Gettysburg, Luther & Odyssey join forces

The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.); Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.; and Odyssey Networks will work together on an existing distributed learning master of divinity program at Luther, as well as a new religion and media concentration for the master's in religion program at Gettysburg.

Both degree programs involve sharing faculty. Two-thirds of coursework will be carried out online, and one-third of instruction done through campus-based intensives.

It's the kind of effort requested in "Renewing the Seedbed," a recent ELCA study that calls for creative collaboration on theological education.

In a joint statement, Michael Cooper-White, president of Gettysburg, and Richard Bliese, president of Luther, called the collaboration "unexpected."