Our presenters and preachers for the Martin Luther:The Reformer Exhibition:

The Rev Dr Eric W Gritsch is Professor Emeritus for Church History and former Director of the Institute of Luther Studies at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg. The author of numerous standard works on Luther, the Reformation and Lutheranism serves on the board of the Ecumenical Institute in Strasbourg, France and holds a teaching chair at the Melanchthon Institute in Houston, TX. He is a member of Zion Church.

The Rev Dr John Deckenback is the Conference Minister for the Mid-Atlantic Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC), covering New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Washington, DC, and Virginia. A native of Cresskill, NJ, he had been on the staff of the UCC Northern California and Nevada Conference for 20 years. His ecumenical duties include the Ecumenical Leaders Group of the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council and membership on both the Washington and Virginia Council of Churches. He is a member of the Executive committee of the United Church of Christ Office of General Ministries, and sits on the Board of Directors for International Relief and Development, Inc. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lancaster Theological Seminary, Hoffman Homes for Youth, and the UCC Pension Boards’ Health Advisory Committee.

Dr Christopher Dreisbach is professor of philosophy and assistant director of the Institute for Public Philosophy at the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore. He teaches Systematic and Moral Theology and serves as Vice-Dean of the Ecumenical Institute at St. Mary’s University.

The Rev Dean W Bard is Assistant to the Bishop of the Delaware/Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Prior to his coming to Baltimore, he had served as founding co-chair of the Lutheran/Roman Catholic Covenant Commission, which led to the Covenant between the Chicago Archdiocese and the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, the first of its kind in the ELCA. Continuing with his ecumenical work, he attended the Ecumenical Institute of the Lutheran World Federation, Strasbourg, France in the summer of 1990. He served as ELCA missionary and Pastor of the American Church in Berlin, Germany, and as the first director of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Wittenberg Center in Wittenberg, Germany.

The WITTENBERGER HOFKAPELLE is a professional Early and Renaissance Music Consort from Wittenberg, Germany: Katrin Kleinhardt (Soprano), Gesine Friedrich (Viola da Gamba, Recorder), Benjamin Dreßler (Viola da Gamba, Baritone) and Thomas Höhne (Lute, Theorbe, Recorder).

Dr. Joaneath Spicer is the James A. Murnaghan Curator of Renaissance and Baroque Art at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Her publications and curatorial activities range widely, including the exhibition Masters of Light, Dutch Painters in Utrecht during the Golden Age, focusing in part on the impact of Catholicism in a country normally thought of as Protestant; an in-depth study of the origins of the Star of David, and the issue of divine grace in Rembrandt’s oeuvre. Her interest in the relationship of faith and art in the 15^th to 17^th centuries first developed during her years of teaching at the University of Toronto where she offered courses in this area.

The Rev Dr Kirsi Stjerna is Assistant Professor of Reformation Church History and director of the Institute of Luther Studies at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. A native of Finland, she received her doctoral degree from Boston University after studying in the University of Helsinki’s Department of Theological Studies. She has taught part time at two New England colleges and also worked as a free lance writer and translator. She teaches the Lutheran confessional heritage and history of Christian spirituality. Her special areas of research include late Medieval and "Lutheran" spirituality, Mysticism, Medieval and Reformation women.

The Rev Dr Timothy J Wengert is the Ministerium of Pennsylvania Professor for Reformation History at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He has written extensively on Luther and Philip Melanchthon. In 2000, the city of Bretten, Germany (Melanchthon's birth place) awarded him the Melanchthon Prize for contributions to the field of Reformation scholarship - the first time that the prize was given to an American. He is associate editor of the Lutheran Quarterly and is a member of several ELCA Commissions and Task Forces.

ZION CHURCH OF THE CITY OF BALTIMORE
400 East Lexington Street, City Hall Plaza

Baltimore, MD 21202-3556

( 410-727 3939, email: zionbaltimore@aol.com

The Baltimore stay of the exhibit is supported by:
The Robert H. and Lorraine F. Duesenberg Foundation

The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany

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