The Rev. William C. Weedon of Worden, Ill., has accepted the call to serve as the Synod’s director of Worship and International Center (IC) chaplain.
He will join the staff at the IC May 1. His installation is planned for May 7 at 10 a.m. in the IC chapel.
Weedon, 51, has been pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hamel, Ill. — just northeast of the metropolitan St. Louis area — since 1992.
In his new position with the Synod’s Office of National Mission (ONM) as the director of Worship, he will report to ONM Executive Director Rev. Bart Day. As IC chaplain, he will report to the Office of the President.
In his director of Worship role, Weedon will be responsible for proposing and creating programs that will carry out the purposes and aims of the Synod in matters of worship. As IC chaplain, he will work with the president’s office in planning and supervising all chapel services at the IC and Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF), as well as rendering informal chaplaincy and counseling services to employees as requested.
Before the Synod’s restructuring that was mandated by the 2010 LCMS convention, its worship and IC chaplaincy duties were carried out by separate staff members. An executive director reported to the former LCMS Commission on Worship, and chaplaincy services for the staff were provided part time by a retired pastor.
“The ONM is overjoyed that Rev. Weedon has accepted the call to support the Synod in her worship life,” Day said. “Rev. Weedon brings deep knowledge and passion for the liturgical life of congregations. His evangelical spirit and ability to work with everyone lovingly in koinonia make him well-suited to lead continued discussion on a matter that remains contentious in the Synod, but lies at the heart of our life together.”
Concerning his worship responsibilities, Weedon said, “We have been blessed with an extraordinarily rich, intentional and beautiful liturgical heritage that fully accords with our Lutheran Confessions. We recognize that within that heritage we possess a wide range of freedom in how we receive together the Lord’s gifts in our parishes, but that we have a responsibility to each other and, above all, to the world to make sure that the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ rings through loud and clear in all we do. Together, we’ll grow in our corporate reception of the Lord’s gifts in an authentically Lutheran manner that is not legalistic, but joyfully receives our living and ever-growing heritage.”
“It is absolutely important to provide regular chapel services and ensure pastoral care for the people at the IC and at LCEF who daily make decisions on behalf of the LCMS,” Weedon said of his chaplaincy responsibilities. “We’re not in competition with the pastoral care these folks receive in their own churches, but we seek to supplement it by speaking the Word of God in the midst of our work, allowing that Word to permeate and shape our life together . . . in service to Christ’s church.”
Weedon has become familiar to Synod staff who have come to hear him preach through Luther’s Small Catechism at Wednesday-morning chapel services from January through June, in 2011 and 2012.
A 1982 graduate of Concordia College – New York, in Bronxville, N.Y., Weedon earned M.Div. and S.T.M. degrees from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in 1986 and 1998, respectively. From 1986 until 1992, he was pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Burlington, N.C.
Weedon is a contributor for Concordia Publishing House’s (CPH) upcoming The Apocrypha: The Lutheran Edition with Notes; a contributor to CPH’s A Year in the New Testament (published in 2010) and a reviser and updater for Starck’s Prayer Book (CPH, 2009). He also is the author of CPH’s 2009 Bible study titled “Matter of the Heart” and of its book Lutheranism 101: All About Jesus, which is slated for publication in 2013.
He also has written articles published in church journals and magazines including Concordia Pulpit Resources and Higher Things.
In addition, Weedon served as a member of the working group of the Lord’s Supper Liturgy in preparation for Lutheran Service Book.
In other service to the church, he currently is spiritual counselor for the Concordia Deaconess Conference. He was a regent for Concordia University Chicago until accepting the call from the Synod. Also, he has served as keynote presenter and chaplain for Higher Things youth conferences, as a facilitator for the Synod’s PALS program, and as circuit counselor. He is a frequent guest on the “Issues, Etc.” radio program.
Weedon and his wife, Cynthia, have three grown children: daughters Lauren Herberts, a Lutheran teacher in Overland, Mo., and Rebekah, a student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (Ill.); and a son, David, a graphic designer living in Worden. Cynthia Weedon is office manager for White Mountain Financial in Alhambra, Ill. She is an accomplished vocalist and frequent soloist — particularly in church and with the Collinsville (Ill.) Chorale.
A blogger for a number of years, Pastor Weedon’s blog can be found at weedon.blogspot.com.
Posted March 16, 2012
