During graduation last week, we held our annual Alumni Reunion, celebrating a 5th graduation anniversary all the way up to 65 years in the ministry. Many of these men hail from the Springfield years, though there were at least two old friends from Springfield to greet them here on the Fort Wayne campus: the Martin Luther statue and the Springfield Bell, which our graduates so gleefully rung only last week. Dr. Rast addressed our alumni at the Baccalaureate service that Friday:
“Present with us we have pastors who graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary, then in Springfield, as well as those who have graduated from the campus here in Fort Wayne, going back as far as 1954. What a remarkable testimony to God’s grace and mercy in giving us servants who have served as pastors in the faith for such years. And also for those whose term of service has been shorter…let us recognize them for their excellent service over these many years.”
[The congregation acknowledged and thanked these men with applause.]
“I have been the student of some of them,” Dr. Rast went on, “I have been the professor of some of them, but they are all my pastoral colleagues. Thank you and God bless you, brothers.”
A photo album of the Alumni Reunion has been uploaded to the CTSFW FB page (www.facebook.com/ctsfw), which includes class pictures of all those who were on campus with us, as well as the golf outing that took place earlier in the week.