Commencement

The Christus Vivit Award

Awarded to pastors, teachers, professors, officials of synod and lay persons who demonstrate faithful and fruitful service to the church in their respective calling.

Kris Schuldt currently serves The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) as District Disaster Response Coordinator (DDRC) for the LCMS Missouri District Lutheran Early Response Team (LERT) program. He has held this role for three years and has been involved in LERT disaster response efforts for the past seven years.

Schuldt earned a Bachelor of Science in applied behavioral sciences and is a certified master engineer.

For 42 years, Schuldt worked for a telephone company and moved his family to six different states during that time. During those years, he served in a variety of volunteer positions at Lutheran churches across the country and received support and encouragement from fellow Lutherans along the way.

His work with the LERT program has provided opportunities for service, rewarding work, new relationships and the opportunity to assist victims of disaster. In recognition of his service, he received the 2023 Disaster Response Servant Award from LCMS Disaster Response for his leadership and extensive volunteer efforts.

Schuldt was born at Lutheran Hospital in North St. Louis, Mo., the day after Christmas in 1950. He grew up attending St. Paul Lutheran Church and School in North St. Louis.

Schuldt and his wife have four adult children and one grandchild.

The Distinguished Alumnus Award

Awarded to a graduate of Concordia Seminary who has rendered exceptional service in at least one of the following areas: parish ministry, mission field, preparation of workers or LCMS service.

William “Bill” Knippa is currently pastor emeritus at Bethany Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas, where he served as senior pastor for 44 years. Prior to that, he was Dean of Men at Concordia University Texas, Austin, Texas, from 1973 to 1977. During these years, he pursued graduate study at the University of Texas at Austin, receiving his Ph.D. in counseling psychology in 1979 and post-doctoral training in marriage and family therapy with the Menninger Clinic of Topeka, Kan.

In addition to being a 1973 graduate of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, he was blessed in his preparation for pastoral ministry to be instructed, mentored and encouraged by committed faculty at Concordia Junior College, Austin, Texas and Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, Ind. Between his graduation from Concordia Senior College and entering Concordia Seminary, he studied with Dr. Martin Franzmann at Westfield House, Cambridge, England – a most formative experience.

His passion has been shepherding God’s people as a parish pastor. In addition, he has been able to serve The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Texas District as chairman of the Commission on Ministerial Health; by conducting seminars and workshops on spiritual, personal, professional and relational growth; and being a resource in assisting church workers and congregations experiencing distress and conflict.

His service to the church at national level has included being a member of the LCMS Committee on Ministerial Growth and Support, his leadership in the Lutheran Family Initiative, preparation of material for the Post-Seminary Applied Learning and Support (PALS) Program for recent seminary graduates, writing the “Family Counselor” column in The Lutheran Witness, and serving as a member and current chairman of Concordia Seminary’s Alumni Council.

Bill and his wife, Melissa, have been married for 50 years and have been blessed with three children and nine grandchildren. His son Michael is a Seminary graduate and parish pastor. He enjoys spending time with family, continuing to be involved with area congregations, reading, and staying current on what is happening in the church and in pastor’s lives in these challenging times.

Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa

Awarded to clergy within The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod or one of its partner churches who have rendered outstanding service in church life.

Rev. Kenneth Block is a retired professor from Concordia University, Nebraska, Seward, Neb., where he served as an associate professor of classical languages and theology and as the director of the pre-seminary program from 1983 to 2001.

Block holds a Master of Sacred Theology from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (1964), and master’s degrees in Greek and Latin (1968) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Before joining the faculty at Concordia University, Nebraska, Block served as pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Cheney, Kan. (1976-83); associate professor of classical languages at Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, Ind. (1972-76); teacher of religion and Greek at St. John College, Winfield, Kan. (1969-72); and teacher of Greek and Latin at Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Mich. (1964-69).

Active in church and community, Block currently serves at St. John Lutheran Church in Seward, Neb., as an elder, choir member and Bible study leader. His community service includes Kiwanis Club, Meals on Wheels and food distribution in the county. Also, he remains active in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Seward Ministerial Circuit of Nebraska.

Block is married to Marlene, a retired teacher and editor. They have four sons (one, Tim, already in heaven): David, Paul and Edgar, and eight grandchildren. Upon retirement, Block worked with Laborers for Christ from 2001-09 and taught for one semester as a guest instructor in classical languages at Concordia University, New York, Bronxville, N.Y.

Doctor of Letters, honoris causa

Awarded to a qualified person within the LCMS or one of its partner churches who demonstrates creativity, courage and excellence in the literary articulation of the Christian faith.

Dr. Brendan Wolfe is the principal editor of the St Andrews Encyclopedia of Theology, an open-access reference work for the whole field of theology, authored by experts who profess the faith they write about. Read throughout the world, it is perhaps especially vital for scholars, missionaries, clergy and congregations in countries and contexts with limited access to library resources.

Additionally, Wolfe coauthored “Arianism Revisited: An Introduction to Non-Nicene Theologies” (Fortress) to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. He furthermore leads the Sacred Landscapes project, an effort dedicated to recording and preserving the heritage of churches in Scotland.

Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Wolfe was baptized and confirmed at Grace Lutheran Church. He studied for his B.A. in Classics and Great Books at Brock University in St. Catharines, during which he took Biblical Hebrew from the adjacent Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary, St. Catharines, Ontario. A formative influence was participating in an ecumenical reading group of philosophers and local clergy on John Stephenson’s “The Lord’s Supper” in the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series.

He then studied at the University of Oxford for an M.Phil. in Comparative Philology, focusing within the Indo-European language family on the early Germanic and Italic languages. A fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada enabled him to complete an Oxford D.Phil. in Theology with a thesis on the Gothic Bible in Linguistics, History and Theology, supervised by Mark Edwards and examined by Rowan Williams. During his time at Oxford, he was an early member of the Oxford Lutheran Mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England (ELCE). He was elected secretary and then president of the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society, and co-edited its publication The Chronicle, later joining in transforming it into the Journal of Inklings Studies (Edinburgh University Press) in partnership with the Charles William Society and Owen Barfield Estate.

From 2009-11, Wolfe lived in Berlin, Germany, where he continued his research into Gothic linguistics and was a member of the Augustana Gemeinde of the Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche. He then returned to Oxford to teach visiting students and research church history. In 2013, he was elected to the ELCE Commission on Theological and Social Concerns.

At the University of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, UK since 2014, he taught post-Classical Latin and Patristics from his arrival until 2018, when the Encyclopedia became his main responsibility. He was a founding member of the St Andrews Lutheran Mission in 2019.

With his wife Judith, Wolfe has two stepsons, Tobias and Nathaniel, who are at university in Edinburgh, and a daughter, Miriam, in middle school.

Doctor of Laws, honoris causa

Awarded to a qualified person within the LCMS or one of its partner churches who demonstrates creativity, courage and excellence in the literary articulation of the Christian faith.