News & Events

Lifetime friends, the Rev. Dr. Daniel G. Reuning and the Rev. Joel J. Hensel, chief editor of Te Laudamus, first met while both were attending Concordia Collegiate Institute (Reuning from 1950 to 1955 and Hensel from 1951 to 1954). Their paths crossed again as students at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis (Reuning graduating in 1960 and Hensel in 1959). Their common interest was their passionate appreciation for the Reformation Chorales, especially the hymns of Martin Luther, as well as the music of J. S. Bach.

After seminary Reuning pursued that interest at the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary where he was awarded the Master of Sacred Music in 1962, majoring in Liturgics and the music of the Reformation era, with an emphasis in organ performance. Later. at the University of Illinois his doctoral studies reinforced and expanded these interests, with an emphasis in choral conducting.

As a pastor Reuning served two Lutheran parishes and for 31 years taught Liturgics and Church Music and was Dean of the Chapel at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. Also in Fort Wayne, during the last 38 years he has served as Kantor of Redeemer Lutheran Church, and in 2002 founded the Bach Collegium Fort Wayne, a community mixed choir accompanied by period instruments, and directed it until his retirement in 2022 . Since then he has been concentrating on finishing Te Laudamus.

After the chief editor, the Rev. Joel Hensel, died in 2018, Reuning was given the task of chairing the forces that would be finishing the Te Laudamus project. Fortunately, he had the most competent assistance of our two associate editors, the Rev. Jesse Krusemark, our music engraver, and Mr. Matthew Carver, our layout designer. He is also indebted to the Rev. Dr. Michael Albrectht, Dr. Carl Springer, and Prof. Bret Heim, artists Anna Horvath and Meghan Schultz, members of the Protes'tant Conference, and twenty-nine volunteer proofers for their very substantive input, encouragement, and support.

“The Timeless and Universal Value of Te Laudamus”

Description to come.

Dr. Jane Schatkin Hettrick

Jane Schatkin Hettrick, Prof. of Music emeritus, Rider University, is an organist and musicologist working in sacred music. While earning a D.M.A. in organ performance at the University of Michigan, she received a Fulbright Grant to study organ at the Hochschule für Music in Vienna with Anton Heiller, considered the greatest organist of the 20th century. During her time in Vienna, she developed her research interests, looking first for unknown organ music. Going through the entire card-catalogue of the Musiksammlung of the Austrian National Library, she discovered the organ concerto of Antonio Salieri (1750–1825), an unpublished  composer’s autograph manuscript. After giving the first modern performance of this Concerto per l’organo, she published her critical edition with the Viennese firm Doblinger Verlag.  

Dr. Hettrick continued her study of Salieri, a central figure in Viennese music of the Mozart period, making critical editions of his complete Masses and Requiem Mass, published by A-R Editions, Doblinger Verlag, and in the Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich. Further critical editions include works by Pietro Sales, Anna Bon, Florian Leopold Gassmann, and Franz Schneider. Her research was supported by grants, among them from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an NEH Summer Institute, American Guild of Organists, Austrian Cultural Institute, and Rider University.

Dr. Hettrick has written widely on Catholic and Lutheran sacred music, with over 150 articles and reviews published in American and European journals, including The American Organist, Eighteenth-Century Music, Sacred Music, Gottesdienst, Logia, Clotho, Fontes Artis Musicae, and Studien zur Musikwissenschaft. 

Having long served as Organist and Director of Music in the Lutheran Church, she extended her research into historical Lutheran music. Currently, she is exploring the archive of the earliest Lutheran Church in Vienna. The fruits of her archival work include the discovery of an unusual 29-page organist contract and several documents of Andreas Streicher, who contributed to the improvement of music in the Lutheran Stadtkirche in Vienna, compiling the hymnal Melodieenbuch (1824). Altogether, Dr. Hettrick’s work has taken her into many fascinating areas of sacred music, and her volunteer choir has given first presentations of some of her newly edited pieces; but her greatest joy remains leading the congregation singing the powerful historic hymns of the Lutheran Church.

Perspective of Te Laudamus from Its Music Engraver

Description to come.

The Rev. Jesse Krusemark

Rev. Jesse Krusemark grew up in Pittsfield, IL. He earned his BA from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa in Music and Physics and pursued graduate work at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in history of music theory and Renaissance sacred music before preparing for the pastoral ministry at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His entire ministry has been served in the southeastern corner of Minnesota, including his vicarage at Peace Lutheran Church, Faribault where he met his wife, Elizabeth. He is currently sole pastor at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Waltham where he has served a dozen years. Alongside parish duties, Pastor Krusemark pursues his passion for church music, teaching music at Wittenberg Academy (wittenbergacademy.org) and at homeschool gatherings at Trinity, producing hymn selection guides and compositions for congregational use. He also performs with the Austin (MN) Symphony Orchestra in the second violin section. Pastor Krusemark and Elizabeth have been blessed with four children whom they homeschool.

Early Church Hymns in Te Laudamus: Why They Mattered for Luther and Why They Still Matter for Lutherans Today

In this presentation, I will draw attention to the hymns included in Te Laudamus that antedate the Reformation, most of them originally written and sung in Latin. While Luther was critical of many of the accretions that had attached themselves to Christian worship in the Middle Ages and sought to reform them, he was anything but a revolutionary in this regard. Of course, some of his highly original German chorales blazed new hymnic territory, but he also had a high regard for much of the musical heritage of the Roman church that he inherited. He is rightly considered to be the father of the modern German language, and he prepared the way for the vernacular to be used in modern liturgies, but Luther continued to love the Latin language as well. The editors of Te laudamus have recognized the importance of this hymnic continuity and have included a number of the best known hymns from late antiquity and the Middle Ages, some of them translated by Luther himself. In this presentation, I will offer a lightning quick overview of the history of Christian hymnody before the Reformation and then offer listeners an appreciative analysis of several of these classic compositions and a chance to sing them.

Dr. Carl Springer

Dr. Carl P. E. Springer is a distinguished scholar of Classics and the Humanities, currently serving as the SunTrust Chair of Excellence in the Humanities and a professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. A member of the UTC faculty since 2015, he has contributed broadly to the university through both teaching and administrative leadership. His academic formation includes a PhD in Classics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a Master’s in Biblical Languages, and a BA from Northwestern College.

Springer’s research centers on one of the most debated intersections in Western intellectual history: the complex and often fraught relationship between the Classics and Christianity. He investigates not only the tensions between these traditions but also the ways in which they inform and enrich one another. His work focuses particularly on their interaction in Late Antiquity and during the Lutheran Reformation, with special attention to textual criticism, religious poetics, Latin prose style, and the history of Lutheran classical education and worship.

Widely recognized for his scholarship on the early medieval Latin poet and hymnographer Sedulius, Springer is currently editing Sedulius’s collected works. He has also written extensively on Martin Luther’s engagement with classical authors such as Virgil and Aesop, as well as on Luther’s own Neo-Latin poetry. His research further extends to J. P. Koehler, an early twentieth-century Lutheran theologian steeped in classical learning. Throughout his career, Springer has demonstrated a deep commitment to illuminating the rich dialogues between classical literature, Christian thought, and their enduring influence on Western culture.

The Design of Te Laudamus: From Layout to a Bound Hymnal

Description to come.

Mr. Matthew Carver

Matthew Carver, from Long Beach, CA, has undergraduate degrees in Classics and German from CSU Long Beach and an MFA in Painting & Drawing from San Francisco Art Institute. He is a freelance translator of German and Latin theological and devotional writing and poetry and a freelance graphic designer on the side. Notable translations and publications of his include Walther’s Hymnal, The Great Works of God, Liber Hymnorum: The Latin Hymns of the Lutheran Church, The Joy of Eternal Life (by Philip Nicolai), The Lutheran Prayer Companion, and the Latin-language hymnal, Cantionale Lutheranum. He and his wife Amanda (of Nashville, TN), also a graphic designer and founder and owner of needlecraft kit company Hoops & Dreams, have two sons and reside in Nashville, TN.

The Psalter of Te Laudamus brings the German Lutheran tradition of Gregorian chant to a wider public. German Lutheran Gregorian chant was a continuation of the church’s traditional music in the Lutheran Churches of the Reformation. After a hiatus of chant in the “long 18th century,” German Lutherans began to recover this tradition in the 19th century. In the Synodical Conference it was continued by Friedrich Lochner, but was developed to a high degree by German Lutherans in the 20th century. Te Laudamus brings the simplest form of this chant to its users. Following the consistent musical principles established with The Brotherhood Prayer Book, Te Laudamus makes the entire Psalter available to every user. Benjamin T. G. Mayes will discuss the history of this style of singing Psalms within the Lutheran Church and suggested ways to use these Psalms in corporate and private worship.

Benjamin T. G. Mayes joined the CTSFW faculty in 2016 where he serves as Associate Professor and the Chairman of Historical Theology. He studied at Concordia University Nebraska, Lutherische Theologische Hochschule (Oberursel, Germany), and CTSFW. His PhD is from Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI, on classic Lutheran casuistry, divorce, and remarriage.

Mayes previously served as associate pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Grand Rapids, MI; and editor at Concordia Publishing House. He is co-general editor for CPH’s new volumes of Luther’s Works: American Edition. His forthcoming book is Divorce and Remarriage: Ecclesiastical Discernment and Pastoral Care (CPH, 2026).

Martin Franzmann – Another Second Martin

Martin Luther gave us his Smalcald Articles and his catechisms together with his German Bible and his hymns. Martin Chemnitz is known as the Second Martin for his work on the Formula of Concord and his magnum opus, The Examination of the Council of Trent. Chemnitz is a dogmatician. But when you Google “Hymns by Martin Chemnitz,” the response is “Thinking.” Martin Franzmann is “Another Second Martin” because he is an exegete who has also given us many excellent hymns and hymn translations. Franzmann’s books and his numerous journal articles and his hymns harmonize well with the Wauwatosa Theology, which flourished while Franzmann was a student at Northwestern College and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. Between the covers of Te Laudamus, the hymns of Martin Luther and the hymns of Martin Franzmann sit next to each other quite comfortably

Rev. Dr. Michael Albrecht

Pastor Michael J. Albrecht was born in 1955 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His family has deep Lutheran roots—his father, his uncle, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather all served as Lutheran pastors. He graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 1982 and then spent a year teaching German and American history before being called to launch a new mission congregation in Houston, Texas. During his years there, he met and married his wife, Donna, and together they raised five children.

Pastor Albrecht served as one of three pastors at Saint James Lutheran Church in West Saint Paul, Minnesota (1990–2020). After his father’s death, Pastor Albrecht completed his father’s manuscript for the Matthew volume of The People’s Bible commentary series in 2000.

He became involved in international mission work which included twenty trips to India to collaborate with the Bible Faith Lutheran Church. He also visited Lutheran churches in the Czech Republic and Russia. He spent a sabbatical in Germany to study Reformation history and the writings of Martin Luther. He earned a PhD in church history at Luther Seminary and wrote his dissertation on “The Faith-Life Legacy of a Wauwatosa Theologian: Prof. Joh. Ph. Koehler, Exegete, Historian, and Musician” (2008).

Pastor Albrecht has also served as one of the editors of Logia: A Journal of Lutheran Theology. The journal calls itself “a free conference in print” and strives to promote confessional Lutheran scholarship and faithful pastoral care. In addition to writing for Logia, he has also written for Faith-Life and other periodicals.