Pastor marks long ministry
WEEKI WACHEE –
Twenty-five years ago, not many women entered seminary or became church pastors. In fact, some people frowned upon it. There was plenty of opposition.
But that wasn’t going to stop Kristin Wee.
Wee said that she always had it in the back of her mind that she wanted to go to seminary to study theology. And when she found that she and her husband had moved within a two-hour driving distance to a seminary, she took the opportunity to enroll.
At the time, she was a woman in her late 30s with a husband and four children under the age of seven.
“So, I went over to the seminary to take just one class. And I was hooked. I absolutely just loved it,” said Wee.
Wee continued to study theology as a part-time student for the next nine years. At age 45, she graduated from Wartburg Seminary in Iowa in 1987, and soon embarked on a new era in her life as a newly ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
“It was what I was born to do, I think,” said Wee.
Wee first served as pastor at First Lutheran Church in Waterloo, Iowa, and then later at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Austin, Minn., before coming to Florida.
On Sunday, Nov. 11, she will be celebrating her 25th anniversary of ordination at Nativity Lutheran Church in Weeki Wachee, where she has been pastor for the past seven years.
“I served in other parish situations, but this one here in Florida has been the most delightful of all. I think God saves the best for last. It’s just been an absolutely marvelous experience to serve a healthy congregation that is interested in outreach,” said Wee.
In honor of Rev. Wee’s 25th anniversary of her ordination, Dr. Barbara Lundblad, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor and professor of preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, will be guest speaker for Sunday services on Nov. 11 at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Lundblad has taught preaching at Yale Divinity School, Princeton Theological Seminary, Hebrew Union College, and in the Doctor of Ministry program of the Association of Chicago Theological Schools. The public is invited to hear guest speaker Dr. Lundblad’s special Sunday services.
Assistant Pastor Phil Schroeder of Nativity Lutheran Church said that Pastor Wee is greatly loved by the people of the congregation and that it is a great pleasure to be celebrating her 25th anniversary of ordination.
“Hospitality and generosity are marks of both her character and her ministry,” Schroeder said. “She has been a steady and generous friend to me and many others.”
