ELCA News Blog
June 14, 2006
Warren Freiheit re-elected bishop of ELCA Central/Southern Synod
by Katherine Hinck*, ELCA News Service
The Rev. Warren D. Freiheit was elected to a second six-year term as bishop of the Central/Southern Illinois Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) at the synod assembly June 8-10 in Springfield, Ill. Freiheit, 58, was re- elected June 9 on the first ballot for bishop with 294 of 385 votes. The next highest vote totals on the final first ballot were 21 votes for the Rev. William J. Shields, First Lutheran Church, Pontiac, Ill.; and 12 votes for the Rev. S. John Roth, Faith Lutheran Church, Jacksonville, Ill. There were 33 nominees on the first or nominating ballot.
Born in Preston, Minn., Freiheit graduated from Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa, and earned a master of divinity degree from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. Wartburg is one of 28 colleges and universities of the ELCA; Luther is one of eight ELCA seminaries. Ordained in 1974, he served as pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Lincoln, Ill.; the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, Oak Forest, Ill.; and First English Lutheran Church, Peoria, Ill. Freiheit was first elected bishop in 2000, succeeding the Rev. Alton Zenker, who retired. Freiheit and his wife Sandra are the parents of two grown daughters and reside in Chatham, Ill.
The ELCA Central/Southern Illinois Synod includes 58,888 baptized members in 154 congregations in 76 of Illinois' 102 counties. The synod office is in Springfield.
*Katherine R. Hinck is a senior journalism and religion major at Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D. This summer she is an intern with the ELCA News Service.
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