Seminary at Laurier appoints principal-dean

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Contributed Image

Waterloo Lutheran Seminary has appointed Reverend Mark Harris to the position of principal-dean.

The position of principal-dean was held by Rev. David Pfrimmer for over a decade before he chose to step down earlier this year, leaving the Seminary in search of a candidate to fill the position.

They found it in the form of Mark Harris, an assistant professor with the Seminary, who has more than 27 years of experience as a pastor with the Lutheran Church and is himself a graduate of the seminary.

โ€œI am both humbled and honoured to have been chosen for the position,โ€ said Harris.

Harris will be taking over the position as the Seminary is in the midst of major changes, with planned multi-million dollar renovations and a change in name from Waterloo Lutheran Seminary to Martin Luther University.

โ€œThere are major transitions in the life here underway. Not only in terms of our physical planned space, but the change to the name,โ€ said Harris. โ€œWhile it would not come into effect for a year, year and a half, we are filing the legal documents toward making application for that name change.โ€

In addition to those changes theyโ€™ve begun, the Seminary is in the process of renegotiating its operating agreement with Wilfrid Laurier University.

โ€œOur current operating agreement with the university is getting really old and out-dated now,โ€ Harris explained.

โ€œItโ€™s really time for the university and the seminary to sit down and explore how we can better work together and support one-another, and how we at the Seminary can better integrate our programs and our operations with those at the university.โ€

Although the Seminary will be undergoing this transitionary period, Harris is certain that he will be able to continue to support Pfrimmerโ€™s vision of a public Seminary, which extended beyond pastoral ordainment.

โ€œThis is really a place where people can come and they can integrate not only their academic curiosity and academic studies, but also conversations about the things that they most deeply value,โ€ said Harris.

โ€œWe will continue to grow into that reality of what it means to be a public seminary in this community.โ€

In addition to the work he will be doing with the Seminary, Harris is glad of the opportunity to remain in a city and region that through his years as a pastor and at the university he has grown fond of.

โ€œI have a deep appreciation for not only Waterloo, but the whole Waterloo region; for the diversity, for the innovation, for the character of the community in this place and for the academic institutions that are to be found in the region,โ€ said Harris. โ€œSo all of those things together pulled me back to this community, and make it an honour to be a citizen in this region.โ€


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