ELCA NEWS SERVICE

May 19, 2006  

Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary Elects Marcus Miller as President
06-072-FI/JW/CH*

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Marcus J. Miller, bishop of the
Northeastern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA), was elected May 18 by the board of Lutheran
Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C., to succeed the
Rev. Frederick Reisz Jr. as the seminary's president on Aug. 15.
Southern is one of eight ELCA seminaries.
     On Aug. 19, 2005, Reisz announced to the seminary board his
plans to retire this summer after 14 years as president of
Southern Seminary.
     "I am honored by this call," said Miller, 59.  "Southern is
a fine seminary with a splendid reputation and a very capable
faculty."
     "I perceive Southern Seminary as a community dedicated to
the Scriptures and Confessions and the unity of the church,"
Miller said, adding that the South Carolina seminary "prepares
faithful and competent pastors who love Christ and his body, the
church."
     "I am delighted that Bishop Miller has accepted this call to
be president of our seminary," Reisz said.  "It has been a
blessed community for my wife, May, and me.  The choice of Bishop
Miller as president-elect is a perfect fit for our seminary's
mission. He will be challenged and blessed by this call," he
said.
     The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, said, "I am
delighted to affirm this nomination.  Bishop Miller brings to
this call theological wisdom grounded in the (Lutheran)
Confessions and scripture.  He has a clear ecumenical
commitment."
     Hanson said, Miller "will build upon the strengths of
Southern Seminary's identity and mission.  I believe he will be
attentive to relationships, while helping the seminary
continually discern its vision for the future."
     Dr. Susan W. McArver, director of the seminary's Center on
Religion in the South and associate professor of educational
ministry and church history, served on the presidential search
committee.  She said Miller's "passion for the gospel and the
mission of the church, centered in Word and Sacrament, came
through clearly in his presentations, and his collegial
leadership style will help students, staff, faculty and trustees
work together to shape the future vision of the seminary."
     Dr. Michael J. Root, the seminary's vice president for
academic affairs and dean, is a professor of systematic theology
and an ELCA associate in ministry.  "Working with Bishop Miller
within the church and on the national Lutheran-Catholic dialogue,
I have come to know him as an astute, faithful and engaged
leader," he said.
     "Southern Seminary has grown and prospered under the
leadership of Fred Reisz and should continue to do so with
president-elect Miller," Root said.
     Born Sept. 1, 1946, in Wyandotte, Mich., Miller graduated
from Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, Ind., and earned a
master of divinity degree in 1971 from Concordia Seminary, St.
Louis, and a master of sacred theology degree and doctorate from
New York Theological Seminary.  He was pastor of Immanuel
Lutheran Church, Mt. Vernon, N.Y., and Lutheran Church of the
Good Shepherd, Brooklyn, Ohio, before the ELCA Northeastern Ohio
Synod elected him bishop in 1995.  The synod re-elected him to a
second six-year term as bishop in 2001.
     Miller and his wife Katherine, a music teacher, are parents
of two grown children and have three grandchildren.
     Southern Seminary was established in 1830.  The current
student body of around 200 is representative of all regions of
the United States and includes international students.
Approximately one-fourth of the students at the Lutheran seminary
are members of other Christian denominations.
     The ELCA Northeastern Ohio Synod includes 86,353 Lutherans
in 207 congregations in 20 counties of northeast Ohio.
     In a May 19 letter to the synod, Miller said the process for
electing a new bishop will be on the agenda of the synod
council's May 20 meeting.  He expressed his hope that specifics
about the transition would be presented at the synod's assembly
June 16-17 in Akron, Ohio.
     "I intend to work diligently in the synod until my departure
to bring to completion a number of projects.  I commit myself to
make this transition to a new bishop as healthy and life giving
as possible.  I commit myself to Christ and to you for my
remaining days as bishop of this synod," Miller wrote.
     "This call as bishop has been a great blessing to me.  I
have been stretched and challenged in ways I could not have
imagined when you called me 11 years ago and by the grace of God
we have continued and strengthened this ministry," he wrote.
-- -- --
     The home page of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary,
Columbia, S.C., is at http://www.ltss.edu/ and that of the ELCA
Northeastern Ohio Synod is at http://www.neos-ELCA.org/ on the
Web.
     A related news release on the retirement of the Rev.
Frederick Reisz Jr. is at
http://www.ELCA.org/news/Releases.asp?a=3213 on the ELCA Web
site.

* Judi Wise is administrative assistant to the bishop,
Northeastern Ohio Synod, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and Cristy Huntley
is director of church and public relations, Lutheran Theological
Southern Seminary, Columbia S.C.

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