Contact: CTSFW Communications, communications@ctsfw.edu

Knowles to Serve as Director of
Deaconess Formation

FORT WAYNE, May 30, 2025—Deaconess Susan Knowles, who earned her deaconess certification in 2024 from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne (CTSFW), has accepted a call to serve as Director of Deaconess Formation. Knowles will lead the program with the help of Deaconess Rose Adle, who has served as Assistant Director of the program since 2013. Adle has been appointed Associate Director and will continue to work from Imperial, Nebraska, as a deployed staff member.

“We have two leaders in place who will be very engaged and compassionate in forming the women who come to CTSFW to be deaconesses,” said CTSFW Provost Dr. Charles Gieschen.

The transition to the new leadership structure comes in the wake of two recent personnel changes. Dr. James Bushur, who has served as Director of Deaconess Formation since 2011, will complete his service this summer in order to return full-time to the classroom, where he will teach Historical Theology, New Testament, and select deaconess courses. Bushur was the second director of the program, succeeding Dr. Arthur Just, who directed the program from its launch in 2003 to 2011. Another longtime leader of the program, Deaconess Amy Rast, completed her service as Associate Director of Deaconess Formation this spring.

“We’re thankful for the leadership provided for over a decade by Dr. Bushur and Deaconess Rast,” said Gieschen. “Our deaconess students have benefited greatly from Dr. Bushur’s theological leadership, and Deaconess Rast’s contributions have had an important and positive impact on students, the wider seminary community, and the church at large.”

The program’s new director, Knowles, has an extensive record of service to the church. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Concordia College, Bronxville, in 1992 and a Master of Theological Studies from Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, in 2019. She taught at Christ the King Lutheran School, Memphis, Tennessee (1993–1995), The Chapel School, Bronxville, New York (1997–1998), and St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church and School, Lockport, New York (2006–2020). She assisted her husband, the Rev. Alexander Knowles, in various aspects of Lutheran camp ministry while they served at Pioneer Camp and Retreat Center in Angola, New York (2010–2020).

A Certified Christian Conciliator, Knowles has specialized training in reconciliation, functioning as an LCMS reconciler in the Eastern District (2017–present) and as a team member assisting with group reconciliations for Ambassadors of Reconciliation (2020–present). She was called and commissioned as a deaconess at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church, Angola, New York, on March 2, 2025.

“I look forward to serving deaconess students at CTSFW as they are equipped to recognize and respond to the needs of body and soul with the mercy and compassion of Christ,” said Knowles, who will begin her service as director on July 1.

To learn more about CTSFW’s MA in Deaconess Studies programs (residential or distance), visit ctsfw.edu/diaconal.