Do you know what your city flag looks like? Do you like it? Or, if you don’t think your city has one (and it’s worth checking), do you know your state’s flag?  If you’re not sure why you should care, watch Roman Mars’ TED Talk. Roman is the founder and producer of 99% Invisible, a great podcast on design. The great thing about design, as the name of Roman’s podcast implies, is that when it works, we don’t notice it even as it helps us do our work…or enjoy our lives…or take pride in our city…or any of a number of other things we highly value but don’t often think about it. I’ve been interested in this in part...

In the late Seventies, the Rev. Dr. Andrew Willis and the late Rev. Dr. Randolf L. Jones began exploring the possibility of finding a seminary home for their work with African American Pastors and their hopes to establish a program of study that focused on, and supported, the needs of the African American Church community in Philadelphia. After meeting with a number of disappointing responses, they brought their proposal to The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and, as Dr. Jones was fond of recounting, “While others said no, Lutheran said ‘YES’!” And the rest, as they say, is history. As with all great histories, this one...

Today, as you’ve no doubt heard, is “Giving Tuesday,” the day recently invented and named to compete with “Black Friday,” and “Cyber Monday” and that seeks to invite us to turn for a few moments from seeking bargains to make a difference through our charitable giving. Which means that by the time you read this post you’ve likely already received several worthy requests today. (And, if you’re on the LTSP mailing list, you’ve received on from me today on behalf of our students! And if you feel left out, you can read about that here. 🙂 ) But as this is Giving Tuesday, I’d like also to give you something. A chance to...

Thank you, thank you, thank you. We had such a good time last Thursday celebrating our wonderful community and its commitment to diversity and integration and community partnerships. And the food was fantastic. While I didn’t win the coveted platinum spatula, I had a great time meeting many, many neighbors and community leaders. And, to be honest, I was really quite touched by the number of folks who contributed. Your gifts and your support made a difference to our community – all total we raised more than $10,000 for three great institutions – but it also made an impression on me. Thank you. I’ve left the original...

One of the delightful things about this new role I am playing at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia is to be a major promoter of the many wonderful things that happen on our campus. And so as I look ahead to a full and fruitful October, I want to call your attention to three in particular. If you are anywhere in the vicinity, I hope you will drop by. Even if you’re not, two of them will be live streamed as well as recorded for later online viewing, and the other has an online component as well. So, in order of date…. On Tuesday, October 7, Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics at Union...