wfn.org | President of Suriname church joins LWF Council

[FRANK.IMHOFF@ecunet.org]

LWF COUNCIL MEETING, TURKU, FINLAND, 14-21 JUNE 2000
PRESS RELEASE NO. 8

TURKU, Finland/GENEVA, 16 June 2000 (LWI) - The president of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Suriname, Raymon Wimpel has been elected as
a member of the Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).

With a majority vote, the Council meeting from 14 to 21 June 2000 in
Finland's historic capital of Turku accepted the recommendation of the
Nomination's Committee that Wimpel, a banker by profession, succeed, as
a member of the LWF governing body, Ms. Ilse Labadie who died on 14 June
1999 following illness.

The president of the 4,000-member church like his predecessor becomes a
member of the LWF Program Committee of the Office for Finance and
Administration. Back home, Wimpel succeeded in 1999 the late Labadie
also a former banker and lay president of the Suriname church.

The 51 year-old manager of a public bank has several years experience as
a computer programmer and is currently pursuing theological studies. He
has six grown children.

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 59 million of the world's 63 million Lutherans. Its highest
decision making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven years.
Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council which
meets annually, and its Executive Committee. The LWF secretariat is
located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted, material
presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its
various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation
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Lutheran World Information
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