Pastor Stowe | Pastor Freeborn | Pastor Bugg | Vicar Robinson

 

 

The Reverend L. Douglas Stowe
Senior Pastor
Headmaster

The Reverend L. Douglas Stowe, a native of Mount Holly, North Carolina, came to Hampton, Virginia, in 1969 as Parish Pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church.  He has been a resident of Hampton since then and has served the parish continuously since 1969 and serves today as Senior Pastor with nearly 1,000 members.  Pastor Stowe is a graduate of Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, North Carolina; the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, South Carolina; and the Memphis Institute of Medicine and Religion, Memphis, Tennessee.

Pastor Stowe founded Gloria Dei Lutheran School in 1972, and became Headmaster in 1973.  Today Gloria Dei Lutheran School has over 100 faculty and staff, over 600 students enrolled in preschool through the fifth grade, and over 140 students enrolled in a childcare program including children from eight area public schools.  The school serves the peninsula with academic excellence.  The Gloria Dei Lutheran School houses a computer  educational program which is rated superior to those in other Virginia private elementary schools.  Gloria Dei Lutheran School is a leader in fundraising for the American Heart Association’s Jump Rope for Heart program and other charities.

Pastor Stowe has served the City of Hampton and the Peninsula throughout his 33-year residency in a number of positions.  These positions include Contact Pastor to Langley Air Force Base, Chaplain to and Crisis Intervention Counsel for the City of Hampton Police Department, visiting lecturer to Tidewater Regional  Academy for Criminal Justice, Sponsoring Pastor of the largest Girl Scout and Boy Scout Programs on the  Peninsula, charter organizer of Hampton Ecumenical Lodging and Provisions (H.E.L.P.), and Dean of  Peninsula Area of the Virginia Synod Lutheran Church of America.  Pastor Stowe also was assigned by the Hampton City Council to the Board of Advisors, Riverside Hospital Department of Mental Health.

 

 

 

The Rev. Edmund T. Freeborn III
Executive Associate Pastor
Associate Headmaster


The Rev. Edmund T. Freeborn is a minister of the Presbyterian Church, USA and is Executive Associate Pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Hampton, Virginia. An ordained Pastor for 30 years, Pastor Freeborn received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Westminster    College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and his Master of Divinity degree from the University of      Dubuque Theological Seminary in   Dubuque, Iowa. He completed course work in the Doctor of Ministry program at Drew          University in Madison, New Jersey, without project dissertation. Pastor Freeborn has also attended continuing education events in   practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Columbia Theological Seminary, the Alban Institute, Woodstock Institute         of Negotiation and Yale University.
 

 He is a Diplomat of the College of Pastoral Supervision and    Psychotherapy with a specialty in Pastoral Psychotherapy and Clinical Supervision and has been a member of the College's Chesapeake Chapter since 1998. Pastor Freeborn is also a supervisor of Clinical Pastoral Education at Sentara Careplex Hospital, Hampton, Virginia and serves as Chaplain to Hampton’s Fire and Rescue, and Police departments.

 

 

  

 

Pastor Garrett Bugg
Associate Pastor

   Vicar Nathan Robinson

 

Pastor Bugg earned his M.Div. degree at Princeton Theological Seminary.  He did an initial unit of CPE at Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, and received a full CPE certification from the Gloria Dei Academy in August 2007.  In college, he was active in Campus Crusade and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from North Carolina State. He did student teaching at Southeast Raleigh High School and has spent time as a Youth Group leader.  He enjoys a good sense of humor and remembers sitting as a child in a boxy old tan armchair, his eyes tightly shut, trying his best to make a deal with God to skip church for just one Sunday. As a child, he attended many different churches, but his family settled for the Avondale Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, NC. Pastor Bugg was called by Gloria Dei in June 2007 and ordained in August 2007.  Garrett says he looks forward to exploring the changes of our faith, and with God’s help, to have a hand in making the church of the 21st century as radical and as faith driven as that of Paul and the early Christians.
 

 

   Vicar Robinson is a graduate of Boston University School of Theology where he earned his M.Div. degree.  He did an initial unit of CPE at Geisinger Medical Center.  He did his field work at Furth Presbyterian Church and characterizes himself as hard working, dependable and excellent in youth ministry.  He has a passion for liturgy and was active in the Lutheran student movement in Dickinson College where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science and religion in 2003.  He was also active in Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and member of the college golf team, and sacristan and student preacher at Boston University Chapel.  He also has interests in music and has sung in groups throughout high school, college, and seminary.  Nate grew up as a United Methodist in a small town in northwest Pennsylvania.  When his family moved, they joined the Evangelical Covenant Church which has its origins in the Lutheran Church in Sweden, but broke away during the pietistic movements of the late nineteenth century.  Now Nate looks forward to reclaiming his roots.