wfn.org | Christian Krause Elected LWF President

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Christian Krause Elected LWF President
He succeeds Gottfried Brakemeier

HONG KONG, July 25, 1997 (lwi) - Bishop Christian Krause, 57, of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick, Germany, was elected president of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) July 14.

His election came on the second ballot when he received 215 votes to the
142 votes received by the Rev. Dr. Prasanna Kumari, executive secretary of
the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India. Krause succeeds the Rev.
Dr. Gottfied Brakemeier of Brazil.

Krause has been connected with the LWF for 31 years. In speaking to the
delegates he emphasized the importance of remaining within the Lutheran
tradition and at the same time being part of the ecumenical movement. The
church should be an advocate for those who suffer he said.

He is the third German president of the worldwide Lutheran communion. The
Bavarian Bishop Johannes Hanselmann and Bishop Hans Lilje of Hanover have
also been LWF presidents.

Before being elected bishop of the Brunswick church, Krause was general
secretary of the German Kirchentag (Church Assembly). He worked for the
LWF's Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service from 1971-1972 and was on the
LWF's Geneva staff as program secretary in the Department of Studies from
1969-1970. From 1972-1985 he was executive secretary for Mission and
Service of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany and of the
LWF's German national committee.

Krause is a graduate of the University of Gottingen in Germany and studied
in the United States in 1962 under a Fulbright scholarship.

Kumari would have been the first Asian and the first female president of
the Lutheran World Federation. Several, but not all, of the presidents have
been elected from the region in which the Assembly was held. This was the
first LWF Assembly held in Asia. In the last three Assemblies, held in Dar
es Salaam in 1977, Hungary in 1984 and Brazil in 1990, presidents were
elected from Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

There were four nominees for the presidency. In addition to Krause and
Kumari, Bishop Julius Filo, 46, head of the Evangelical Church of the
Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic, and the Rev. Dr. Naohiro
Kiyoshige, 58, head of the Lutheran Church in Japan were nominated.

On the first ballot, there were 366 votes cast. Krause received 120, Kumari
received 92, Filo, 83, and Kiyoshige, 71.The second ballot was limited to
the top two vote-getters.

Preceding the election the candidates spoke to the delegates. Prasanna
Kumari emphasized her origins in a non-Christian country. As a
first-generation Christian she said she has learned to resist traditions
and to overcome boundaries.

Kiyoshige of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church said that everybody
should feel that this is their "own LWF." There should be no differences
between North and South and between rich and poor.

Filo emphasized the building up of participatory structures and pointed to
the participation of women and youth. Filo said that for him the LWF is a
visible sign of unity in Christ.

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