wfn.org | News in brief

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

 ... New general secretary for Church of Sweden Central Board. Leni
Bjorklund has been appointed the general secretary of the Church of
Sweden Central Board, replacing Mr. Soren Ekstrom who leaves his post
in May this year after 12 years of service. Currently the director of
the Swedish Institute for Health Services Development, 55-year-old
Bjorklund has been a member of the church assembly and a member of
the Stockholm County Council. The general secretary is the highest
official of the church's Central Board.

 ... Styrian Superintendent Ernst-Christian Gerhold resigns. The
superintendent of the Styria Diocese in the Evangelical Church of the
Augsburg Confession in Austria, Prof. Ernst-Christian Gerhold, will
resign from his office at the end of August 1999. In an interview
with the Protestant press service, epd fur Osterreich, Gerhold gave
"personal reasons" for his resignation, saying his departure is not
out of "frustrations or weariness from the office," but, rather, from
an inner conviction that "now the baton has to be passed on." The
theologian, who will be 57-years-old early September, observed that
"in times of evaluation" the congregations needed someone who could
serve with full strength. Gerhold was elected to the office of
superintendent of Styria in September 1987. In his letter to the
Styrian assembly of superintendents, Gerhold explained his decision
to resign as follows: "The workload of a superintendent is diverse
and demands so much energy that my physical strength is letting up,
and my mental resistance has clearly reached a limit. Moreover, the
space available for my family has continued to shrink." Gerhold is
also a member of the Program Committee for Communication Services in
the Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).

 ... New regional church body to promote peace in Africa. The
Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes and
the Horn of Africa region was launched in Nairobi early March, with
the aim to review issues pertaining to peace and reconciliation in
the region.  According to the Nairobi-based ecumenical All Africa
News Agency (AANA),the founding members of the new association are
Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi,
Uganda, Eritrea and the Sudan. The ten national Christian councils
and churches that belong to the fellowship include, among others, the
Evangelical Church of Eritrea (ECE), Christian Council of Tanzania
(CCT), National Council of Churches in Kenya (NCCK) and the Church of
Christ in Congo (CCC).

 ... New book on the Lutheran Confessions. Introduction to the
Lutheran Confessions has just been published by Fortress Press,
Minneapolis (USA). Written by theologians Gunther Gassmann and Scott
Hendrix, the 226-page historical and theological introduction to the
Lutheran confessional documents, offers an interpretation of their
main doctrinal and pastoral themes. The presentations of these
themes, which includes, contemporary and ecumenical perspectives, is
set into the broader framework of theological, social and political
Reformation history and, of the worldwide Lutheran communion today.
Gassman is a former director of the World Council of Churches (WCC)
Commission on Faith and Order, and presently visiting professor of
the Lutheran theological seminary at Gettysburg (USA). Hendrix is a
professor of church history at Princeton Theological Seminary
(USA).There are plans to publish the book in other languages.

 ... New president for Eritrean church. The annual synod of the
Evangelical Church of Eritrea (ECE) meeting in the Eritrean capital,
Asmara, has elected Rev. Ogbarebi Hibtes as the new president of the
ECE for a three-year term. He succeeds Rev. Yosief Araia, who has
completed his three-year term as president and another three years as
a member of the ECE executive committee.

 ... Danish minister says churches are not for sale. Denmark's
Minister for Church Affairs, Margrethe Vestager, has dismissed the
idea of selling churches in areas where some of them are seldom used.
According to Church News from Denmark, the minister made these
remarks in reaction to ongoing critic of parish councils for their
expenditure on churches and local centers. The old churches are "part
of the national family silver," she is quoted saying. She reportedly
adds that parish councils may decide to close churches but they are
still obliged to keep them in order.

 ... Second print for LWF study publication. LWF Documentation
41/1997, Theological Perspectives on Other Faiths, a Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) publication, which includes documentation from a
consultation held in Bangkok in July 1996, has now been reprinted. It
is edited by Hance A.O. Mwakabana of the LWF Department for Theology
and Studies (LWF/DTS). The documentation is free for LWF member
churches. Subscription costs for others is USD 10, CHF12, or DEM 14.
Orders as usual can be sent to Maya Maugue, LWF Office for Finance
and Administration, General Services, P.O. Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva
2, Switzerland.

 ... President of the Protestant Federation of France to leave his
post. The president of the Protestant Federation of France (PFF),
Rev. Jean Tartier will leave his post next June. Elected in September
1996, Tartier was the first Lutheran to lead the PFF since its
creation in 1905. Before his current position, the 57 year-old
Lutheran pastor worked for 15 years as an ecclesiastical inspector
(bishop) in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France, and then the
ecumenical officer for the PFF.  The Federation brings together
Lutheran and Reformed churches in France, as well as some of the
evangelical churches.

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/