One building stands out on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary: Kramer Chapel. Rising over one hundred feet above the Upper Plaza, Kramer Chapel is the physical and spiritual center of the campus. Theological formation begins in the chapel and is centered there. Every weekday the seminary community gathers in the chapel to receive the gifts of life and salvation, pray, sing and make music to the Lord. It is in the chapel that the seminarian is shaped as a child of God, and it is where future pastors learn to worship, lead the liturgy, sing, and preach.

The Liturgical Life of Kramer Chapel
The seminary's liturgical life revolves around the weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper. The Divine Service offers the gifts of Christ's presence in hearing the Gospel read and proclaimed, and in receiving the very body and blood of Christ. Each week, a different pastor serves as our Celebrant, whose parish is our sponsoring congregation.

The seminary prays daily for Church and world. The services of prayer at Kramer Chapel follow the simple pattern of the synagogue liturgy: "Instruction in the Word, praise of God, and common prayer." (James White, Introduction to Christian Worship (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1980), 116.) The Liturgy of the Hours tells the story of salvation, praises God for His mighty saving acts, and petitions the Father through the Son by His Spirit in its common prayer.

From the very beginning, Christians set aside certain hours for prayer. The rhythm of prayer is associated with the passion of Jesus (the third, sixth, and ninth hours), the death and resurrection of Christ (prayer at sunrise and sundown), and the last things (prayer before bedtime that is eschatological). This simple recognition of the hours of prayers is the origin of our Matins and Vespers, our Morning and Evening Prayer, our Compline. Luther embraced the Liturgy of the Hours as the prayer services of the whole church, laity and clergy alike. He returned the reading of Scripture to its original place as the major part of the liturgy from which flowed the psalms, hymns, and prayers of the Daily Office. Luther used the Daily Office as the foundation for his devotional life and his prayers.

The following summary statement of our Lutheran perspective on the Liturgy of the Hours was adopted by the North American Academy of Liturgy to describe the purpose and function of the liturgy of the hours.

The mystery of God in Christ is the center of the liturgy of the church. By celebrating the Liturgy of the Hours at certain times of the day which recall creation and re-creation, the church, gathered together in the Holy Spirit, hears the life-giving Word of God and in response to it voices the praise of creation, joins the songs of heaven, shares in Christ's perpetual intercession for the world. This cycle of praise and prayer transforms our experience of time, deepening our understanding of how day and night can proclaim and celebrate the paschal mystery. Thus, the daily Liturgy of the Hours supplements and contrasts with the centrality of the Sunday Eucharist in the life of the church, edifying the one holy people of God until all is fulfilled in the kingdom of heaven. (P. Pfatteicher, Commentary on the Lutheran Book of Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress), 340-341.)

Morning Prayer and Matins celebrate the newness of the morning that shows the triumph of light over darkness as Christ triumphed over the grave in His resurrection. Evening Prayer and Vespers remember that Christ has conquered death and darkness by going into the tomb for us. We celebrate in the evening what we celebrated in the morning-that Christ is the light of the world. The natural rhythm of light and dark, of creation and re-creation in the Liturgy of the Hours continually reminds us of our re-creation in Christ through the waters of Holy Baptism. This pattern of nature provides the framework for our praise and prayer.

The chapel offers a rhythm of readings and prayer in the Daily Offices. These offices reflect the normal practice of the early church and the consistent practice of the Church through the Reformation era until this very day. These services at Kramer Chapel expose seminarians to the wealth of liturgical and hymnic resources available in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's new worship resource Lutheran Service Book (2006).

The daily services provide opportunities for students to conduct the liturgies and observe their professors acting as models of the Gospel in the preaching and leading of the liturgy. This shapes a liturgical and devotional life that is centered in Holy Scripture, in the historic liturgy as it is reflected in our worship books, and in the rich texts of the church's hymnody, both ancient and modern. Psalms are also prayed daily and the entire Psalter is used annually several times. Prayer requests are received daily at the Chapel Office or by the chapel staff. Private confession is heard by a pastor in the prayer chapel in the undercroft of Kramer Chapel on days when Holy Communion is celebrated.

All of this provides some of the most important learning that future pastors do while they study at the seminary. The seminary offers the following services:

Music as a Servant of the Word
Music as a good gift of God is, according to Luther, "the handmaiden of theology and second only to theology." As such, music in the church serves God's Word by appropriately carrying truths to the hearts and minds of the church. Such music is a well-ordered discipline that truly helps the church "breathe the air of heaven" (Athanasius), by actually lifting her to that which is holy, "separate." Music then becomes an integral part of the confession of the faith through hymns, liturgical music, and choral music-all proclaiming Christ by means of this good gift.

This glorious realm of sacred music is very much in evidence and a part of everyday life at Concordia Theological Seminary. Some Sundays at 7:00 p.m. the public is invited to join us for Choral Vespers, in which the seminary choirs lead us in special Christmas, Epiphany, Passion, and Easter commemorations. The finest in sacred instrumental and choral music from every period of music history is offered regularly in Kramer Chapel services. The Schola Cantorum, the Chapel Choir, and the Seminary Kantorei offer the Lutheran heritage of music as proclamation in chapel services and in Choral Vespers services throughout the year. A typical year includes everything from major works like the "St. Matthew Passion" by Johann Sebastian Bach, to motets by Praetorious, Reger, Distler, Proulx, Hillert; also everything from handbell choirs to brass choirs, from guest children's choirs to guest international organists. Our Seminary Kantorei has commissioned new works almost every year of its twenty-year history. In fact, this well-known and well-traveled choir has perhaps commissioned more twentieth century music than any other synodical school.

The seminary's Kramer Chapel is an acoustically extraordinary space for worship and making music. Every day the student body and faculty are very much aware of this great blessing as they gather to sing the unaccompanied and accompanied offices in the presence of God. Concordia Theological Seminary is happy to be able to offer to its students, to the community, and to the church-at-large this ongoing feast of liturgy and sacred music where music is indeed servant and Christ is proclaimed.

Paul Grime, Dean of the Chapel
Richard C. Resch, Kantor

Musical Selections recorded by the Kantorei from Kramer Chapel:
	"Infant Holy"	The Concordia Theological Seminary Kantorei, Richard C. Resch, Director, from INFANT HOLY
	"Of the Father's Love Begotten"	The Concordia Theological Seminary Kantorei, Richard C. Resch, Director, from WITH ANGELS AND ARCHANGELS
	"Lord, Let At Last Thine Angels Come"	The Concordia Theological Seminary Kantorei, Richard C. Resch, Director, from O SING UNTO THE LORD!
	"We Praise You and Acknowledge You (Te Deum)"	The Concordia Theological Seminary Kantorei, Richard C. Resch, Director, from TE DEUM
	"Abide With Us"	The Concordia Theological Seminary Kantorei, Richard C. Resch, Director from THROUGH THE CHURCH YEAR
	"Christ Sits at God's Right Hand"	The Concordia Theological Seminary Kantorei, Richard C. Resch, Director from MY SOUL DOTH MAGNIFY THE LORD

Organ Selection recorded by Kantor Richard Resch from Kramer Chapel:
	"Herzlich Lieb Hab' Ich Dich, O Herr"	Richard C. Resch, Performer and Director from CRAMER & RESCH AT KRAMER CHAPEL