Wayne Ewing
Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary (Maywood, IL) MDiv, ‘61
Retired
Can you share some highlights or meaningful moments from your life since you graduated from LSTC?
I recently retired from all matters priestly and pastoral, with one small exception in serving Word and Sacrament within a tucked away care facility with 10 abandoned, forgotten, ill and dying, largely immobile residents in the Episcopal Church in Colorado. I also continue employment though as a staff writer and photographer for our community’s locally owned, independent, 134-year-old weekly newspaper, the award-winning Wet Mountain Tribune.
My ordained ministries began after completing my PhD in Theological Studies at Yale (1965) with a call to serve (under the former LCA Board of World Missions) the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore—where I was a Professor of Theology at Trinity Theological Seminary, teaching in both English and Mandarin. (One of the highlights of my semi-retired life was to have been a guest of honor at TTC’s 75th Anniversary conference week in October 2024.) I also served as Dean there and filled in occasionally in everything from Homiletics to NT studies.
I then taught at the former Hamma School of Theology, the former Loretto Heights College, Denver (first non-Roman Catholic to teach Religious Studies there), and last at the University of North Carolina, Asheville (Lecturer in Humanities). Interspersed were stints as a pastoral psychotherapist specializing in intervention in domestic violence via group therapy (Denver, Las Cruces, NM), tutoring at risk youth toward earning a GED (Loveland, CO), becoming received into the Episcopal Church as deacon, then priest, and serving parishes throughout southern Colorado as Supply Priest. Volunteer opportunities have resulted, for example, in the now 32-year-old local social infrastructure anchor, the Custer County Community Sharing Center, serving Custer, Fremont and Huerfano counties as a food pantry and food distribution facility for over 500 households monthly (I was honored and humbled to have been named a Senior Volunteer of the Year last year by the Wet Mountain Valley Community Foundation).
I also have authored two volumes of meditations on Alzheimer’s caregiving: Tears in God’s Bottle (Whitestone Circle Press, 1999), and In the Land of Forgetfulness (Wipf and Stock, 2024). This has led to numerous presentations, key notes, panel participations, and seminars on spirituality and dementia care nationally and internationally.
