Harrison installed as 13th LCMS president
About 1,200 guests, including 31 international representatives from Lutheran churches worldwide, attended the “Service of Installation” September 11 for the Rev. Matthew C. Harrison, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), first-through-fifth vice- presidents, and other officers. The service was held at the Chapel of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.
Rev. J. Samuel, president of the India Evangelical Lutheran Church, brings words of blessing to the installation of the Rev. Matthew C. Harrison as president of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod at a Service of Installation in the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, September 11. Photo courtesy of LCMS/Kris Bueltmann
Harrison, former executive director of LCMS World Relief and Human Relief, the church’s mercy ministry, was elected president July 13 by delegates to the church body’s 64th regular convention. He is the 13th person to serve as president of the LCMS, the second largest Lutheran church body in the United States.
The Rev. Walter Obare, archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya, an LCMS sister church, delivered the sermon. “Brother Matthew and all of you who will be commissioned here today, be ready to go out in search for the lost sheep and bring back the strays,” Obare said. “This is God’s will for you and for your church body.”
Among the dignitaries attending the service were the Rev. Franklin E. Hays, presiding pastor of the American Association of Lutheran Churches; Jeff Whisenant, executive vice president of Lutheran World Relief; and Linda Hartke, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. About 300 pastors and church workers participated in the service’s processional.
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