wfn.org | Bishop Margot Kaessmann to Lead German Protestants

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

Title: Bishop Margot Kaessmann to Lead German Protestants
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>October 28, 2009  

Bishop Margot Kaessmann to Lead German Protestants
09-240-JB/ENI*

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Margot Kaessmann, bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hannover, was elected Oct. 28 to chair the
Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).

Kaesmann, 51, is the first woman has become the highest
representative of 25 million German Protestants.  She is also the
youngest chairperson of the EKD council.

Kaesmann was elected to a six-year term by the EKD's highest
governing body, its synod, meeting in Ulm, Germany.  The lone candidate,
Kaessmann received 132 of 142 votes.

The EKD is the umbrella organization for 22 regional Lutheran,
United and Reformed churches. It accounts for most of the country's
Protestant Christians.

Kaessmann has been bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Hannover since 1999.

The Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF), hailed Kaessmann's election. "The election sends a
signal to the church worldwide that God calls us to leadership without
consideration of gender, color or descent," said Noko, a Zimbabwean
theologian.

Kaessmann will succeed the Rev. Wolfgang Huber, 67, who is retiring.
Huber is also bishop of the Protestant Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-
Silesian Oberlausitz.

In September 2008 the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop and
LWF president, visited the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hannover and
Kaessmann, and the EKD and Huber, while in Germany.

In September 2007 Hanson and Huber signed an agreement here that
committed the ELCA and EKD to mutual exchange of information, and
providing assistance and care for English-speaking Lutheran congregations
in Germany and German-speaking congregations in the United States.  The
agreement, effective Jan. 1, 2008, provided for mutual exchange of
pastors, EKD deacons, ELCA diaconal ministers and Christian education
teachers.

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* Information was provided by Ecumenical News International.

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
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