Dear Epiphany:I’m excited to participate in the celebration of Epiphany’s 60 years of ministry. It will be an honor for me to serve as a guest preacher, along with the other former pastors.
It is likely that God called me to Epiphany to give me an opportunity to experience ministry in a setting new to me — that of a growing suburban community.
I had already experienced life in a congregation of farmers, having grown up in St. Paul Lutheran Church in north central Ohio. My first parish, St. John Lutheran Church, was in a small town in Sidney, Ohio. When God’s call came to serve Epiphany, I was in my thirteenth year of ministry at Old Trinity Lutheran Church, a metropolitan church in a large urban setting in downtown Columbus.
The call to suburban Epiphany came in 1979. I retired in 2000. That means I had the privilege of spending 21 years at Epiphany, a ministry which involved expansion of racial and ecumenical relationships locally, as well as numerous partnerships globally.
Following retirement, Cindy and I were commissioned by the former East German Synod of Mecklenburg to share development strategies we had learned at Epiphany with its congregations.
Cindy and I have three children: Steve (and Linda) in Cincinnati, Becky (and Doug) in Des Moines, and John (and Julia) in San Francisco. Each has two children, making us the proud grandparents of six. And, best of all, in June, we became the great grandparents of Elias.
At the beginning August, we sold our home of 29 years on Aspen Ridge Court and moved to a cottage on the campus of Bethany Lutheran Village. So now we can walk to church. Life is good!
Hello! My family attended St.John’s at the time you were in Sidney. Fred and Sharon Miller were my parents and my siblings are Laura and Todd. I have fond memories and some photographs of our families spending time together. My best to all of your family.