wfn.org | LWI News in Brief

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

LWI News in Brief, 23 December 2005

- LWF World Service Director Granke to Join Canadian Church Development
Agency
- Hermine Nikolaisen Moves from LWF Balkans Program to Rwanda
- Erich Hertel Elected Bishop of Namibia's German Lutheran Church
- Zimbabwean Church To Consecrate Three New Bishops after Restructuring
- Lutheran Church in Korea Elects New President
- Rhineland Praeses Nikolaus Schneider Heads German Development Body 
- Tanzanian Mwombeki to Lead Germany-based International Missionary Body
- Bishop Friedrich Weber Elected VELKD Catholica Commissioner 
- Holger Milkau Is New Dean of Italian Church
- Italy's Waldensians Have First Woman Moderator
- New Editor for ELCA Magazine "The Lutheran"
- Shafer Concludes Service as ELCA Communication Director 

LWF World Service Director Granke to Join Canadian Church Development
Agency

Mr Robert Granke, director of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
Department for World Service (DWS), has been appointed executive
director of Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR). 

Granke, 51, begins his new tasks in March 2006, succeeding Dr Ruth E.
Jensen, who resigned at the end of 2005 after serving nine years.

Prior to joining the LWF in March 2002, Granke, a Canadian, was
secretary of the Winnipeg-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
(ELCIC). He had previously worked in the international department of
CLWR, the service delivery arm for overseas development programming and
relief for the ELCIC and Lutheran Church-Canada. 

As DWS director, he leads the work of the LWF's humanitarian and
development agency comprising the department's Geneva secretariat's
offices, and field programs in 37 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin and
Central America and Europe. 

Granke holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba,
Canada, and has taken various courses in international management. He
served as program manager with the Canadian Hunger Foundation, an
Ottawa-based non-profit international development organization. 

Robert Granke and his wife, Rev. Lynn Granke have three children. (191
words) 

*	*	*

Hermine Nikolaisen Moves from LWF Balkans Program to Rwanda

Ms Hermine Nikolaisen, former representative of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) Department for World Service (DWS) in the Balkan
region, has taken up a new position as LWF representative and director
for the DWS program in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC). 

Effective November 2005, Nikolaisen, 60, replaced Ms Anne Masterson, who
in 2005 was appointed director of the Darfur Emergency Relief Operation,
a joint humanitarian initiative by Action by Churches Together (ACT)
International and Caritas Internationalis in Darfur, western Sudan.
Masterson joined the Rwanda program in 1998 as development project
advisor, and was country director from 2000 until her resignation in
August 2005. 

Nikolaisen, of German nationality, has worked with LWF/DWS for over 16
years - in Africa and the Balkan region*Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Kosovo, and Vojvodina [Serbia and Montenegro]. She was the LWF/DWS
Balkans regional representative and director of the Kosovo program from
2000 until early October 2005. From 1992 to 1998, she worked in various
capacities in the DWS Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina operations,
including program director. In 1999, she served as country director of
the DWS program in Kenya and Southern Sudan. Between 1989 and 1992, she
worked as a volunteer with the DWS Mauritania program, later on as an
administration and finance officer based in Namibia, and as acting
director of the DWS Malawi program. 

Prior to joining the LWF, Nikolaisen worked in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
with the overseas department of the German company, Josef Riepl
Construction, 1983-1988. From 1968 to 1978 she worked with the German
Airlines, Lufthansa. She pursued higher education in France and
Switzerland, and development studies in the United Kingdom. 

She is married to Niels Nikolaisen. (284 words)

*	*	*

Erich Hertel Elected Bishop of Namibia's German Lutheran Church

The synod of the German-speaking Evangelical Church in Namibia
(ELCIN-GELC) elected Rev. Erich Hertel as the church's new bishop during
its meeting held early September. Hertel takes over from Bishop Reinhard
Keding, who returned to Germany end of August after 12 years of service
in Namibia. The GELC council vice-chairperson, Rev. Erich Rust will be
in charge until the new bishop is installed on 28 May 2006.

Hertel was born in Hessen, Germany in 1949. He pursued theological
studies at the Hermannsburg Mission Seminary, Germany. Following
training as a vicar in Bogota, Colombia, he worked as a community pastor
in Durban, South Africa, from 1986 to 1995. His responsibilities since
1995 include looking after and accompanying staff members sent to the
Hermannsburg Mission partner churches in Southern Africa. 

During the synod, members voted in favor of a joint church leadership
for the three Lutheran churches in Namibia. The plan is to create a
United Church Council of the Namibian Evangelical Lutheran Churches
(UCC-NELC) comprising the 6,500-member GELC; the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) with 300,000 members; and the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN) with 640,000 members. All
three churches belong to the Lutheran World Federation. (209 words)

*	*	*

Zimbabwean Church To Consecrate Three New Bishops after Restructuring

On 1 January 2006, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe (ELCZ)
will consecrate three new bishops, one of whom will become the church's
first presiding bishop. This follows a process that has led to the
reconstitution of the church from deaneries into three dioceses.

During its 3 December 2005 meeting in the southwestern city of Bulawayo,
the ELCZ church-wide Assembly elected three bishops for the
newly-created dioceses. Eastern Diocese (Harare) will be led by Rev John
S. Moyo, currently working with the Zimbabwe Council of Churches in its
Mission, Youth and Child Survival Office. Central Diocese (Mberengwa)
will be led by bishop-elect Naison Shava, presently dean of the ELCZ
Eastern Deanery and coordinator of the Lutheran Development Service
cooperative societies. Bishop-elect Stephen M. Dube, currently head of
the Western Deanery and principal of Manama Bible School, will lead the
Western Diocese (Matabeleland).

Shava will also become the ELCZ presiding bishop.

Incumbent ELCZ Bishop Litsietsi Maqethuka Dube told Lutheran World
Information (LWI) that re-structuring the church into dioceses was one
of the priorities when he assumed his five-year term in December 2001.
Dube, 62, was the fourth black bishop to head the Zimbabwean church
since its 1903 establishment by Swedish missionaries.
The 130,000-member ELCZ joined the LWF in 1963. (217 words)

*	*	*

Lutheran Church in Korea Elects New President

Delegates to the October 2005 annual convention of the Lutheran Church
in Korea (LCK) elected Rev. Dr Hyun-Sup Um to a four-year term as LCK
president. A professor of Old Testament, Um, 59 has been teaching at the
Lutheran Theological University in Korea and Seminary for 25 years. He
succeeds Rev. Hong-Yeol Lee.

In the mid-70s Um pursued undergraduate and post-graduate studies at
Korea's Yonsei University College of Theology and the Lutheran
Theological Academy. In 1977 he was ordained as a pastor. He undertook
post-graduate studies at the Concordia Seminary, St Louis, Missouri,
USA, in 1991; a summer term at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in
1992; and doctoral studies at Concordia Seminary, St Louis, 1994-1996.
He has served academic associations as an active member and participated
in ecumenical projects such as the Old Testament Translation Committee
of the Korean Bible Society. From 1997 until 2003, he was a member of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Advisory Committee for Theological
Education in Asia (ACTEAS). 

Rev. Dr Hyun-Sup Um and his wife Jong-Sook Lee have two adult sons.

The LCK has 4,698 members. It joined the LWF in 1972. (195 words)

*	*	*

Rhineland Praeses Nikolaus Schneider Heads German Development Body 

The head of Germany's Evangelical Church of the Rhineland, Praeses
Nikolaus Schneider, has been elected chairperson the Governing Board of
the Church Development Service (EED). Schneider, 58, takes over from
former Brunswick Bishop Dr Christian Krause, who was president of the
Lutheran World Federation from 1997 to 2003. 

Established in 1999, EED is an association of Protestant churches in
Germany, promoting development programs in over 80 countries around the
world, with a commitment to establish more just societies. EED partners
include churches, ecumenical organizations and non-governmental
organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and southeastern Europe.
(104 words)

*	*	*

Tanzanian Mwombeki to Lead Germany-based International Missionary Body 

Tanzanian theologian, Rev. Dr Fidon R. Mwombeki will be the next general
secretary of the Wuppertal, Germany-based United Evangelical Mission
(UEM).

Appointed in September 2005, Mwombeki will assume the UEM's top position
at the end of 2006, succeeding Rev. Reiner Groth. This is the first time
that the organization will be led by a person from outside Germany.

Mwombeki, 45, is currently UEM Executive Secretary for Evangelism. Until
the end of 2004, he was general secretary of the North-Western Diocese
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT). He studied
theology and business management in the USA.

He served as parish minister in Tanzania and Sweden, and as executive
secretary for mission and evangelism in the ELCT North-Western Diocese.
He has been an active campaigner at global level for economic justice,
and was a member of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria from 2002 until 2004.

The UEM is an international missionary communion comprising 34 member
churches in Africa, Asia and Germany. (175 words)

*	*	*

Bishop Friedrich Weber Elected VELKD Catholica Commissioner 

Bishop Dr Friedrich Weber, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick,
Germany is the new Catholica Commissioner for the United Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD). 

Weber, 56, was appointed by the VELKD Bishops' Conference at its
November 18 meeting in Hanover, Germany. The Brunswick bishop succeeds
Bishop Dr Johannes Friedrich, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria,
who was recently elected as the new VELKD presiding bishop. Friedrich
had served as Catholica Commissioner since 2000.

In his new tasks at VELKD, Weber will be responsible for relations with
the Roman Catholic Church.

Weber assumed the position of Brunswick bishop in 2002. He studied
Protestant theology, history and educational theory and methodology in
Wuppertal, Goettingen and Oldenburg, receiving his doctorate in church
history from the University of Frankfurt in 1997. From 1984 to 1991, he
served as pastor and dean of a sub-district in Oppenheim/Rhein, and was
vicar and then pastor in the town of Greetsiel on the North Sea from
1972 to 1984, among other tasks.

The VELKD is an association of eight Lutheran churches in Bavaria,
Brunswick, Hanover, Mecklenburg, North Elbia, Saxony, Schaumburg-Lippe
and Thuringia. It represents around 10.4 million Lutherans. (201 words)

*	*	*

Holger Milkau Is New Dean of Italian Church

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy (ELCI) has a new dean, Rev.
Holger Milkau. He was elected in a special ELCI synod session, October
22. Milkau, 43, succeeds Rev. Juergen Astfalk, who announced his
resignation from office in September 2005. 

Astfalk's departure was linked to the limited secondment period that the
Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) allows its pastors for service
abroad. Consequently, the ELCI leadership is currently analyzing a synod
request to develop a scheme that would allow pastors from abroad to
serve the church for an unlimited period.

Milkau studied theology in Marburg, Hamburg (Germany) and at the
Waldesian faculty of theology  in Rome (Italy). In 1993 he was ordained
as a pastor in Schmalkalden (Germany). He served as a pastor in the
Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck, as director of theological
studies in the Fulda church district, and as regional officer for the
church's adult education services. Since 2002, he has been pastor to a
congregation in Naples (Italy). 

Following his election, Milkau stressed the special task of a Protestant
diaspora church in the Italian context. Wherever the diversity of
churches is understood as a gift it can be enjoyed, experienced as
enriching, and shared in ecumenical dialogue, he says. 

Milkau is married and has two daughters.

The 7,000-member ELCI has been a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) member
church since 1949. (236 words)

*	*	*

Italy's Waldensians Have First Woman Moderator 

For the first time, Italy's Waldensian Church has a woman moderator. The
Rev. Maria Bonafede was elected with a majority vote by the 180-member
synod at its meeting last August. It was the first time in the 800-year
history of the Waldensians that a woman leader had been chosen.

Bonafede, 51, described her election a "call and a mission." Her
predecessor Rev. Gianni Genre, who did not stand for re-election,
emphasized that "the time was ripe for a woman" in this position. Her
election was strongly symbolic and brought "a new sensitivity" to the
church in its internal and external relations.

Bonafede studied philosophy and theology. From 1988 she was a pastor of
the Waldensian Church at Piazza Cavour in Rome, and prior to that pastor
in Milan. She is married and has one son. (138 words)

*	*	*

New Editor for ELCA Magazine "The Lutheran"

The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Mr Daniel J. Lehmann to a four-year term as editor of the ELCA magazine,
"The Lutheran." Effective 1 January 2006, Lehmann succeeds, Rev. David
L. Miller, who had served in that position for six years. 

Lehmann, 54, is the first lay person named editor of the denomination's
magazine in more than 40 years, including the ELCA and predecessor
Lutheran church bodies. Since 1999, he has served as public information
officer, United States' District Court, Northern District of Illinois.
He studied journalism and political science at the University of
Missouri, Columbia, and began his media career in 1974 at The Mining
Journal, Marquette, Michigan, where he was a reporter for two years.
>From 1976 to 1983 he was an editor at The Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne,
Indiana. From 1983 to 1999, he was a reporter, and later editor, with
the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper. 

Daniel J. Lehmann and his wife, Julia Schmidt Lehmann are parents of two
adult children.

His November 11 appointment marked the first election of the magazine's
editor by the Church Council, the ELCA board of directors and
legislative authority between biennial assemblies. Previous editors were
elected by the Churchwide Assembly, the ELCA's highest decision-making
body. (214 words)

*	*	*

Shafer Concludes Service as ELCA Communication Director 

In November 2005, Rev. Eric C. Shafer concluded his service as director
of the former Department for Communication of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA). 

Shafer, 55, was first appointed the department's acting director in
1992. The ELCA Church Council formally elected him to a four-year term
as director in 1993, re-electing him in 1997 and in 2001. 

Shafer was involved in many ecumenical and interfaith activities
including chairperson of the National Council of Churches USA (NCC)
Communication Commission and the NCC board of directors, and
vice-president of Religion Communicators Council Inc. (RCC), New York.
He currently serves as a consultant to the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) Program Committee for Communication Services. He has been part of
several LWF consultations and events including the July 2003 LWF Tenth
Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada.

Ms Kristi S. Bangert currently serves as interim executive director for
the ELCA Communication Services. (155 words)

*	*	*

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140
member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total
membership of nearly 66 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith
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 the 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 an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be
freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

*	*	*

LWI online: http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html 

LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION
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Tel: (41.22) 791.63.69
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Editor: pmu@lutheranworld.org