Trinity Honors Albert Starr Jr.

Trinity awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree to the Rev. Albert Starr Jr. on September 24, during the seminary’s annual Trinity Days events. A 1982 graduate of Trinity, Starr was awarded the degree for his years of service to the church and to the broader community. He currently serves as the ELCA’s director of African Descent Ministries in the Multicultural Ministries Unit of the churchwide offices in Chicago.

Starr was raised in Durham, North Carolina, where he was a member of The Church of The Abiding Savior. He received his bachelor’s degree from Capital University in 1974.

Following his ordination in 1982, Starr was called to serve as pastor of Ascension Lutheran Church and School in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, California. In Los Angeles, he was actively involved as a charter board member of One Church One Child, a collaborative effort joining the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services and churches in the African American community to promote and facilitate adoption. He also played a vital role in the Rebuild Los Angeles Project and the revitalization of the Crenshaw Corridor, helping to transform a gang and drug-infested area into a thriving business area.

In 1996, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference/Martin Luther King Legacy committee honored Ascension Lutheran Church and Pastor Starr with its Prophetic Witness Award for diligent community service in the Los Angeles area.

In 1980, Star attended Makumira Theological College in Arusha, Tanzania. He returned to Tanzania and Kenya in 2002 as part of a team seeking to foster stronger relations between East Africans and African Americans. He also twice served as a team leader of ELCA-sponsored Peace Study Tours to the former Soviet Union and Eastern European churches in 1987 and 1989.

Trinity President Mark R. Ramseth says, “Pastor Starr represents a strong voice for the gospel in the continuing call for an emerging ethnic presence in the ELCA.  By granting this degree, Trinity Lutheran Seminary commits to stand with Pastor Starr and the ELCA in this challenge.”