On Monday, Feb. 16, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis welcomed Archbishop Jukka Paarma of the Archdiocese of Turku and of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland to campus. He met with Seminary faculty members and toured the campus.

Paarma was ordained in 1967 and has served as a parish priest in Lahti and as Dean of the Cathedral of Turku. He received the doctor of theology degree in church history in 1980.

Archbishop Paarma is one of many international visitors to the Seminary campus in 2004. Other visitors have included Dr. Joseph Randrianasolo, academic dean of SALT, the Lutheran Graduate School of Theology, in Madagascar; Rev. Walter Obare, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya; and Markus Nietzke, director of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission at Bleckmar, a mission of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod's (LCMS) partner church in Germany.

"These visits by our Lutheran friends from around the world remind us of the global nature of the mission we share," commented Rev. Glen Thomas, Concordia Seminary's vice president for seminary relations. "Concordia Seminary provides Lutheran confessional leadership on a global basis through its graduate school, the courses its faculty teach in classrooms from Europe to the Philippines, and through its publications. Many of our international friends know us through these efforts. We look forward to hosting many more international visitors when the LCMS Convention takes place this summer in St. Louis."

For more information, contact Communications, Concordia Seminary, 801 DeMun Ave., St. Louis, MO 63105; 314.505.7374; [email protected].