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St. Michael's Conference 2013

St. Michael's Liturgical Conference 2013

The Sixteenth Annual St. Michael Liturgical Conference was Monday, September 30, 2013, at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church of Detroit.

The Conference Theme: “That we may obtain this faith the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted.” This sixteenth annual St. Michael Liturgical Conference focused on the Preaching Office, and the fruits of that Office, the sermon, in the Evangelical-Lutheran Mass.

Keynote Address: The Confessors assert that the faith described in the Chief Article (Augustana IV) is obtained through the Preaching Office. Fr. David Petersen examines the incarnational nature of the Predigtamt (Ministerium Docendi Evangelii) as the Office through which saving faith is brought to the Christian.

Workshop One: Chanting the Collect & The Service of the Word - Complementing his presentations of the last three years, Dr. Reuning will led an applied study of the proper chanting of the Collect, dividing the Collect into its five parts and using the flex and the metrum to properly distinguish the parts. Fr. Eckardt led a careful study of the rubrics and ceremony for the Service of the Word, from the Introit to the Creed. His presentation highlights the content of his book on the Holy Liturgy.

Workshop Two: The Dialogical Anamnesis of Wilhelm Loehe & Q & A with Fr. Petersen Fr. John Stephenson presented a follow-up paper on his well-received 2012 Keynote presentation on the Eucharistic Prayer, in which he examines a recently translated Anamnesis written by Wilhelm Loehe for the deaconess house in Neuendettelsau. Fr. Mark Braden, Pastor of Zion, facilitated a Q & A period during which conference attendees discuss Fr. Petersen’s Keynote Address, receiving answers to their practical questions regarding preaching.

Purpose: Most Liturgical Conferences deal with the Theology of Worship. This Conference deals with the liturgical application of Confessional Lutheran Theology. The St. Michael Liturgical Conference is for pastors and laymen concerned with the Evangelical-Lutheran liturgy. It informs them of the liturgy's rubric, rite, and ceremony so that they might make informed decisions about local customs in their parishes.

Presenters:

The Reverend David H. Petersen has served as the Pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Ft. Wayne Indiana since August 2000. Previously he served as Pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Fairgrove, Michigan, where he was ordained in June 1996. He was awarded the STM from CTS, Ft. Wayne this past winter after successfully defending a thesis examining the Law and Gospel contributions of Scaer, Franzmann, and Nagel. In January 2013 Emmanuel Lutheran Press published Thy Kingdom Come, a collection of his Lenten and Easter sermons. He was a founding columnist for Higher Things Magazine and has served as a contributing editor for Gottesdienst since 2006.

The Reverend Dr. John Stephenson has served on the faculty of Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario since January 1989. Previously he served as Pastor of Lutheran Church of the Escarpment in Lewiston New York. He was ordained at Redeemer, Ft. Wayne, by Fr. Charles Evanson on Advent IV, 1985. After earning degrees from the English universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham, Dr. Stephenson came to the US in 1982. He and his family moved to Canada in 1991. Dr. Stephenson served as the General Editor of the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series and authored the volumes The Lord’s Supper and Eschatology.

The Reverend Dr. Daniel Reuning is Kantor and Church Musician at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Ft. Wayne, and an emeritus member of the faculty of CTS, where he served as Dean of Chapel for 31 years. He holds a Doctorate in Musicology from the University of Illinois, a Masters degree in Sacred Music and Liturgy from Union Theological Seminary, and the M. Div. from Concordia Seminary St. Louis. Dr. Reuning is the Director of the Fort Wayne Bach Collegium, now in its twelfth season.

The Reverend Dr. Burnell Eckardt is Pastor of St. Paul’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Kewanee, Illinois. He received the Ph.D. from Marquette University and the S.T.M. from CTS in Ft. Wayne. Fr. Eckardt is editor of Gottesdienst: A Quarterly Journal of the Evangelical-Lutheran Liturgy and author of Every Day Will I Bless Thee: Meditations for the Daily Office and The New Testament in His Blood: A Study of the Holy Liturgy of the Christian Church.