wfn.org | LWI 2010-002 LWF Congratulates Former President Krause on His 70th Birthday

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LWF Congratulates Former President Krause on His 70th Birthday 
Tribute to Christian Krause’s Commitment to Lutheran Communion

GENEVA, 6 January 2010 (LWI) - The Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) has sent congratulatory greetings to former LWF president
Bishop em. Dr Christian Krause, praising him for his
long-standing commitment to the Lutheran communion, to the church
globally and its fundamental role in the world.

In a letter to Krause on the occasion of his 70th birthday
today, LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko expressed
gratitude for Krause's contribution to the Federation not only as
president but also in other capacities including as staff person
at the Geneva Secretariat and as executive secretary of the LWF
German National Committee. 

Noko reiterated a July 2003 tribute to Krause in Winnipeg,
Canada, by his successor Bishop Mark S. Hanson, praising the
former LWF president as a committed "interpreter of the Lutheran
communion to the world, listening to the voices of the world and
interpreting those voices for us." He noted that Krause had
"known when to challenge us, when to encourage us, to let us
struggle and when to bring us together again." 

Noko praised Krause's active participation in the 1999 signing
of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ)
between the LWF and the Roman Catholic Church. "I was pleased
that you were able to celebrate this milestone accomplishment on
its tenth anniversary last October in Augsburg," added the
general secretary, referring to the 2009 JDDJ anniversary
celebrations in Augsburg, Germany. 

Krause was elected LWF President at the July 1997 Ninth Assembly
in Hong Kong, China. He served as bishop of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Brunswick, Germany, from June 1994 to the
beginning of 2002, when he took an early retirement to
concentrate on his LWF leadership responsibilities, and as
chairperson of the governing board of the Protestant Church
Development Service (EED), and president of the Luther Center in
Wittenberg, Germany. 

He began working with the LWF as a research assistant in the
then Department of Theology from 1966 until 1967. Following his
1969 ordination as an Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover
pastor within the Geneva (Switzerland) Lutheran congregation, he
took up the position of special assistant in the LWF Department
of Theology from 1969 to 1970. From 1971 to 1972, he worked at
the headquarters of the Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service (LWF
Department of World Service) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 

Between 1972 and 1985, Krause was executive secretary
(Oberkirchenrat) of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Germany, and chairperson of the LWF National Committee in
Germany. He was general secretary of the German Protestant Church
Convention (Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag) in Fulda from
1985 until 1994. 

Krause was born on 6 January 1940 in Dallgow-Doeberitz,
Brandenburg, Germany. He studied theology in Marburg, Heidelberg
and Göttingen in Germany, and in Chicago, USA. 

In 2001, he was awarded the Knight Commander’s Cross (Badge and
Star) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
He is a recipient of honorary doctorates from the Comenius
University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic (1999) and from the
Academy of Ecumenical Indian Theology and Church Administration
in Madras, India (1994). 

Krause currently lives in Wolfenbuettel, Germany. (531 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 79 countries all over the
world, with a total membership of 68.9 million. 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.)

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