ELCA NEWS SERVICE February 17, 2004 Rev. John Tietjen, Heart of Lutheran Unity and Controversy, Dies 04-022-FI CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. John H. Tietjen died Feb. 15 at his home in Fort Worth, Texas, after a long battle with cancer. He was 75. Tietjen, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), served the church also as a publicist, seminary president, bishop, theologian and advocate for Lutheran unity. "When the history of 20th century Lutheranism in America is written, John Tietjen will receive a full chapter, and his name will be etched in memories," said the Rev. Martin E. Marty, Riverside, Ill., ELCA pastor, church historian, columnist for Christian Century and retired professor of American religion at the University of Chicago. "His writings on Lutheran unity will remain as references, but it is the effect of his life that will be felt most profoundly and most durably." "In the fifty-five years that I knew him, I never saw him as anyone who put less than full faith in the gospel and full energy into the work of Christ's church," Marty said. "He did not seek to be controversial, but he was drawn into front line leadership in the 1970s and played a role in the formation of the ELCA," he said. "It was a mark of the man that he then moved on to an effective parish ministry, a vocation to which he had pointed so many others and in which he was an exemplar," Marty said. "John Tietjen's unique combination of scholarship, churchmanship and pastoral insight was an important gift to the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His contributions have become part of the fabric of this church," said the Rev. H. George Anderson, visiting professor, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Conn., and former presiding bishop of the ELCA. Born June 18, 1928, in New York, Tietjen was a graduate of Stuyvesant High School, New York, and Concordia Collegiate Institute, Bronxville, N.Y. He earned his bachelor and master of divinity degrees from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and his master of sacred theology degree and doctorate from Union Theological Seminary, New York. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod ordained Tietjen in September 1953 at Grace Lutheran Church, Teaneck, N.J. He served as assistant pastor of Grace until 1956 and pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church, Leonia, N.J., 1956-1966. Tietjen was executive secretary of the Division of Public Relations of the former Lutheran Council in the U.S.A., New York, 1966-1969. The Lutheran Council was formed by the Missouri Synod, the former American Lutheran Church (ALC) and the former Lutheran Church in America (LCA) to coordinate their cooperative work. In 1969 Tietjen became president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, a seminary of the Missouri Synod. The seminary was a focal point for conservatives in the church who considered methods being used to interpret Scripture as supporting un- Christian beliefs. The controversy resulted in the seminary's students and faculty starting Christ Seminary-Seminex (Seminary-in-exile) in 1974, and Tietjen became the new seminary's president in 1975. It also resulted in the formation of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) in 1976 by members who left the Missouri Synod, including Tietjen. "John Tietjen became the eye of the theological storm in the Missouri Synod because of his commitment to the gospel as the central theological doctrine of Lutheranism," said the Rev. Edgar M. Krentz, Christ Seminary-Seminex professor emeritus of New Testament, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. "Confronted by accusations that the theological faculty of Concordia Seminary taught false doctrine, his theological sensitivity and his personal ethical integrity led to the faculty's defense," said Krentz. "Historians of Lutheranism in America will regard John Tietjen as one of the major theologians of the 20th century." Throughout the 1980s Christ Seminary-Seminex faculty, staff, students and resources were deployed to a variety of Lutheran seminaries and schools. At the end of 1987 it formally merged with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Tietjen served as a member of the Commission for a New Lutheran Church, which coordinated the merger of the AELC, ALC and LCA into the ELCA. The ELCA Constituting Convention in Columbus, Ohio, April 30-May 3, 1987, formalized the merger, which took effect Jan. 1, 1988. Each of the new church's 65 synods met to constitute themselves. The ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod elected Tietjen to be its first bishop in June 1987, but he resigned in November 1987, before assuming the office. His resignation followed a difference with the synod council over appointments to the bishop's staff. Returning to parish ministry, Tietjen was pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Fort Worth, Texas, from 1989. He continued to serve the congregation beyond his retirement in 2000. Trinity hosted a Feb. 8 celebration of the 50th anniversary of Tietjen's ordination. The Rev. Kevin S. Kanouse, bishop of the ELCA Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, Dallas, preached. "In preparation for that homily I interviewed him and asked: 'What do you see for the future of the ELCA?' He replied: 'The church will be just fine. It is, after all, God's church. I am not worried about this church.' His own certainty and faith, once again, gave me hope," Kanouse said. "It was a privilege to preach at that service and to see so many clergy and laity celebrating his life and leadership in the church," Kanouse said. "While he was frail last Sunday, he was overjoyed and overwhelmed at the kindness and loving words expressed." Tietjen wrote "Which Way to Lutheran Unity? A History of Efforts to Unite the Lutherans of America," 1966, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, and "Memoirs in Exile," 1990, Fortress Press, Minneapolis. The Rev. Arthur Carl Piepkorn, Lutheran historian and theologian, died in 1973 while working on "Profiles in Belief: The Religious Bodies of the United States and Canada," and Tietjen saw the four-volume set to its completion and publication in 1977. The Rev. John S. Damm, former academic dean of Christ Seminary-Seminex, is to preach during a funeral service planned for Feb. 19 at Trinity Lutheran Church, Fort Worth. Tietjen is survived by his wife Ernestine and their four children: Catherine, Laurence, Mary and Sarah. -- -- -- Historical note: On Feb. 19, 1974, students and faculty, including Tietjen, marched off the campus of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Classes at Concordia Seminary in Exile (Christ Seminary-Seminex) began the next day at Saint Louis University and Eden Seminary, Webster Grove, Mo. Tietjen was interviewed for the "The Story of the ELCA," the Spring 2003 issue of Mosaic Television by the ELCA Department for Communication. Information and video clips of the program are at http://www.elca.org/co/mosaic/spring03.html on the ELCA Web site. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news