ACN Esoterica of the 2026 Convention nominee pool: "And of the six who hold a postgraduate degree (PhD, STM, DMin, EdD, or LittD), four (67%) have a CUS undergrad behind the terminal credential."
One of the candidates for Great Plains Region Vice President is Scott C. Sailer, whose LittD from Concordia University-St. Paul is listed in "Other Degrees." However, rather than a postgraduate academic degree, this is an honorary Doctor of Letters degree awarded to Scott Sailer on May 6, 2023, during the university's commencement ceremony.
In the United States, the Doctor of Letters is usually an honorary degree. In a few U.S. schools as well as in the Commonwealth nations, the LittD degree is a non-honorary degree.
Not all of the nominees in the 2026 Biographical Synopses and Statements of Nominees have postgraduate degrees listed. For example, there are two nominees for Secretary of the Synod (p. 40):
• The incumbent, John W. Sias, who has MS (1999) and PhD (2005) degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, followed by an MDiv from CTSFW (2009).
• Richard Charles Rudowske Jr, who has a 2022 PhD degree from CTSFW (Dissertation: "Evaluating co-creative processes in planning the Shekgalagari Bible translation project")
There are also other ordained and lay people with PhDs or other postgraduate academic degrees listed as nominees for the Board of Directors and other synodical positions.
ACN Esoterica of the 2026 Convention nominee pool: "And of the six who hold a postgraduate degree (PhD, STM, DMin, EdD, or LittD), four (67%) have a CUS undergrad behind the terminal credential."
One of the candidates for Great Plains Region Vice President is Scott C. Sailer, whose LittD from Concordia University-St. Paul is listed in "Other Degrees." However, rather than a postgraduate academic degree, this is an honorary Doctor of Letters degree awarded to Scott Sailer on May 6, 2023, during the university's commencement ceremony.
In the United States, the Doctor of Letters is usually an honorary degree. In a few U.S. schools as well as in the Commonwealth nations, the LittD degree is a non-honorary degree.
Thanks for catching that, we will correct.
Not all of the nominees in the 2026 Biographical Synopses and Statements of Nominees have postgraduate degrees listed. For example, there are two nominees for Secretary of the Synod (p. 40):
• The incumbent, John W. Sias, who has MS (1999) and PhD (2005) degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, followed by an MDiv from CTSFW (2009).
• Richard Charles Rudowske Jr, who has a 2022 PhD degree from CTSFW (Dissertation: "Evaluating co-creative processes in planning the Shekgalagari Bible translation project")
There are also other ordained and lay people with PhDs or other postgraduate academic degrees listed as nominees for the Board of Directors and other synodical positions.