February 3, 2010

CHICAGO – A service of "song and prayer" for Benjamin Judd Larson will be held Feb. 6 at 1 p.m. at First Lutheran Church, Decorah, Iowa. Immediately following the service Larson, 25, will be buried in Phelps Cemetery, Decorah. Larson, a seminary student of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), was killed in the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.

The Luther College Nordic Choir will sing at the service and internment. Larson was a member of the choir while a student at Luther College, Decorah. Luther is one of 27 ELCA colleges and universities.

"On Jan. 31 the remains of our son, Ben Larson, arrived in Dover, Delaware," the Rev. April Ulring Larson said in a Feb. 3 statement. April is Ben's mother. "Ben left the dear people of Haiti and began his journey home from Haiti to Dover, to Philadelphia, to Minneapolis, and finally to Decorah," she said.

In her statement, April thanked people for the compassion expressed to the people of Haiti and the "compassion for our family. We continue to covet your prayers for us and for the recovery of Haiti."

April is senior pastor at First Lutheran Church, Duluth, Minn., and former bishop of the ELCA La Crosse (Wis.) Area Synod. Ben's father is the Rev. Judd W. Larson, interim pastor at Our Saviors Lutheran Church, Duluth.

Ben's body was recovered Jan. 28 from the collapsed St. Joseph Home for Boys, Port-au-Prince, by a local work crew that went inside the rubble to find him. He was in Haiti with his wife, Renee Splichal Larson, and his cousin, Jonathan Larson. All three were inside St. Joseph Home for Boys at the time of the earthquake. Renee and Jonathan were trapped in the building but managed to escape. Ben was buried as the building collapsed.

Ben was teaching theology to Lutherans in Haiti at the time of the earthquake. He was a senior at Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa. Renee and Jonathan are also senior seminary students at Wartburg. Wartburg is one of eight ELCA seminaries.

Ben's "earthly journey in Christ comes to an end and he rests in God's arms until Jesus comes again," said April. "We remember words from the hymn that Ben so dearly loved and requested for his funeral ‘some day,' ‘Lord Jesus, You Shall be My Song.'"

The Rev. April Ulring Larson's statement is at http://www.flcduluth.org/, on the Web.

ELCA News Service