The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod entered into a partnership in 2004 with Bethesda Lutheran Homes and Services, Inc., and the Central American Lutheran Mission Society (CALMS). The D.R. mission has since planted four churches, two adjacent Lutheran church-schools, and established a seminary for forming pastors. Concordia The Reformer Seminary was opened in 2010 in Palmar Arriba, Santiago, and serves all of the Caribbean, Latin America and Northern South America with ten residential students from seven countries. The seminary supports the formation of pastors to spread the Word, plant churches, and show mercy. An emphasis of mercy work in the Dominican Republic is ministry to people with developmental disabilities through Hogares Luteranos el Buen Pastor, a group home for several young adults. This ministry serves as a beacon to the community as an example of Christian care giving, and has led to positive change within numerous government institutions.
No rest for the weary! Our seminarians finished up finals week on Friday and immediately dove into a two-week intensive course. Latin American pastors and deaconesses were invited to join our seminarians for this online class on the theology of mercy, taught by Pastor Ted Krey, Regional Director for the Latin America and Caribbean region.
During this time of uncertainty due to the global pandemic, many are in various states of quarantine or isolation from social activity. Our seminary and her students and staff are no different. Seminary Director, Rev. Joel Fritsche, shares some of the ways in which the work continues, and the Gospel goes out even in the midst of this storm. Thanks be to God.
Across the Latin American and Caribbean Region, our LCMS Missionaries continue to spread the Gospel in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. In this video, Regional Director Ted Krey talks about our missionaries, changes that have taken place, and how they continue to move the work forward under these trying conditions.
In January 2020, Concordia Seminary St. Louis sent two deaconess students on a mission education trip to the Dominican Republic to learn about various aspects of the ministry occurring there and throughout Latin America. Participants Janie Schlie and Christina Shaffer, both first year students, had the opportunity to experience what life is like in the Dominican Republic while serving alongside and learning from missionaries, deaconesses and local believers.
Disaster Response workshops were hosted by Concordia Lutheran Church and School in Palmar Arriba, and Lamb of God Lutheran Church and School in Licey, through grants from the Mercy Center, an institute of Concordia the Reformer Seminary in the Dominican Republic.
To commemorate 502 years of the Lutheran Reformation, LCMS mission congregations across the Dominican Republic celebrated with a street procession preceding their Divine Services.
The first ever vacation Bible school was held last week in Palmar Arriba, Dominican Republic. Missionaries, pastors, deaconesses, seminarians and others assisted with stories about Bible heroes, crafts, and songs.
On Trinity Sunday, seven new adult confirmands were brought into membership at Lamb of God Lutheran Church in Licey, Dominican Republic. Missionary Pastor Sergio Fritzler, from Argentina, serves the congregation part-time, in addition to his duties as a seminary professor at Concordia the Reformer Seminary. Recent seminary graduate, Yban Navarro, assisted with the service.
Concordia the Reformer Mercy Center and Seminary has been a busy place over the past weeks…
Santa Ortiz, the pastor’s wife of a Lutheran congregation near the capital of the Dominican Republic, describes her church’s need for more members willing to serve the church as deaconesses.
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