Global Consultation "Theology in the Life of Lutheran Churches"
Coordinator | Hosts | Presenters | Seminar Convenors | Worship Leaders
© LWF/H. Putsman |
Rev. Dr Karen L. Bloomquist – Coordinator
“Lutheran theology across global contexts” 
Rev. Dr Karen L. Bloomquist, has served since 1999 as Director of the LWF Department for Theology and Studies. She is looking forward to the Augsburg consultation bringing together much of what both the department and she personally have been pursuing over the past decades.
An ordained member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, she has previously served as Director for Studies in the Church in Society unit of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and has held faculty appointments at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (Illinois) and at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. She has pastored congregations in California and New York City. Her Ph.D. is from Union Theological Seminary in New York.
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Rev. Dr Bernd Oberdorfer - Host/Presenter
"Public statements of German Protestant churches on peace and conflict issues"
Rev. Dr Bernd Oberdorfer has been Professor of Protestant Theology/Systematic Theology at the University of Augsburg in Germany since 2001. His fields of research include dogmatics–in particular the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and ecclesiology–, ecumenical theology, and peace and conflict studies. He has published work on Friedrich Schleiermacher and on the Filioque problem, among other topics.
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Dean Susanne Kasch - Host pastor
Rev. Susanne Kasch is dean of the evangelical Lutheran church district of Augsburg. She has been pastor at St Anna’s Church since 2002. Her theological foci include witnessing to the Christian faith in a secular world, ecumenical cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church and peaceful coexistence in a large multireligious and multicultural city.
“I hope that our international guests will feel comfortable in Augsburg and that we will be good hosts. I hope that the relevance of Lutheran theology for the formation of modern society becomes clearly visible. I am expecting stimulating discussions.
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Rev. Dr. Thomas Nyiwe - Sunday preacher
Rev. Dr. Thomas Nyiwe serves as president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon. As a member of the LWF Council, he is co-chair of the Program Committee for Theology and Studies. His Ph.D. in theology is from Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota.
“At the 2004 LWF Council meeting when the “Theology in the Life of the Church” program was launched, I stressed the significance of this initiative for our churches, especially in the global South. What happens in local contexts and circumstances of churches has a major impact upon how theology is formulated. Since then, the various seminars and publications of this program have helped us to rediscover the close connection that exists between theology and the life and ministry of the Church.”
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Rev. Thomas Schattauer - Worship coordinator
"God’s mission in the practice of assembly"
Rev. Thomas Schattauer is Professor of Liturgics and Dean of the Chapel at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, and a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His research and publication has ranged from studies of the Byzantine communion psalm and the liturgical work of the 19th-century German Lutheran pastor Wilhelm Loehe to matters of worship, culture, and mission in the contemporary North American context. Schattauer participated in the work that led to the publication of Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006). He is a past president of the North American Academy of Liturgy.
“In my study and work as a seminary professor of worship, I am consistently interested to explore how the ritual and symbolic practices of the Christian assembly stand at the nexus of theological claims and life in the world. At the LWF consultation, I look forward to presentations, discussions, and conversation that will deepen understanding of the contextual and global realities that engage us as persons in worshiping communities. With assistance of LWF staff, it will be my privilege to coordinate the worship through the days of our meeting. What a richly diverse gathering of Lutherans we will be!”
© LWF/H. Putsman |
Rev. Simone Sinn - Worship assistant
Rev. Simone Sinn has been serving as theological associate in the LWF Department for Theology and Studies since 2006 where she has focused on theological reflection of interfaith relations, especially the formational processes that take place in holistic encounter between people of different faiths. In addition, she has been active in the area of worship, providing liturgical resources for different LWF occasions.
She earned her M.Phil in Ecumenics at the Irish School of Ecumenics in Dublin, Ireland, with a thesis on “The Church as Participatory Community. On the Interrelationship between Hermeneutics, Ecclesiology and Ethics.” She is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg, Germany.
“Theology is the spine of the church and worship is its heartbeat. This consultation is an intentional effort to undertake both within a global horizon. I am especially looking forward to presentations that ask critical questions and give food for thought. In worshiping together as a culturally diverse group, we are given the chance to experience God’s presence in liturgical elements which are at the same time foreign and familiar to us.”
