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On Saturday, July 19, 2008, Mary Louise {“Skip”} Brasher was Ordained to the Office of Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America [ ELCA ]. Surrounded by nearly 200 clergy, family, and friends at her home congregation, Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Wimberley, the Reverend Doctor Ray Tiemann, Bishop of the Southwestern Texas Synod, presided at the Rite of Ordination. The Service of Holy Communion was celebrated by long-time friend, the Reverend Louis Flessner, retired Pastor of “Higher Ground,” the nationally acclaimed Campus Ministry program at Texas State University in San Marcos. Pastor Flessner was assisted by the Reverend Jennifer Fuhr, Pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, and by the Reverend Lori Ruge-Jones, Pastor of Living Word Lutheran Church in Buda. Those in attendance were delighted with the powerful and poignant sermon delivered by the Reverend Doctor Sue Beall, Co-Pastor of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in College Station, a dear friend and mentor of Brasher’s.

“Pastor Skip”, as she is affectionately known, has been serving as the “Synodically Authorized Minister” for New Hope Lutheran in Blanco, since the worshiping community was officially recognized as an ELCA mission in the spring of 2007. She has now been officially Called as the Pastor of New Hope Lutheran, and will be formally installed to serve in the young mission congregation on Sunday, September 14, 2008.

No stranger to the Blanco community, Brasher served her Internship at Trinity Lutheran Church during the 2004 ~ 2005 year of her seminary education. She is a 2006 Master of Divinity graduate of the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest in Austin, and holds a Master of Education degree from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. Before entering Seminary in 2001, she retired from a 29 year career as a public school educator in San Antonio.