wfn.org | ELCA Assembly Elects Mark Hanson Presiding Bishop

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

INDIANAPOLIS, United States of America/GENEVA, 13 August 2001
(ELCANews/LWI) - The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, 54, bishop of the Saint Paul
Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was
elected presiding bishop of the ELCA on the fifth and final ballot
August 11.

The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is
meeting here August 8-14 at the Indiana Convention Center. There are
more than 2,000 people participating, including 1,040 ELCA voting
members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ Known:
Sharing Faith in a New Century."

Hanson received 533 votes, 51.6 percent of the votes cast by 1,032
voting members of the assembly. The Rev. Donald J. McCoid, 57, bishop of
the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, Pittsburgh, received 499 votes,
48.4 percent. McCoid is also chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops, an
advisory body of the church's 65 synod bishops, presiding bishop and
secretary. Hanson is vice chair of the Conference.

"I do not regard this as an election won but a calling received," Hanson
said, addressing the assembly after he was elected. "I now face a
daunting task and recognize that we will be united as a church in
mission. As [presiding] bishop, I will tend to the meal of this church 
to make sure it's the Gospel of Jesus Christ," he said.

Hanson extended a word of "special gratitude" to McCoid. "We share a
common confession of faith," he said. "Thank you for this Holy calling.
I accept it with grace and
gratitude," Hanson told the assembly with his wife, Ione Agrimson
Hanson, standing beside him.

Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson's term of office will end on October
31. Hanson will begin his six-year term as the third bishop of the ELCA
on November 1. His installation is planned for October 6 at the
Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago.

Hanson was educated at Augsburg College, Minneapolis; Union Theological
Seminary, New York; Luther Seminary, St. Paul; and Harvard Divinity
School. He had also served as pastor of University Lutheran Church of
Hope, Minneapolis; Prince of Glory Lutheran Church, Minneapolis; and
Edina Community Lutheran Church, Edina, Minn. Hanson
was ordained in 1974.

Hanson is a member of Augsburg College Board of Regents and member of
the Common Board Communities for the Archdiocese Housing Corporation,
Minneapolis. He also served on the National Council of Churches
Emergency Ministries.

Hanson and Ione, director of social work for Children's Hospitals,
Minneapolis and St. Paul, have six children and one grandchild. (423
words) (ELCA NEWS SERVICE)

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