The Twenty Fifth Annual St. Michael Liturgical Conference

Monday, September 30, A.+ D. 2024 - Zion Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Detroit

Registration Information Coming Soon

The Solemn High Mass will be celebrated at 9:00 a.m.  Registration opens at 8:15 a.m.

Keynote Presentation – Rev. Dr. Jonathan Bruss  

“Lutheran Liturgy:  The Saxon Settlement of 1580 and Formula of Concord Article X”

Perhaps no article of The Book of Concord of 1580 has come into more controversy in the context of North American confessional Lutheranism than Formula of Concord X, “On Church Rites, which are commonly called adiaphora or matters of indifference.” While FC X certainly recognizes “matters of indifference,” it nevertheless does not allow an indifferent approach to adiaphora. If the opposite of an indifferent approach is a judicious one, I propose that using the Saxon Church Order of 1580 allows modern interpreters of FC X to understand just what the formulators had in mind. The judicious application of the teaching of FC X in that church order, undertaken in cooperation with Jakob Andreä, stands within, reflects, and indeed replicates a long line of Lutheran liturgical thought traceable to Luther’s earliest work on the liturgy and offers a clear insight into how the formulators understood FC X.

Q & A with Dr. Bruss -  Fr. Mark Braden, Pastor of Zion, will facilitate a Q & A period during which conference attendees can interact with Dr. Bruss on his keynote presentation. 

A Panel Discussion by this years’ presenters, joined by several distinguished guests and select Gottesdienst editors, will follow the Q&A.  Questions from Conference attendees will be answered and discussed by the panel.

Afternoon Presentation:  The Lutheran Missal Project, “Let Me Never Be Confounded”, and the History of the Te Deum Laudamus.   Two years after his first presentation to the Conference, Fr. Evan Scamman will  present  an update on the Lutheran Missal Project.  Fr. Larry Beane will provide theological reflection on the words of the Te Deum “Let me never be confounded? What does this mean?.”   Fr. Burnell Eckardt will explore and discuss the mysterious history of the Te Deum Laudamus.

Organ Recital – Miss Emily Solomon, Cantor of Zion Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Detroit, and Executive Director of the Academy of Early Music, will play from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m.

The Reverend Dr. David Petersen, Pastor of Redeemer Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and departmental editor of Gottesdienst, will preach at the Mass, the Commemoration of St. Jerome. 

A catered luncheon, and morning and afternoon refreshments, will be provided. 

The Divine Offices of Sext and Solemn Vespers will be prayed. 

Gemütlichkeit in the Undercroft follows Vespers.  Food and beverages will be provided.

Conference information: http://www.ziondetroit.org/st

Email: church@ziondetroit.org     Phone: 313.894.7450

Lodging recommendations are available from the church office.

About the Presenters:

The Reverend Doctor J.S. Bruss was elected the 17th president of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne (CTSFW), after joining the faculty as associate professor of systematic theology in fall of 2022.

He earned the B.A. in 1989 at St. Olaf College (classics magna cum laude), the M.Div. in 1994 at Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary (ELS) in Mankato, Minnesota, and the M.A. and Ph.D. in classics and philosophy from the University of Minnesota in 1996 and 2000 respectively. From 1991 through 2002 he served on the faculty of Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, and thereafter at St. Olaf College, The University of the South, and the University of Kansas. From 2013 through 2022 he served as pastor at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Topeka, Kansas.

Dr. Bruss has been a contributing translator to the CPH Luther’s Works supplement, most notably the Annotationes in Matthaeum, and was a director of the Concordia University System from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife Kristine, who is the chief communications officer at CTSFW, have a daughter, Ingrid, who was joined in holy matrimony to Peter Funk on 24 August 2024. 

 The Reverend Dr. Burnell Eckardt is Pastor of St. Paul’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Kewanee, Illinois. He received the Ph.D. from Marquette University and the S.T.M. from Concordia Theological Seminary.  Fr. Eckardt is the General Editor of Gottesdienst: A Quarterly Journal of the Evangelical-Lutheran Liturgy, and author of Every Day Will I Bless Thee: Meditations for the Daily Office; The New Testament in His Blood: A Study of the Holy Liturgy of the Christian Church; and compiler of The Lutheran Propers. 

The Reverend Evan Scamman is the Pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Greenwich, Connecticut. He received his MDiv from Concordia Theological Seminary.  With Fr. Stefan Gramenz, Pastor of Christ the King Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Pawling, New York, he is engaged in the creation of a Lutheran Missal based on Lutheran agenda of the Reformation era.

The Reverend  Larry Beane is Pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in Gretna, Louisiana. He has served as Gottesdienst online editor since 2008 and departmental editor since 2010. He holds an MDiv from Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He has taught Apologetics, Economics, and Government at Wittenberg Academy. He has served as the chaplain of the David Crockett Volunteer Fire Company in Gretna, as a chaplain (with the grade of Captain) in the US Air Force Auxiliary (Civil Air Patrol), and is the current Louisiana Wing Chaplain for CAP. He was privileged to teach at Lutheran seminars in Siberia.