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 "Sing
For Joy specializes in the music of hope," says Bruce Benson,
who has served as St. Olaf College pastor since 1981. "And
music has such a wonderful capacity to express hopefulness —
even when it is not happy. Words struggle to do that, but music
does it all the time. Every Sing For Joy program reminds
me that music's power manifests itself in so many ways."
Before beginning his current ministry
at the college, he served pastorates in Albert Lea, Minn., Billings,
Mont., and Sioux Falls, S.D. Benson holds a Master of Divinity degree
from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and a Master of Sacred
Theology degree from the Yale University Divinity School in New
Haven, Conn.
During his years at St. Olaf, Pastor Benson has led
seven international study programs for students; served every year
as narrator of the college's famed Christmas Festival concerts;
performed as a narrator with both the St. Olaf Band and the St.
Olaf Orchestra, as well as liturgist/reader at numerous choir concerts;
and been worship planner, presider and chaplain for the college's
biannual Conference on Worship, Theology and the Arts.
A talented writer, Pastor Benson has had his
poetry commissioned and set to music by four composers from the
United States and England. He has written adult education curriculum
for Augsburg Publishing. He has served on the Board of Trustees
of Trinity Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and on the Advisory Board
of Word and World, a theological journal. But of all his
accomplishments, ongoing Word and Sacrament ministry with the students
of St. Olaf College has been his greatest joy.
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