In 1982, Dr. Albert P. Pero Jr. marked his seventh anniversary of service at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago as the first African American Lutheran to hold a full-time faculty appointment at a North American Lutheran seminary. In that same year (as I began my teaching ministry at a sister Lutheran seminary), Dr. James H. Cone of Union Theological Seminary in New York City published a book titled My Soul Looks Back. As noted in the introduction, Cone's book intended to be more testimony than autobiography, an account of his spiritual and intellectual development from his childhood in Arkansas to his tenure at Union. (1) Now, in 2004, after twenty-nine years of effective teaching and scholarship at LSTC and over forty years of ordained ministry, Pete, as he is affectionately known in many circles, is retiring. Retirements always invite us to remember, and remembrances always yield a mixture of thanksgiving for what has been as well as grieving over what will no longer be. It is in the spirit of remembrance that my soul looks back and welcomes the opportunity to give testimony regarding this gifted saint of God. It is also in this same spirit that I invite your soul to look back and remember Pete's impact on you and the church.
