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