Lutherans merge seminary, university on West Coast
Though the two campuses are 400 miles apart, California Lutheran University in Southern California will merge with the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley.
The Church Council, or board, of the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America approved the merger July 11 in what was described by a news release as “a move toward advancing sustainable theological education.”
The Berkeley seminary was a founding member in 1952 of the Graduate Theological Union, an ecumenical and interfaith consortium with a campus overlooking San Francisco Bay. PLTS was located in previous decades in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.