The Rev. Dr. Jules Erickson has served as an ordained minister of Word and Sacrament in the ELCA for 25 years. She is a Clergy Coach, an Adjunct Professor at Luther Seminary, leads a Rostered Clergy class on BFST, and loves to preach, teach, play and create pottery. Jules is also a Certified Facilitator for The Daring Way™ and Rising Strong™ Curricula from the research of Brené Brown. She lives in Hastings with her wife and their two golden doodles.  If you want to have a guest speaker or need a coach, contact Jules at jules@allsaintscg.org  Most of these materials from Pr Jules were printed first by her in: Practical Grief: Stories Of Loss and Love Proj ID: PUB865-58   

ISBN: 978-1-7923-8697-8 She currently serves All Saints Lutheran Church, ELCA 8100 Belden Blvd. Cottage Grove, MN 55016, www.allsaintscg.org .

Rev. Dr. Glenn Monson   Luther-Northwestern Theological Seminary, St. Paul,  MN. Ordained August 18, 1991.  Has served 3 churches:  solo at St. John’s of Williams Township, Easton, PA  1991 – 1996.  Associate pastor at Our Savior’s in Austin, MN  1996 – 2003 and Senior pastor at same church 2003 – 2015, now Mount Olive as senior since 2015.  DMin in Homiletics from LSTC in 2003.  Authored Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted; a Brief Guide to Law and Gospel Preaching in 2015.  Recently authored Quarantining With God; Daily Devotions from a Pastoral Heart, 2022. 

Rev. Marie AK Anderson: undergraduate degrees (yes plural) University Wisconsin, Menomonie; Career prior to entering seminary: professional Quilter. Luther Seminary 2003 Ordained: August 22, 2004. Has served Settled and Intentional Interim calls in SE Minnesota Currently serving as Senior Pastor at Saint Paul Lutheran in Pine Island, MN.

Rev. Jason Stanton, Augsburg College (1999), Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (LTSS / Columbia, SC), M.Div. 2003. First call was five years at Cashton (WI) Three Point Parish including Bethany, Immanuel and Trinity Lutheran churches.  He then served as Associate for three years in Onalaska, and now serves as their Sr. Pastor at First Lutheran, Onalaska, WI since 2011.  Before that Jason celebrated 20 years of marriage to Carla in 2021 and they have three kids. He recently returned from the first part of his second Sabbatical.  

Rev. Heidi Heimgartner ~ serves as Senior Pastor of First Lutheran Church, Blooming Prairie. MN.  For the past seven years, she has been a contracted writer for Sundays & Seasons.  Heidi was ordained in 2001 after graduating from Luther Seminary-St Paul with the A.E. Hanson Prize in Homiletics.  She appreciates the prayerful support of her congregation, the daily creativity of ministry, and life with her husband Paul and their two Awesome Blossoms (teen age sons). (yes, that is their High School mascot – at Blooming Prairie; get it?).  

Rev. TAMMY CRAKER Pastor Miller was my pastor at the Loganville, WI, church before I entered Wartburg Sem, Dubuque, Iowa. He was one of my Sponsor pastors.

Ordination date: July 21, 2010 at St. Peters Lutheran Church. I was baptized, confirmed, married, and ordained at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Loganville. I moved away the last time in 2010 when I took my first call: Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Faulkton, SD. In 2015 I took another call at Salem Lutheran Church in Parkston, SD. In the early days of the Pandemic, I took my current call at Plentywood Lutheran Church in Plentywood, MT in May, 2020.

I entered Wartburg Seminary at the tender age of 41. My call to Rostered Ministry began at the bedside of my dying grandma over ten years before entering seminary. She told me she was giving me the gift of her faith. I knew I needed to honor her gift in some way and after ten years of pondering how to do that and growing in my faith, the Holy Spirit made it blatantly clear seminary was the way.

My favorite part of being a pastor is to administer Holy Communion, but my second favorite thing is to officiate funerals. To be able to preach everlasting life to those who are face to face with death is an honor and a privilege I don’t take lightly.

I try to make each funeral specific to the person, to celebrate who they were in life. I want to leave those in mourning knowing their loved one is a child of God who now lives with God forever.

Pr Daniel A. Witkowski, is a lifelong Lutheran and a church worker his entire adult life. Home congregation: St Mark, Davenport, IA. Seminary: Wartburg, Dubuque, IA Ordained in 2002, he has served as associate pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in downtown Des Moines, IA (2002-06) and pastor of First Lutheran Church in downtown Moline, IL (2006-present). He also works as a spiritual director and retreat director specializing in Ignatian Spirituality since 2004.

Pr BETSY DARTT – M.Div from Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary (Luther Sem) 1981.  Ordained into the LCA ~ June of 1981; currently serving Our Savior’s LC, Spring Valley, MN. Her Memories and Recollections checklist is for family Tribute writers;

Rev. Dr. Vern Christopherson: grew up in South Dakota. His dad was the pastor of a couple of country churches. Vern had plans to teach math and coach basketball at the high school level, but God had other plans. After attending Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, Vern was ordained in the summer of 1981.  He went on to serve five congregations: one in Kansas, another in Colorado, and three in Minnesota -- Minneapolis, Bloomington, and Rochester. He retired from full-time pastoral ministry in the fall of 2021. In his spare time, he enjoys golf and hiking in the mountains.

Rev Joseph Robb, (retired), LSTC- Rock Island Campus (1966); Ordained, 1966; Board Certified Chaplain, 1992; served on numerous College, Hospital and Community Boards; Parish Pastor, and Director of Pastoral Care at Lutheran Hospital, Moline, IL. Brother in law of author Christopher Miller.

Pr Duane Everson, retired. Luther College (1962) and Wartburg Seminary graduate (1967). Ordained: 1967. Duane grew up in Viroqua, WI, He served Lutheran parishes in Fairmont, Houston, Northfield, Rochester, and Waterville – all MN, over 40 years of ordained ministry. He gives away his book to any who request: Non-Perishable Stories (by a Parish Pastor), edited by Steven Beto. ( © 2014). Permission granted to reprint Success in Failure, and The Last Dance. (3-7-22)

The Rev. Dr. Janis J. Kinens is Latvian by birth, born in a Displaced Persons Camp in Germany after his parents fled Latvia during the Russian occupation of the Baltic States. He served in the US Army and was stationed in Vietnam; he returned to teach art at Whitehall Middle School, grades 6-9 Whitehall, WI. He felt called to ministry and attended the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago earning his Masters and Doctor of Ministry degrees. Pastor Kinens was ordained in 1979 and has served several ELCA congregations; he went to Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, WI in August 1998, serving until his retirement in December, 2017.

SANDRA TERRILL ~ Poems & Struggles of living with her Grief. She was “featured” in Volume 1 – the mother having two daughters die in vehicle accidents 21 years apart. She shares some of her Poems and Journal entries at that time and more recently in this Volume. These describe her journey through Grief and recovery of Faith. It is still a chronic tension and sometimes a battle to subdue and integrate the pain of loss – now, for almost 50 years.

Sandra Antablain ~ Submitting her Tribute for her mother’s funeral at Our Saviors LC, Spring Valley, MN – now ADDING (by my request) a written piece about her journey / ordeal of writing that Tribute to honor her mother, Marilyn. She is a retired Funeral Director and Account Executive in the Chicago land area for 30+ years.

Denise Euteneuer – Her Father’s Tribute, and my sermon for her father’s funeral at Fountain LC, Sept 9, 2016. Afterward, I asked her to write about her experience of writing his Tribute in 5 days time. I subsequently recorded her sharing this Journey & Tribute in my 2.5 hour Saturday Workshop presentation available to local congregations and Clergy Conference meetings. She is a retired (2020) Delta flight attendant with 35 years of service; married, mother of two, with two granddogs.

Loren Else; local Post-Bulletin newspaper, weekly columnist “Boomer Grandpa”. Loren is retired from the U.S. Department of Justice. He is a husband, father, grandfather, basketball official, historian, speaker, and writer. “I’ve given several basketball officiating talks,  a few presentations on the Federal Medical Center, State hospital, George Custer, World War I soldier, World War II sailor, leadership, Alaska statehood, etc (we lived there in1959).”

Amy Determan: born in a Minneapolis suburb, has lived her entire life in Minnesota, currently residing in Rochester with my husband Steve. Obtained her bachelors and masters degrees in nursing and has worked in healthcare for over 30 years. She enjoys the distinct seasons we have here, being outside gardening, biking or hiking.  She felt compelled (by love and gratitude) to write a Tribute for her 100 year old grandmother.

Donna R. Miller - 1976 Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN graduate, Major: Religion, double Minor: Music and Psychology. Hometown: Eveleth, Minnesota ~ Home of the US Hockey Hall of Fame; attended Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (1977-79). Trained in Suicide Intervention, and Family Systems Therapy. Wrote Teamwork curriculum for the State of Wisconsin and used in their Welfare to Work Training mandated by the Clinton administration.

Peter Hasselmo – (Cousin): 30+ year business career in the mortgage and financial services industry doing risk management work currently with Wells Fargo Bank.  Undergraduate degree in Environmental Design from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance from the University of Arizona.

Live outside of Philadelphia, PA with my wife Donna and four cats.  Two daughters, one a special education teacher in Philadelphia and the other a counselor at the VA hospital in Salt Lake City.  Three grandsons, Will, Nate, & Benjamin. Hobbies include Ice Hockey, Golf and watching car racing.  

Pastor/Chaplain/Dr. Dudley Riggle: retired Lutheran pastor and Emeritus Professor of Religion at Carthage College, was a Mission Developer and parish Pastor prior to becoming Chaplain and Instructor of Religion at Carthage where he served for more than 50 years. He developed one of the first courses on death and dying in the United States, taken by more than 5,000 students. He was one of the founding members of Kenosha Hospice Alliance and is known nationally for his work with the suffering, dying, and grieving. He also offered numerous presentations and workshops for grievers and the professionals who serve them.

Pastor Riggle received the Distinguished Teacher Award and honorary doctoral degrees from Carthage College and Wittenberg University. He also received the Carthage Flame Award, the highest honor the college bestows. He was a close friend and colleague of Dr. Hamilton for over 30 years. This sermon for Larry Hamilton was previously unpublished. He turned 90 years old on December 21, 2022.

Paul Hegele is an ELCA pastor, a graduate of Carthage College, the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, and Harvard Divinity School. He has served churches in Toledo, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; and Newport Beach, California.

Shelley Cunningham serves the church bivocationally, as pastor of Zumbro Lutheran Church, Rochester, MN, and as manager of the team of Regional Representatives for Portico Benefit Services, the benefit ministry of the ELCA. She finds joy in encouraging others, checking things off lists, and taking walks with her dog.

Pastor G. Travis Norvell: Pastor of Judson Memorial Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN, and an adjunct faculty member at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. He has served as an American Baptist pastor for 23 years in both small towns and urban churches. Norvell is passionate about the social gospel in the local church as the link for both social justice and church renewal.

He says, “For the past ten years I have tried to only walk, ride my bike or take public transit for my job as a pastor. I give the winter bike commute reports for MPR [Minnesota Public Radio] Mon-Fri. Every year I try to get the [baseball] Twins to offer a clergy pass like the Red Sox, Cardinals and Reds - and every year they say ‘NO.’”

Rev. Dr. Carl-Eric Gentes resides in Rochester, MN where he serves as Lead Pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (ELCA). He received his M.Div from Vanderbilt Divinity School (’09) and Ph.D from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (’17).

Prior to ordination in 2015, Carl-Eric served in various capacities in camp, youth, and campus ministries. His doctoral emphasis places Luther’s approach to theology in conversation inter-faith and inter-creature experiences of otherness. As a Luther scholar, he is passionate about the practice of theology experienced through daily mundane and profane encounters with the real presence of Christ.

Pr Justin Boeding: serves as the Directing Pastor at United Lutheran Church in Red Wing, MN. He graduated from Wartburg College in 1998 and Luther Seminary in 2003 before spending his first ten years of ordained ministry at Faith Lutheran in Dodge Center, MN. In 2013, he accepted his current call to United. He is easily the worst singing pastor in the history of both of these congregations. When he is not playing dorky board games or chasing the family dogs, Justin regularly embarrasses his wife and teenage children with his ridiculous faith in the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Pastor Karyn Bodenschatz: a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In her 16 years of ordained ministry, she has served 3 congregations, always striving to create places where people can be fully themselves, they can encounter God and their faith is deepened. She received her bachelors degree at Concordia University, Irvine and her Masters of Divinity at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia where she learned from both Dr. Timothy Wengert and Dr. Gordon Lathrop. Ordained: October 29, 2006.

Pastor Bodenschatz currently serves at First Lutheran Church, ELCA in Onalaska, WI, where she has served for 11 years.

Chuck Hunt, Nephew in law of Dorothy Hardtke. Charles “Chuck” Hunt is currently the editor of

the Faribault County Register in Blue Earth, MN where he resides with his wife, Pam. He is also

the publisher of the Buffalo Ridge Newspapers in Tyler, Lake Benton, and Hendricks, MN. In his

free time, he likes to write stories and anecdotes about friends, family, and acquaintances and

he is a model railroader. In summer, he enjoys primitive camping, kayaking, and hiking; he also

enjoys visiting friends in the southern climes in the winter.