Pastors of Peace

Interim Senior Pastor Brent Thalacker

We welcome our interim pastor, Brent Thalacker, who began his leadership of Peace on Sunday, October 10. Pastor Thalacker hails from Wisconsin and began his pastoral career in the Washington area in 1984 as an Associate Pastor at St Marks in Springfield. Since 1994, he has served our Metro DC Synod as a Pastor on call to the Synod specializing in serving congregations in interim situations. Peace will mark his 10th interim assignment in the Synod -- which he has noted began at Peace on the 10th day of the 10th month of the 10th year. Pastor Thalacker and his wife, Susan, live in Fairfax Station and have three sons, the youngest of whom is a Junior at George Mason University. Photo: The Washington Post, Metro, Jan. 28, 2012.

Pastoral Associate Abebe Tafesse

Pastor Tafesse was born in Ethiopia sometime between 1936 and 1941, the period of Italian invasion of Ethiopia. There is no record of his birth, but his devout father remembered the saint's name of his day of birth and hence the date, February 2nd, is known, but not the year. He began school in 1952 and in 12 years had completed college. After graduation, he became a math lecturer at Addis Ababa University. Teaching allowed some time for intensive study of the Bible and since 1966 Pastor Abebe has been serving the Lord and his church in some capacity.

Pastor Abebe came to the United States in 1993 and went to Luther Seminary in Minnesota and served an Ethiopian congregation. After briefly returning to Ethiopia, he moved to the Washington DC area in 1996 and began serving at Peace Lutheran in 1997. Peace sponsored further education at Gettysburg Theological Seminary, and he was ordained in 2001 at Peace.

Pastor Abebe served as an Assistant Pastor at Peace until his retirement in 2007. Following an extended trip to Ethiopia, he returned to Peace as Pastoral Associate, preaching and teaching in the Amharic language to a group of our congregants.

Pastor Abebe is married to Almaz Gebrehiwot. They have four adult children and four grandchildren.

6362 Lincolnia Road, Alexandria, Virginia, 22312