Anderson to Retire as President of Trinity Lutheran Seminary

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Dennis A. Anderson, 62, president of Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, announced he plans to retire Nov. 30, 2000. Anderson made the announcement at the Nov. 4-6 meeting of the seminary's board of directors.
Trinity is one of eight seminaries of the 5.2-million member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Anderson has served as president since 1990.
"I am making this announcement one year in advance to provide the board time to complete a presidential search prior to my leaving office and to allow for a smooth transition," Anderson told the board.
"Dr. Anderson leaves a strong and healthy Trinity," said Dr. Violet Meek, chair of the Trinity board of directors. "Our faculty members are public scholars whose work is known and appreciated throughout the church and beyond. They lead increased numbers of students with new emphases on leadership for mission."
Meek said the board is forming a presidential search committee. Mark Engel, a Trinity board member, has been named to serve as chair, she said.
"During this decade, I have had the high privilege and responsibility for presidential leadership of Trinity Lutheran Seminary," Anderson said. "The Trinity legacy was strong when I arrived, and I was graced to build a strong foundation. I have sought to give myself without reserve to this ministry."
"These 10 years have seen rapid change in the life of the church, society and in theological education," Anderson added. "As I have worked with the faculty, staff, students and all the faithful supporters of Trinity, we have completed an exciting chapter during the period 1990-2000.= =20 It is an appropriate and good time for new leadership for the 21st = century."
During Anderson's tenure, enrollment has increased significantly. Trinity raised $26 million in the first phase of a major gifts project and embarked on a second phase to raise an additional $15 million. With the funds, the seminary endowed five faculty positions and increased faculty salaries, created the Center for Educational Ministry in the Parish and began renovation of the dormitories and learning center. The funds also increased the seminary endowment fund from $11 million to $38 million.
Trinity Seminary has also made significant strides in ecumenical connections during Anderson's tenure. Trinity launched a combined theological library catalog, available online, with the Methodist Theological School in Ohio and the Pontifical College Josephinum. The combined catalog makes up one of the largest theological collections in North America.
Trinity is developing the Columbus Theological Outreach Project. The Lutheran seminary has welcomed to its campus faculty members from Bexley Hall Episcopal Seminary, so that Episcopal seminary students can receive training in Columbus on Trinity's campus. The seminary's community outreach ministries have been expanded through music and projects such as the "Promise for Life" sculpture, the only memorial to the Holocaust in the country erected on Lutheran-owned land.
Before he was called as president of Trinity, Anderson was bishop of the Nebraska Synod in the former Lutheran Church in America and later, in the ELCA, which was formed in 1988. Anderson and his wife, Barbara, live in Westerville, Ohio. They have two married children and four grandchildren.

[**Ann Z. Russell is director of communications at Trinity Lutheran
Seminary.]

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