2003 Synod Assembly

Speakers

Rev. Mitri Raheb, Keynote
Bishop Margaret Payne, Honored Guest
Rev. Dr. James Childs, Representative of the Presiding Bishop
Dr. Frederick Gaiser, Bible Study Leader

Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, Keynote
The Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb is the pastor of Evangelical Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank area of Israel/Palestine. His church endured 40 days of curfew by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) in the spring of 2002. A native of Bethlehem, he is also the founder and General Director of the International Center of Bethlehem, and the founder of Dar Al Kalima Model School and Academy. He graduated from Philipps University at Marburg, Germany, with a Ph.D. in Theology. A well-known speaker and preacher, he is the author of several articles and books, including I Am a Palestinian Christian and Bethlehem 2000: Past and Present.

Bishop Margaret Payne, New England Synod of the ELCA, Honored Guest
Margaret G. Payne is the bishop of the New England Synod of the ELCA, our sister synod. 

A graduate of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Penn., Payne began her career as an English teacher, in Punjab, India on a Fulbright grant. She was ordained as a minister in the Lutheran Church in America in 1984 following graduation from Princeton Seminary in New Jersey. After several years in parish ministry, in 1991 she was called to be assistant to the bishop in the New Jersey Synod. She was elected bishop of the New England Synod in 2000. As a member of the Conference of Bishops, she serves on the Theology and Ethics Committee, and represents the Conference on the steering committee of The Fund for Leaders in Mission. Recently she has been appointed to serve as Chair of the Sexuality Task Force of the ELCA.

Rev. Dr. James Childs, Representative of the Presiding Bishop
The Rev. Dr. James M. Childs, Jr. is Director for ELCA Studies on Sexuality and Joseph A. Sittler Professor of Theology and Ethics at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. For twenty of his twenty-four years at Trinity he served as Academic Dean.

Throughout his more than thirty years in ordained ministry, Dr. Childs has served the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Lutheran Church in America before that, in some twenty-seven different appointed or elected avenues of synodical or churchwide service. He is past chair of the Board of the Division for Church and Society of the ELCA. 

He is a member of the American Academy of Religion. He is also a member of the Society of Christian Ethics and serves on its Board of Directors. 

Dr. Childs is the author of over twenty journal articles and has contributed chapters to seven different books. He has also published a number of reviews, educational resources, and sermons.

Dr. Frederick Gaiser, Bible Study Leader
Dr. Fred Gaiser is now in his 29th year of teaching Old Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. He earned his M.Div. degree at Trinity Lutheran Seminary and his Ph.D. in Old Testament at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Dr. Gaiser served five years as a parish pastor in South Dakota before coming to Luther Seminary.

Dr. Gaiser’s interest in healing, the theme of the assembly Bible study, began with his work as a pharmaceutical chemist following his graduation from Kalamazoo College. It has been enhanced through his frequent teaching experiences in Africa as director of the Luther Seminary in Zimbabwe program. He has taught a course on Healing in the Bible for several years. Dr. Gaiser currently serves as a member of the ELCA’s Task Force on Health, Healing, and Health Care. He has been editor of Word & World, a quarterly journal of theology for Christian ministry, since 1988.