Stover Center Director Ordained
Dr. Lawrence M. Stratton, Director of Waynesburg University’s Stover Center for Constitutional Studies and Moral Leadership, will be ordained and installed as a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister Sunday, Feb. 19 at 3 p.m. in Waynesburg University’s Roberts Chapel. The service is open to the public.
The ordination and installation service will feature a sermon preached by The Rev. Dr. M. Craig Barnes, Senior Pastor of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pa., entitled, “The Great Temptations of Scholarship.” The Rev. Dr. Donald P. Wilson, Interim Executive Presbyter, Washington Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church and Waynesburg University Trustee, will also give the “Charge to the Minister and University.”
“We are very happy to welcome Dr. Stratton to the Waynesburg University community where his passion for Christianity and the U.S. Constitution is already making the Stover Center for Constitutional Studies and Moral Leadership a globally recognized institution that’s inspiring Waynesburg students to creatively transform the polis,” Timothy R. Thyreen, President of Waynesburg University, said.
During the service, the Waynesburg University Lamplighters choir, under the direction of Melanie Catana, director of choral music at Waynesburg University, will perform “Sicut Cervus,” by Giovanni P. Palestrina and “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord,” by Moses Hogan.
Judy Mayer, moderator of Washington Presbytery, the Rev. Thomas B. Ribar, chaplain of Waynesburg University, the Rev. William A. Sukolsky, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Waynesburg, Pa., and Mrs. Carolyn Thyreen of Waynesburg, Pa., will also participate in the service, along with Stratton’s two sisters, Anna Emily Hudson of Dillsburg, Pa., and Barbara Helen Stratton of Hochessin, Dela.
Stratton’s nieces, Aimee Le Hudson, Alexandra Lynn Knepper and Emily Stratton Knepper, and nephews, Christopher Thien Hudson and Marc Nguyen Hudson, will present him with the symbols of ministry.
Stratton received his Ph.D. in Christian Social Ethics and M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and his B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He is a former clerk to U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and is a member of the bar in Virginia and the District of Columbia.
The Stover Center for Constitutional Studies and Moral Leadership, founded by Waynesburg University alumnus Dr. W. Robert Stover, is an interdisciplinary scholarly center dedicated to bringing insights from the U.S. Constitution’s Founding Era and Christianity to bear in the contemporary public square. Each year up to five incoming students are chosen to receive Waynesburg University’s prestigious Stover Scholarship.
In the past year, the Stover Scholars have come face-to-face with an array of influential leaders including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, former White House Director of Drug Control Policy John Walters, Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, U.S. Senator Pat Toomey, former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III, former Assistant Los Angeles, Calif., Police Chief Robert L. Vernon, Greene County Court of Common Pleas Judges William Nalitz and Farley Toothman and Greene County Commissioner Pam Snyder.
The Stover Scholars regularly engage in wide-ranging discussions about contemporary issues involving both Christian ethics and constitutional law. The Stover Scholars also performed the play, “Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution,” for last September’s Constitution Day celebration.