Celene Welch

Celene Welch (b. 1949) has been involved in the church her entire life. She received a BA from Texas Christian University, a Master of Music degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Master of Divinity degree from Brite Divinity School (TCU). She also studied at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

A church musician before becoming a pastor, she worked for the Hymn Society for seven years. She was raised Southern Baptist and became a Lutheran after studying liturgy. She was ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1995 and served Trinity Lutheran Church in Fort Worth, Texas, for eight years. For 16 years, she was Lutheran Campus Pastor at the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas.

Pastor Welch wrote this hymn tune in 1990 during Ministers Week at Brite Divinity School for “A woman in a world of men,” a text by Brian Wren, who was a guest on campus. The tune name, CRAVEN, honors Toni Craven, a professor of Hebrew and Hebrew Bible at Brite.

Celene Welch