Archives for July 8, 2020

A variety of counseling and spiritual direction resources are available to you as a student. The seminary pastor, your faculty mentor, and the Student Affairs team are available for conversations and consultations. The seminary pastor is a confidential resource on campus.

Additional counseling resources are also available to you through the professional services of counselors in the Twin Cities or in your area. We encourage you to make use of such professionals when you are ready to address more complicated issues in your life as a seminarian. Tending to our health and wholeness as real human beings is a necessary asset for ministry. Reimbursement is available for all degree-seeking students.

The new guide, Emotional Wellbeing at Luther Seminary, provides additional information.

Please join contextual learning staff at 1 p.m. Central Wednesday, July 15 for an information session on CPE. We will have a panel of CPE educators joining us and discussing two main items. First, what does a CPE educator look for in CPE applications? Secondly, how is COVID-19 impacting CPE and student options currently? There will also be opportunities for questions. Please join us via Zoom, and please note that the session will be recorded and made available afterwards. The Zoom link will be provided in the community announcements email.

Join us at 11 a.m. Central Wednesday, July 8, for an online chapel worship service with Seminary Pastor Jeni Grangaard preaching, M.Div. student Sawyer Vanden Heuvel assisting, and Tom Witt leading music. Use this Zoom link: https://luthersem.zoom.us/my/sempastor. A link to the password will be provided in the community announcements email.

On March 16, 2020, the Contextual Learning Office emailed a letter to students regarding the unfolding pandemic and its impact upon contextual learning coursework at Luther. Today, we offer an update to that letter, as over three months have gone by, and many of you are preparing for (or already participating in) theological fieldwork across the United States and the globe.

Whether you are engaged in contextual work in Christian public leader courses, clinical pastoral education, or an internship, we are advising that you continue to abide by the precautionary measures developed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and other official federal and state health authorities where you live. As you do so, we would like to take a moment to both affirm and update our guidelines for these extraordinary times. Please read them and reach out to an appropriate member of the Contextual Learning Team if you need assistance.