Bishop Krister Stendahl died this morning in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Funeral this Friday at University Lutheran Church, Harvard Square.
Memorial Service in Memorial Church, Harvard Yard, sometime in May, date to be announced.
I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord;
he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live;
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth;
and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God;
whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold,
and not as a stranger.
For none of us liveth to himself,
and no man dieth to himself.
For if we live, we live unto the Lord.
and if we die, we die unto the Lord.
Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord;
even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors.
10 comments:
Godde comfort you, and all who mourn him.
((((Jane))))
Here beside you, Jane.
Thank you, dear Mary Clara and dear JohnieB.
May his light shine.
((((you))))
I'm sorry for the loss of your great friend and mentor, Jane. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
See a lengthy and heartfelt reminiscence of Krister Stendahl by David Hartman on the Hartman Institute website. Stendahl was a director there and managed the annual Theology Conference, which brings together Christian, Jewish and Muslim theologians and clergy.
Thanks, Alan, for the link. I will post it on the item above with the Times obit. I remember Krister telling me about the Hartman Institute meetings. I know how much they meant to him.
It is Krister who got me involved on the program committee of the Seventh National Workshop on Christian-Jewish Relations (Boston, 1983). We got feminist perspectives on the program that year for the first time and also tried to get more young people involved. My friend and colleague Karen Wood (former NCCJ national staff for interreligious dialogue and now a chaplain at Willamette U.) dates her involvement to that era as well.
Thank you again for writing and for the moving reflection.
Dearest Jane- May Krister rest in peace. I send you my every prayer of consolation at his passing.
You carry on his light and his work in your life.
Pax.
Jane, as strange as it may be to you, I have a memory of el Reverendisimo Krister!
22 JAN 1990 there was a historic extraordinary ordination of a gay man and two lesbians in San Francisco; Jeff Johnson called by First United Lutheran Church, and Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart called by St. Francis Lutheran Church. The ordinations resulted in the ultimate expulsion of First United and St. Francis from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Carter Heyward, of the infamous Philadelphia Eleven, was the preacher at the service. Bishop Stendahl, who could not attend sent a letter to be read to the ordinands, where he said, “Since I cannot be with you at your ordination which—it seems—must take place extra ordinem, I want to send you a greeting affirming my conviction that the steps that your congregations and you are taking stand well before God.”
I was sitting in a little Lutheran church on Capitol Hill in Seattle listening to the service via closed circuit telephone. It was a packed house.
David, that is wonderful. I know of that letter, in fact I re-read the text a few days ago on the site of the Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. They have a nice obituary and remembrance of that letter. It's here.
Jeff Johnson later moved to the Lutheran church at UC-Berkeley and I had the pleasure of meeting him by e-mail, just before I moved out here, so I don't know him in person, but I have a good friend who has worked with him in the interfaith community at Cal Berkeley.
Thanks for sharing your memory!
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