Clayton Schmit named first provost of ELCA seminary

CHICAGO (ELCA) - The Rev. Clayton J. Schmit has been named founding
provost of the new School of Theology, which is to be formed when Lenoir-
Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C., and Lutheran Theological Southern
Seminary in Columbia, S.C., merge July 1.
The seminary is one of eight of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA); the university is one of 26 colleges and universities of
the ELCA.
With the merger, the university is establishing the School of
Theology, which will include the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
The seminary will retain its own name and identity while integrating with
the larger university system.
"The merger of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary with Lenoir-
Rhyne University offers great promise for the expansion of the ELCA's
work in theological education," said the Rev. Jonathan Strandjord,
program director for seminaries at ELCA churchwide ministries. "Calling
this first provost is a crucial first step in making this promise real."
As the founding provost, Schmit will be the chief administrative
officer of the seminary. He succeeds the Rev. Marcus J. Miller, who will
retire this summer as the seminary's president.
"I am very excited about the merger," said Schmit in a Lenoir-Rhyne
news release, "and the new approach to theological education it
represents. This is a new day for the seminary, and I look forward to
working with both teams to explore the synergies and prospects that the
merger represents."
Schmit earned a Master of Divinity from the ELCA's Luther Seminary
in St. Paul, Minn. He earned a doctorate from Graduate Theological Union
in Berkeley, Calif., and currently is the Arthur DeKruyter Christ Church
Oak Brook Professor of Preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary in
Pasadena, Calif.