialectical one, namely, a mission of proclaiming Christ and the gospel and of striving for justice in the church and the world. He stresses that the two parts of the mission are integrally related.

“We have the promise that people’s hearts and priorities will be changed through the freeing power of the gospel,” Hendel said. “The proclamation of Christ is, therefore, an absolutely essential part of the church’s vocation since the gospel is the Holy Spirit’s means of creating and nurturing faith. Faith, in turn, frees God’s people to be loving servants of their fellow human beings and of the whole creation as they emulate Christ’s servant love by striving for justice in our world.

This is the message we need to share through everything we say and do.”

Hendel said he sees similarities between the Seminex community’s move to LSTC and LSTC’s move to CTU. Most importantly, the two transitions are clear indicators of God’s continuing presence among God’s people and God’s gracious preparation of a future for Christ’s disciples.

In 1983, the Seminex community was given the opportunity to continue its mission of preparing future leaders of the church who are faithful to the gospel, faithful to Christ, and eager imitators of Christ. Forty years later, the LSTC community has been given the gift by God of continuing its divine vocation of serving the church and the world as a community of teaching, learning, spiritual and vocational formation, and loving service for God’s sake, for the Church’s sake, and for the world’s sake. 1983 was clearly a time of gratitude for the Seminex community. That is surely also the case for LSTC in 2023.

Helping Out Students Of Color

Bartley loved meeting the students when they entered LSTC— especially the students of color. “There were very few minorities at LSTC at the time, and I shared a mission with the admission’s officer to help those students succeed,” she said.

Over the years, Bartley developed a reputation within the student community as someone they could trust. Students would come to her office to be advised and encouraged when their studies or life’s circumstances would become difficult.

“I had a sign on my door that said all are welcome, said Bartley. “It wasn’t just the students of color that would come to my office. It was everyone. They would come in and talk with me and ask me to pray with them, and I developed so many wonderful relationships. I was told that that was one of my ministries, and I came to believe it was.”