New Seminary Support

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NEW SEMINARY SUPPORT

Deaconess formation
Pastoral Formation for the Americas and the Caribbean
Emphasis on preparing evangelists and showing mercy

With Latin American Seminaries at their fullest residential capacity, and with a
burgeoning deaconess program taking off in the region, an additional seminary
and mercy training center in Latin America was identified by Regional LCMS
leadership as a critical need.
The new seminary facility is the newly constructed top floor of the existing
Lutheran elementary school and church. The campus supports a full residential
seminary program for pastors, and a distance education program for
deaconesses. It consists of several classrooms, offices for professors, dormitory
space for about 20 students, a conference space for use in regional gatherings
and a modern library ,which when completed will be on track to being the
largest Spanish Lutheran Theological Library in the world.
Young men who attend the new seminary, located in the Dominican Republic,
receive a formation which prepares them for a lifetime of pastoral ministry in
Central America and the Caribbean. The presence of the Hogares Luteranos el
Buen Pastor group home for children with developmental disabilities, on the
campus of the seminary, is an opportunity for students to learn how to integrate
the merciful role of the church in its community, with Word and Sacrament
ministry. In addition, pastoral students work closely with missionary church
planters throughout the country of the Dominican Republic, in order to gain
vital hands on experience planting churches and sharing the Gospel with those
who don’t know Christ.
For the young women who are studying to be deaconesses, the rich theological
depth offered in classes, and the intensive practical experience which comes
from the surrounding mercy institutions serves to form capable and effective
deaconesses to support the work of Pastors throughout the region.
The large conference room is known as our Mercy Center and Lord willing will
soon partner and teach on a whole range of mercy issues. Issues such as
affirming life, reconciliation, working with people with disabilities, the deaf,
and giving lay people and church workers alike a sturdy witness of Jesus while
also being hands and feet of mercy to those in need.