Trexler Will Not Seek Re-Election as Editor of the Lutheran

CHICAGO (ELCA)-- The Rev. Edgar R. Trexler, noted church author and longtime editor of The Lutheran magazine in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the former Lutheran Church in America (LCA), announced Jan.13 he will not seek re-election at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Denver.
Trexler's term officially ends Oct. 31, 1999. The Churchwide Assembly will elect a new editor this August under the provisions of the ELCA Constitution.
"As the first and only editor of this church's magazine, Dr. Trexler has given The Lutheran its independent character and its high quality," said the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the ELCA. "He has constantly found ways to make the magazine more readable and attractive.=20=

If there is a hall of fame for church periodical editors, Dr. Trexler
certainly deserves to be in it."
Trexler, who will be 62 when his term ends, has been editor of The Lutheran since the ELCA was formed in 1988. Under his leadership the magazine has maintained a circulation of 650,000, making it the largest denominational periodical in the world. In 1997 the Associated Church Press (ACP) named The Lutheran "Best in Class" for denominational publications.
"For nearly 34 years, I have been privileged to be part of The Lutheran magazine," Trexler said. "When I joined the staff in 1965 on a two-year call, I could never have anticipated the opportunities for professional and personal growth that have come my way -- extensive travel at home and overseas, the global mission and ecumenical experiences, learning to know many personalities of the religious world -- along with editing the largest denominational magazine in this country for 21 years and the largest Lutheran publication in the world. My ministry of journalism in this church has exceeded any script that I could have written."
"But there is also the sense that it is time for that tenure to come to a close," he said. "Priorities shift and one looks at life a little differently." =20
Trexler--known to many as "Trex"--cited a demanding schedule, a desire to live closer to family in North Carolina and staffing considerations among the reasons for announcing his decision now.
"For all my adult life I have had to choose between doing what I wanted to do and living where I wanted to live ... and now, living where we want to live is winning out," Trexler said.
Trexler and his wife Emily, whom he married in 1960, plan to move to Hendersonville, N.C., near the Great Smoky Mountains, where they are building a home.
Last month, one of Trexler's closest colleagues, the magazine's managing editor, Roger Kahle, died suddenly of heart failure. =20
"In order to move ahead promptly with filling that position, and also to allow for the search process to begin for a new editor, it is important that my decision be public now," Trexler said.
"When I think of Trex, I think of a man of enormous dignity," said Hazel H. Reinhardt, Edina, Minn., chair of the 11-member Advisory Committee for The Lutheran. "He's even-tempered, very composed. He's shown incredible love and commitment to the Lutheran Church."
Trexler has done an exceptional job as editor in developing an excellent staff and "a first class denominational publication," Reinhardt added.
Trexler's career is rich with a variety of experiences in the Lutheran church. He was editor of The Lutheran, the magazine of the former LCA, from 1978 to 1988. He served as the magazine's associate editor from 1972 to 1978 and was features editor from 1965 to 1972. =20
Trexler was ordained by the former United Lutheran Church in America in 1962 and was pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church, Lyons, N.Y., from 1962 to 1965.
Trexler is author of articles published in numerous church magazines, and has traveled extensively throughout the United States and the world. Most recently, he reported on the church's ecumenical relationships with the Reformed churches, efforts to establish full communion with the Episcopal Church, and numerous international ecumenical relationships of the Lutheran Church with The Vatican, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul and the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. His work also include reporting on the church and struggles with apartheid in South Africa and Namibia, and on religious repression in Eastern Europe and Central America.
In 1979 he was part of the first group of Lutherans to visit China in 30 years. In 1990 he reported on the first Lutheran ordinations in Cuba since Fidel Castro came to power.
In 1974 his series of articles from partner churches in Japan was judged by the ACP as "best series for articles published in church mission magazines" that year. In 1991, the ACP gave him its "Award of Merit" for editorial writing.
Trexler is a noted author and editor of books. His book about the ELCA merger, "Anatomy of a Merger," was released by Augsburg Fortress in November 1991. He wrote a study guide about the Lutheran World Federation, published in 1978. He authored "Mission in a New World" in 1977; "The New Face of Missions" in 1973; "Creative Congregations" in 1972, and in 1969 he edited "Ways to Wake Up Your Church."
Trexler was a member of the Task Force on Communications of the Commission for a New Lutheran Church (CNLC). The CNLC developed merger plans for the ELCA from three predecessor church bodies.
Trexler is a 1959 graduate of Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, N.C.=20 He attended Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C., where he earned a master of divinity, cum laude, in 1962. He earned a master of arts in journalism from Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y., in 1964. =20
He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Lenoir- Rhyne College in 1978 and from Midland College in Fremont, Neb. in = 1990.=20 He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, in 1994.
Lenoir-Rhyne honored him with its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1991 and Newberry College, Newberry, S.C., presented him with its Distinguished Service Award in 1992. Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary gave Trexler its Bachman Award for Distinguished Leadership in 1993. =20
From 1975 to 1984 he was a member of the Board of Trustees of Lenoir-Rhyne College. In 1997 Trexler began a new term on the board and presently serves.
The Trexlers live in Naperville, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, and are members of St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Aurora, Ill. They have three children: David, 35, Mark, 33, and Karen, 29.
According to the ELCA Constitution, the advisory committee for The Lutheran, in consultation with the presiding bishop and the Church Council, nominates the editor for The Lutheran. The nominee's name is forwarded to the Churchwide Assembly for consideration. Editors are elected for a four-year term.

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John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
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