Latest news with #EvangelicalLutheranChurchinAmerica
CBS News
3 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Luther Seminary seeks to sell historic St. Paul campus
By Sadie Jones, WCCO intern Luther Seminary's board of directors voted unanimously to sell its campus in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Tuesday. The seminary has not identified a sale date but said it would operate its campus through the 2026-2027 school year. The change comes as the seminary said it wants to manage its resources "with a more nimble model." "Our mission to educate leaders for Christian communities remains as vital and necessary as ever," Luther Seminary President Robin Steinke said. "To remain sustainable over the long term, how we fulfill this mission will be transformed going forward." In addition to selling its campus, the seminary will lay off 10% of its staff. Officials said the decision was not made due to financial need. "Luther Seminary is in a strong financial position," said officials in a news release. Of the student body, 70% engage in online coursework, according to officials. Luther Seminary, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has been operating for more than 150 years. For the last 120 years, it has been based on its campus off Como Avenue, just west of the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. The seminary is seeking a new space in the Twin Cities area that will better meet its teaching, learning, scholarship and community engagement needs. It said it remains committed to "strategic, periodic in-person learning."
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Luther Seminary plans to vacate its St. Paul campus
After more than 125 years in St. Paul, Luther Seminary is looking to lean into online education and relocate to a much smaller physical campus. Where will it land? Undetermined. The seminary, an accredited graduate school of theology based in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood, was founded in Afton in 1884 and moved to St. Paul in 1893. In a written announcement Tuesday, seminary officials said their board of directors voted unanimously to transition to a more 'nimble' model and 'initiate a process to seek new space in the Twin Cities area that aligns with its needs going forward.' The seminary is to remain in St. Anthony Park through at least the 2026-2027 school year, though a transition to a new campus could take longer. 'We're don't have a timeline on that yet,' said Luther Seminary President Robin Steinke, in an interview Tuesday. 'We've got a lot of investigative work to do. That depends on where we find a home and the kind of repurposing that best serves the needs of this neighborhood … and helps us prioritize our mission.' The seminary spans 370 degree-seeking students, though some 8 million users annually access its resources from across the world, including daily online devotion, Bible study and sermon preparation. Currently, about 70% of students primarily take their courses online while engaging in ministry in communities across the United States, while visiting campus for week-long intensive courses. Its degree programs, which include graduate degrees, masters of divinity and doctorates, are offered 100% tuition-free through the seminary's endowment and fundraising, but growing maintenance costs associated with the more-than-century-old campus have become a burden. 'We need less property if we're going to be a school without tuition,' Steinke said. 'We're 95% philanthropically driven. We have increased our endowment. … It's the deferred maintenance. It's the snow in the winter. It's the roof repair. It's the boiler repair. It's the water repair.' Steinke said the goal is 'to remain sustainable over the long term' and 'steward our resources more effectively and serve students and learners from all walks of life.' In an era of hybrid online classes, that includes 'strategic, periodic in person-learning,' she said. 'The way students learn and prepare for ministry has changed. Now is the right time to align our resources with that reality and evolve how we deliver on our mission,' she said. The seminary's active uses are concentrated on the north campus — spanning 10 acres — which consists of three major administrative buildings, a small chapel and nine single-family homes for students. The seminary, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, entered into a purchase agreement this year with Lifestyle Communities, which hopes to buy the entirety of the 16-acre lower campus, which has land parcels in both St. Paul and Lauderdale. The property includes Northwestern Hall, Stub Hall and Breck Woods. That transaction is in its due diligence period, and closing on the purchase is expected in 2026. The Edina-based housing developer previously opened the Zvago Cooperative, a retirement community, next to Gullixson Hall at the east end of the seminary campus in St. Anthony Park. In 2022, Luther Seminary announced a previous deal to sell the lower campus was on hold, given cold feet from developer Inland Development Partners, which the school said had blamed increased construction costs and the city's then-new rent control policy. Under community opposition, Luther Seminary last year canceled a separate arrangement with Ramsey County, which had planned to lease the long-vacant Stub Hall dormitory and use it as an emergency 'Safe Space' shelter, which would have provided 64 men's and women's beds through a partnership with Model Cities. Chroma Zone mural festival returns to St. Paul for sixth year St. Paul: Sharrett's Liquors to briefly close as longtime owners retire
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Charlotte churches to hold evening masses mourning Pope Francis
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Charlotte Bishop Michael Martin called for all churches to open from 7 to 8 p.m. Monday so Catholics can come together to mourn the passing of Pope Francis in their own way. Francis died Monday after his first big appearance Easter Sunday. He had been battling pneumonia. Francis served as a religious leader of a billion people across the world, including more than 550,000 in the Charlotte Diocese. Martin said Francis appointed him as a bishop. Now, losing him makes it even tougher. 'Today, in particular, is a day of sadness, for me personally, but also for Catholics around our diocese as well as around the world,' Martin said. 'I'm incredibly honored personally, to me he means a great deal.' But Francis' impact went much farther and across religious boundaries. North Carolina Synod Bishop Timothy Smith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America shared on social media that despite differences in faith, reconciliation of all relationships was an end goal for Francis. 'Maybe in a world where everything seems to be coming apart on so many levels, there could be a different way when we would come together and accentuate not our differences as much as what we have in common,' Smith said. Francis was a Jesuit and the first ever to be a pope. A Jesuit is a Society of Jesus that is younger than other religious orders with a reputation for education and academics. St. Peter Catholic Church is the oldest in Charlotte and the only Jesuit one. It sits in the heart of Uptown. Father Tim Stephens at St. Peter Catholic Church still can't believe Francis was one of them. 'My first reaction was it was unimaginable,' Stephens said. 'We just never, we oftentimes assumed it would never, ever happen because it's extremely rare for a Jesuit to be a cardinal, to be a bishop.' Stephens said Francis' legacy is that he saw himself as a pastor and shepherd first and portrayed that in every relationship, despite criticism he might face. 'He wanted them to know as God's representative on earth, wanted them to know that God loves them unconditionally,' Stephens said. Wednesday at 7 p.m., St. Marks in Huntersville will have a large mass for anyone in the diocese to come together and honor his life. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
