wfn.org | LWI Council Press Release No.08/2009 LWF Council Elects Chilean Pastor Martin Junge as New General

["LWFNews" <LWFNews@lutheranworld.org>]

>LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION  
>LWI News online:
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>LWI Council Press Release No. 08/2009

LWF Council Elects Chilean Pastor Martin Junge as New General
Secretary 
First Latin American to Head the LWF 

GENEVA, 26 October 2009 (LWI) - On Monday, 26 October 2009,
Chilean pastor Martin Junge was elected as the eighth General
Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) for a seven-year
term. The election took place in closed session.

The Council is holding its 22-27 October meeting at
Chavannes-de-Bogis, near Geneva, Switzerland.

With this election, Junge becomes the first representative from
the Latin America and Caribbean region to hold the highest
position at the LWF Secretariat. 

The LWF Council elected the 48 year-old theologian to succeed
Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko who, upon election in June 1994, became the
first African to hold the chief executive post in the LWF. An
ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe,
Noko’s position was affirmed in 1997, and he was re-elected for
a second seven-year term in 2004. He announced at the June 2008
Council meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, that he would be leaving
office on 31 October 2010. 

The  seven-member search committee for a new general secretary
was headed by the former president of the Ethiopian Evangelical
Church Mekane Yesus, Rev. Iteffa Gobena. 

Since September 2000, Junge has been the area secretary for
Latin America and the Caribbean at the LWF Department for Mission
and Development (DMD). His key achievements as DMD area secretary
include the strengthening and refocusing of the LWF’s
programmatic work in the region, and the implementation and
structuring of the advocacy program launched by Latin American
LWF member churches to deal with the problem of illegitimate
foreign debt in the region.

Since 2008 Junge has been pursuing a diploma in the management
of not-for-profit organizations at the "Verbandsmanagement
Institut” (VMI) of the University of Freiburg in Switzerland.

>From 1996 to 2000, Junge was President of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Chile (Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en Chile -
IELC). Following his 1989 ordination as an IELC pastor, Junge
served in two congregations in Santiago de Chile from 1989 to
2000. He studied Protestant theology between 1980 and 1986 at the
Georg August University in Göttingen, Germany. 

General secretary-elect Junge is married, with two children. 

The LWF General Secretary conducts the business of the
Federation in collaboration with the Cabinet, which is made up of
the directors of departments and units appointed by the Council.
The position holder is responsible for the implementation of the
Council and Assembly decisions. (398 words)

More information on the 2009 LWF Council meeting is available on
the LWF Web site at: www.lutheranworld.org

>*      *      *

Around 75 representatives from LWF member churches and partner
organizations are attending this year’s Council meeting at
Chavannes de Bogis near Geneva, Switzerland. An additional 90
registered participants include invited guests, stewards,
interpreters and translators, media persons and LWF staff. 

The 49-member Council is the LWF’s governing body, meeting
every 12-18 months between Assemblies held every six years. The
current Council was appointed at the July 2003 Tenth Assembly in
Winnipeg, Canada. It comprises the President, Treasurer as well
as lay and ordained persons, representing the different LWF
regions. 

The Council host church, the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran
Churches in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein has
6,818 members, and has been an LWF member church since 1979. It
is headed by Ms Dagmar Magold.

>For media related queries, please contact:

>LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION 
>Tel.: +41/22-791 63 69 
>Fax: +41/22-791 66 30 
>Editor’s E-Mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org 

At Hotel Chavannes de Bogis, Tel. +41/22-960 81 81
Mobile Tel. +41/76 396 2863

Further information about the 2009 LWF Council meeting is
available on the LWF Web site at: www.lutheranworld.org