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Pastor Souk Receives Award

Early start to award season? This past Thursday, November 2, Pastor Phetsanghane was in St. Louis to receive an award of commendation for a German-English translation. 

In 1974, the Concordia Historical Institute (CHI), the Department of Archives and History of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LC-MS), started an Awards Program. So every year, the Concordia Historical Institute Awards Committee evaluates recent American Lutheran historical publications, authors, and contributors. The committee then grants awards on behalf of CHI to individuals, congregations, agencies, and boards. CHI does this to recognize the significant contributions to literature and research in the field of Lutheran archives and history in North America. Then each year in November, there is a banquet to recognize all of the award recipients. This year, 15 recipients, including Pastor Souk Phetsanghane, were recipients of an award of commendation.
 
This past weekend, Pastor Souk Phetsanghane was in St. Louis to receive such an award for a German-English translation of an article from the Theologische Quartalschrift Volume 31, Number 1 (January 1934). (Today this publication is known as the Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, the official quarterly of the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WLS).) The English title of this translation is “Hitler and the Protestant Church of Germany” written by Professor August Pieper, then of WLS. This translation was published in the WELS Historical Journal 40:1 (Spring 2022), pages 34-43. 
 
Pastor Souk Phetsanghane would like to thank the 2020-2021 Theological German class at Luther Preparatory School for their assistance with this translation. The students are (from left to right): Hannah Gabb, Justus Borgwardt, Aaron Neyhart, Abel Backus, Abbye Ziemer, and Haley Olson. Thank you as well to Pastor Andreas Drechsler (ELFK) for his help with the German and much of the historical background. This translation would not be possible without all of their help. 
 
May this award of commendation increase other people’s interests into our collective past. May this translation also serve as a lesson from our historical past to aid us in our present and future! S.D.G.
2020-2021 Theological German class at Luther Preparatory School - The students are (from left to right): Hannah Gabb, Justus Borgwardt, Aaron Neyhart, Abel Backus, Abbye Ziemer, and Haley Olson.