Nobody at Seminary or on its Board of directors had anticipated that I would be elected to become the 3rd Bishop of the LCSA. That is why we did not have contingency plans in place for this. However due to the difficult financial situation at Seminary I had looked at a number of options, which could possibly relieve the LTS of this burden. That is why there have been some alternatives for the LTS Board of Directors to consider all along.
Presently we are most encouraged by Bishop Tswaedi's willingness to give up on his original plans to start a PhD in Concordia Seminary St. Louis [USA] and rather jump in to address this higher priority concern of the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa. This has been communicated to the Board and we will have to see how this will work out. Therefore it seems quite likely that he will be the next rector at the LTS starting in 2010 as his duties as Bishop are handed over to his successor.
Added to this option we feel that the Seminary should have an administrator and obviously an ideal candidate would be President Peter Ahlers, who excels at admin and who is retiring from being president this month anyway. That would give the FELSiSA a first-hand look into Seminary matters and would also give Bishop Tswaedi welcome assistance in this work at Seminary. If this does not work out, there might be another candidate from LCMS WM, whose name Dr. Mike Rodewald has brought up. Let's see how this will proceed.
Thirdly we have thought that just as Bishop Tswaedi was always closely connected to the Seminary in teaching New Testament subjects, I could possibly continue with teaching Lutheran Symbolics and Systematics for the time being. Let's see how the the Seminary Board will view these prospects.
The decisions are to be felled by tomorrow afternoon, because the three shareholders of the Seminary: Lutheran Church in Southern Africa, the Free Evangelical Lutheran Synod in South Africa and the Mission of Lutheran Churches are to hear and sanctify these options too.
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