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COP places 169 pastoral candidates

Candidates for pastoral ministry — 169 in all — were placed by the Synod’s Council of Presidents (COP) during its April 22-27 meeting that included participation in call day worship services at the two LCMS seminaries.

The COP also assigned 241 men to vicarage service during the 2005-06 academic year.

The 169 candidates included 64 from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind.; 99 from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis; one from Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary, St. Catharines, Ontario; three through pastoral colloquy; and two from the Ethnic Pastor Certification Program.

Ten men remain to be placed, according to Rev. Vernon Schindler, president of the South Dakota District and COP secretary. “Some calls are pending as congregations complete their paperwork and some men have academic work to complete,” Schindler said. “They will eventually be placed.”

The COP assigned all the vicars available through the seminaries’ M.Div. and Alternate Route programs. The total included 74 from Fort Wayne, 166 from St. Louis, and one from St. Catharines. Twenty-two requests for vicars were not filled.

As of April 1, 357 LCMS congregations were calling a full-time pastor, 49 were calling senior pastors, and 68 were calling assistant or associate pastors, according to reports from the districts. Another 402 congregations with vacancies are not calling, but have arranged services from retired pastors or neighboring congregations.

The COP assigned four deaconess interns from Fort Wayne and seven from St. Louis in U.S. locations. Pending completion of arrangements, three interns from Fort Wayne were placed in the Dominican Republic, Lithuania, and Russia. One intern from St. Louis will be assigned to Guatemala.

Also placed during the COP meeting were 125 commissioned ministers who are prepared to serve as teachers, directors of Christian education, and other roles in LCMS congregations. They are graduates of the 10 LCMS Concordia colleges and universities. “We expect to place at least two times that many during our September meeting,” Schindler said.