Christ The King Lutheran Church Will Welcome Its New Spiritual Leader This Weekend

By Shannon Hicks

“I’m not nervous as much as excited,” Rob Morris said Tuesday afternoon. “It has been a long road.”

Mr Morris, who moved into Newtown with his family this past weekend, will be inducted as the new vicar for Christ the King Lutheran Church during the worship service on Sunday, January 8. It is a step he has been working toward for more than five years. This week he and his family — wife Christy and sons Elijah, 5, Isaiah, 2, have been unpacking the belongings that traveled with them from Ipswich, Mass., to the church parsonage. Mr Morris has also begun this process of settling into the church at 85 Mt Pleasant Road.

Sunday’s service will not only include the induction of Mr Morris (induction is the preferred term for a vicar, as opposed to the installation of an ordained pastor), it will also include the installation of church officers for 2012. Winter services at Christ the King begin at 10:30 am.

The Reverend James Keurulainen, president of the New England district of the Lutheran Church, will serve as Sunday’s officiant. The service will also include the Pastor Emeritus Gregory Wismar, who retired as Christ the King’s pastor in June 2011, as the lector. The Reverend William Meyer, also retired, will serve as the morning’s liturgist and preacher.

It will not be until after the morning’s anthem, the reading of the Holy Gospel, and even the morning’s sermon that attendees will witness The Rite of Induction for Mr Morris. Immediately following that will be The Installation of Church Officers, which Mr Morris will lead.

“That will be my first act in this church,” he said.

He will then be the celebrant for the Liturgy of Holy Communion.

Mr Morris will offer his first sermon for his new church on January 15, the second Sunday after the Epiphany.

Mr Morris will serve at Christ the King for the next six months, while he simultaneously completes his work to become an ordained Lutheran pastor. He will be eligible to be called into ordination at the end of this vicarage, at which time his work will be reviewed by the Colloquy Committee of the Missouri Synod.

“By summer the church will be able to make a decision, including keeping and installing me as their pastor,” he said.

Mr Morris’s responsibilities as a vicar for Christ the King are not very different than those of a pastor.

“Everything I do is under the authority of the district,” he said. “I am essentially serving as a vicar with permission to do sacraments with supervision.”

William Meyer is serving as mentor for Mr Morris. Pastor Meyer is Pastor Emeritus of The Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Garden City, N.Y. Now living in Bethel with his wife, Pastor Meyer has been helping Christ the King in recent months as well, leading some services or arranging for guest preachers.

Rob Morris is a graduate of Grove City College, Grove City, Penn., where he earned a bachelor of science in business and communication. When he graduated in 2002, he had a pair of applications filled out. There was one for seminary and one for business school.

Following what he calls a “little hurdle,” an ethical conflict during his senior year at Grove City, and “a lot of time in prayer with good friends, trusted people, including the pastor who performed the wedding ceremony for me and my wife,” Mr Morris felt the church was calling to him.

“I had the two applications filled out, but I never sent one of them in,” said Mr Morris. Instead, he spent the next five years in studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, at its Hamilton, Mass., campus. In 2007 he graduated with a master’s of divinity and a master’s of art in biblical languages.

Until recently Mr Morris served as the youth pastor and worship team leader at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Topsfield, Mass. Two years ago he learned of the process to be ordained in the Missouri Synod, the national Lutheran Church body (with which Christ the King congregation is affiliated).

The family visited Newtown last August, and returned in November to participate in one of Christ the King’s 50th anniversary celebrations, but now they are finally able to enjoy their new hometown.

Elijah is home-schooled, and the family enjoys being outdoors as much as possible.

In fact Elijah, who enjoys the stories of A.A. Milne, has already named the church property The Eight Acre Wood, in homage to the home of Winnie-the-Pooh.

“We went for a walk this weekend and he was just thrilled that we have all these woods around us,” Mr Morris laughed. “We haven’t had a chance to do too much exploring yet, but it’s beautiful here.”

Christy Morris loves to run, and Rob enjoys mountain biking. The two are looking forward to discovering new trails for these passions, along with everything else the family will discover as they explore the new area they have moved into. Meanwhile, the parsonage was recently renovated by members of Christ the King so that when the Morrises arrived last weekend they were greeted with freshly painted rooms, new flooring and a full pantry.

“We celebrated New Year’s Eve surrounded by boxes,” Mr Morris said. Sitting at his new desk, with a view over part of the back lawn of Christ the King, he was smiling and seemed very content. “Our first morning in Newtown was New Year’s Day. It was a lovely way to begin the year.”

Additional information relating to this story is available online at NewtownBee.com.