wfn.org | Deputy Dean of Italian Church to Serve LWF German Committee

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

Deputy Dean of Italian Church to Serve as Executive Secretary, LWF
German National Committee
Pastor Denecke to Succeed Oberkirchenraetin Kaete Mahn in 2004

HANOVER, Germany/GENEVA, 30 May 2003 (LWI) - Pastor Norbert
Denecke, vice-dean of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy
(ELKI), has been appointed Secretary for International Relations,
with regional responsibility for Europe, in the Lutheran Church
Office of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany
(VELKD). He will succeed Oberkirchenraetin Kaete Mahn who is
retiring on 31 January 2004.

 From 1 February 2004, Denecke, 45, will take over from Mahn as
churches of GNC/LWF confirmed his appointment on May 22.
Church Office in Hanover. Representatives of the 13 member
Executive Secretary of the German National Committee of the
Lutheran World Federation (GNC/LWF) based with the VELKD Lutheran

Oberkirchenraetin Inken Woehlbrand was elected as Deputy Executive
Secretary of the GNC/LWF, with responsibilities for mission and
development among other tasks. In mid-April she succeeded
Oberkrichenrat Hannes Gaenssbauer who was Mahn's deputy.

Born in Brunswick, Germany in 1958, Denecke is a pastor of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick. He studied in Bethel,
Hamburg and Goettingen and at the Theological Faculty of the
Waldensian Church in Rome. He first worked as an assistant pastor
in Cremlingen near Wolfenbuettel and in the Evangelical Lutheran
congregation in Florence before serving as a pastor in Goslar,
1989-1995. He then moved to the Milan-based ELKI, where he has
held the position of vice-dean since 1998. The ELKI, has 7,000
members, and joined the LWF in 1949.

The VELKD is an association of eight regional churches in Germany
namely the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Bavaria, Brunswick and
Thuringia, of Hanover, Mecklenburg, Saxony, Schaumburg-Lippe and
the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church. It represents over
10.6 million people, and is headed by Presiding Bishop, Dr Hans
Christian Knuth (of Schleswig). The GNC/LWF comprises the eight
VELKD member churches, plus the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in
Baden and Oldenburg, Evangelical Church of Pomerania, Church of
Lippe (Lutheran Section) as well as the Evangelical Church in
Wuerttemberg.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is LWF's information service.
Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where
the dateline of a article contains the notation (LWI), the
material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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