respublica

No contrast day at the sem

More storms this morning, very little sun today, but what we do have is fairly high temperatures and very high humidity.  Perfect for making grass grow.  I had no meetings today, it was too wet and muddy to plant, no place I had to be, so I walked around the Concordia Seminary campus.

The entry door to Dale's office area has a couple of bongo drum type planters in which our director of grounds, Gail Zollmann has planted a variety of things.  Every flower bed she's planted this year not only has flowers, but something edible.  Mixed in with the bloomers, there might be herbs or vegetables, tomatoes, peppers, kale, and in the case of the bongos, cabbages.  This strikes me as a very cool idea.

Turn around from the door and look up and you'll see a beautifully crafted stone ceiling holding up the arches.

The arches lead into the quad.

I've puzzled over just why this bench is sitting all alone in the middle of this grassy area next to Sieck Hall.  Today I wondered about those tire marks.  There are some who are certain this lot was the entry to what was the original DeMun family home.  The DeMun family farmed the grounds on which the seminary sits either gave or sold the land to the seminary back in the 1920's.  Could the tracks be Mr. DeMun come back in his horse and buggy to check things out?

 

On the fence, our next door neighbors hung what looks to me like impatiens on steroids.  The flowers came from Creekside Nursery in Collinsville. 

Hiking to the very top of Luther Tower

We've climbed up Luther Tower before, but only as far as the bottom of the 42 bells.  Today we met three recent graduates on the very top of the tower.  The outside top.  The three guys are getting ready to leave the campus for good and start their time as parish pastors and these same guys did a lot of the digging out of a hillside behind our house this spring in preparation for a waterfall.  So they wanted to do something really outrageous as a last fling at the seminary and invited Dale to join them at the top for cigars and a cooler full of light supper.  I went along just to take some photos. This link shows Luther Tower's size and height with some perspective.

In order to get to the top you have to climb three separate areas of stairs.  The first group leads to the carillon keyboard and is a window filled room with tons of sunlight.  Easy peasy.  The second flight looks like a medieval castle staircase, made of beautiful stone, but narrow and winding.  Not so very easy peasy.  The third flight is an open, iron winding staircase, very narrow, which leads to the roof where there are stone benches afixed all around the perimeter walls. Whew!   If you sit on them, you can't see a thing, but if you stand on them you can see 360 degrees of the St. Louis area.

Ok, let's get the proof before anything else.  As I headed home I called up to get their attention.  As always, click any photo for a better view.

It would have been better for pictures if we'd gone up at 6:30 instead of 5:30, the strong sun would have been less blinding on the lens.

The Arch

The big Amoco, a St. Louis Landmark

Some of the brick buildings off DeMun

Kaldi's

Hillcrest neighborhood-Arundel and Aberdeen streets with Wash U and it's tower (we're taller) in the background..

Luther Statue

Isolation Dorm

Downtown Clayton

The bells from above

Concordia Seminary graduation finale

Wrapping up two days of graduation events with a few scenes from the actual graduation ceremony.

The balcony overlooking the academic quad was the scene for photographs with the president and this year's honorees.

The processional of faculty and graduates was led by Professor Robert Rosin.

The graduation speaker was Len Walter, journalist with WBBM in Chicago.

Graduate Michael Hall, a student we've known since his first year and who has helped us with almost every function we've hosted, gets his degree.

Roger Wehrli receives the Christus Vivit award.

And finally, two professors who are retiring and becoming professor emeritus, were honored.

Dr. Ronald Feuerhahn and Dr. Richard Warneck.

Graduates all together for the last time

After this morning's service for the bestowing of theological degrees, the class gathered together at the foot of the steps to the chapel.  No one can ever remember this happening before.

Now, after several graduate and honors luncheons, we get ready for tonight's official graduation ceremony.

Roger Wehrli at Concordia Seminary

During tonight's graduation ceremonies at Concordia Seminary, Roger Wehrli, former Mizzou and St. Louis Cardinals football player who was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2007, will be the recipient of this year's Christus Vivit Award.

Many St. Louisans will remember Wehrli as part of the Big Red-Cardiac Cards teams coached by Don Coryell.  He played in St. Louis from 1969-1982 as a cornerback at a time when the Cardinals were thrilling everyone.  He is also a longtime Lutheran and an active layman in his congregation of St. Paul Des Peres, Missouri.

Last night Roger and his wife Gail joined us at a reception for graduates and families and I was able to take a photo of him with Dale.

Under the big top, out in the rain

Good afternoon.  This is graduation week at Concordia Seminary and everyone would love to see some sun for a change.  But, clouds and drizzle won't stop the festivities, especially the reception we're hosting tonight for graduates and their families under the big tent next to our house.

Tomorrow is supposed to be nice.  Graduation in the quad.

Pig roast

The seminary will be having a Spring Fest tonight even though it once again looks like rain.  The food service people and student volunteers got a whole hog yesterday and spent the night keeping the coals going so that this morning things looked like this.

It stopped traffic around the quad this morning, that's for sure.

Some of the seminary workers constructed quite the homemade spit, using an old tire to do the turning.  Recycle, reuse.

Call Day evening-First Calls

The day of all days, the evening when the fourth year students find out where their first congregation will be.
This is one of the largest classes since the early 70's.

The stained glass window over the chapel altar.

Before the service the the students and faculty get ready in the basement of the chapel.

Chris accepts congratulations from the seminary president (Dale) after learning he will be headed to Kansas.

Kevin, the student body president is headed for Oregon.

Michael is going to California.

And so on through approximately 137 other candidates for the Holy Ministry.

Before the 7 o'clock service we hosted a dinner for the district presidents, synodical president and vice president.  Here's a quick look at the dinner.

Call Day afternoon-Vicarage

Rain in the morning gave way to gorgeous weather and the future vicars and their families and faculty and synodical representatives and photographers stood outside the chapel before the service basking in the sun and spring color.

Who's all here?

Inside the chapel before the vicarage service, every seat is filled.

Sallie and Mary all smiles.

The choir is in the balcony.

The afternoon preacher, Colorado District President Randall Golter, waits with the class to process in.

And so it begins, the class of 2010 is ready to receive their vicarage assignments.

Call Day practice through the years

This is Call Day on the Concordia Seminary-St. Louis campus, a day of anticipation for this year's graduates and those in the second year class.  The fourth year class will learn the name and location of their first pastorate (call) and the second year class will learn where they will be headed for a year of vicarage (internship). 

There will be two services in the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus today, the vicarage service will be at 3 and the Call service will be at 7.  The worship services conclude with each person's name called and the place where he will be serving, the student then walks to the front of the chapel to receive the documents and to receive congratulations from the seminary president, the synodical president and the placement director.

Call Day practice has changed somewhat over the years.  In the late 30's and early 40's there were very few, if any, calls or churches requesting a new pastor so the students graduated and headed home until a congregation opened up.  After World War II, the Call Day service did not include the individual announcements of where each person was headed, instead, at the end of the worship service each student was handed a card with a classroom number on it.  In each specific classroom was a district president from one state or other who then handed him a packet with information on his first church.

In the early 70's Call Day became what it is today.  There are 167-4th year students who will be receiving their first call today and 117 students receiving their vicarage assignments, all of whom are excited and anxious beyond words today.   Call Day is a bigger day than graduation around here, many parents and grandparents are on the campus, and the seminary's website will have both audio and video live casts available.

Photos from last year.    2006    2005