wfn.org | Ruth Sovik, Lutheran and Former WCC Official, Dies

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

January 19, 2000

RUTH SOVIK, LUTHERAN AND FORMER WCC OFFICIAL, DIES
00-13-JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Ruth J. Sovik, 71, a former deputy general
secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and member of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), died Jan. 12 in
Minneapolis after a long illness.  Sovik and her husband, the Rev. Arne
B. Sovik, were retired and living in Minneapolis at the time of her
death.
     The World Council of Churches, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a
Christian organization with 337 member churches worldwide, including the
ELCA.
     Sovik's life was marked by a long-term and dedicated involvement
in the ecumenical movement, the WCC said in a news release.
     Sovik was appointed one of three WCC deputy general secretaries in
1985 at the organization's Central Committee meeting in Buenos Aires,
Argentina.   She held the position until she retired in 1991.  As WCC
deputy general secretary, Sovik served as staff moderator for the Unit
on Justice and Service, one of three program arms in the previous WCC
structure.
     As deputy general secretary, her responsibilities also included
relief aid, disaster assistance, refugee assistance, international
affairs, women's programs and efforts to combat racism, said her nephew,
Martin Sovik.
     Sovik devoted considerable energy to a significant WCC emphasis,
the "Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation" program.  She described
her work in this area as "challenging, extremely interesting, extremely
satisfying," the WCC said in its release.
     "If the churches can truly work together on some of the issues
that plague the world -- and threaten to plague it to death -- we have
in our hands astonishing riches, a tremendous strength, an enormous
respectability to put at the service of those issues, plus vast
resources of trained and experienced leadership which could make all the
difference in the world's having a future at all," Sovik once said,
according to the WCC release.
     Prior to 1985 Sovik served two years as general secretary of the
World Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), and was its associate
general secretary from 1980 to 1983.
     From 1978 to 1980, Sovik was deputy director of the WCC's
Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME).  From 1965 to 1967,
and again in 1973, she was editorial assistant, and later managing
editor, for "International Review of Mission," CWME's periodical.
     Sovik, born in Fargo, N.D., was a graduate of St. Olaf College,
Northfield, Minn., one of 28 ELCA colleges and universities.
     She was married to Arne Sovik since 1949.  Arne Sovik, a retired
ELCA pastor, once served as director of the Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) Department of World Missions and was executive secretary of the
Board of World Missions of the former Lutheran Church in America.  He
later returned to the LWF to head a project to investigate relations
between Christians and Marxists, especially those in mainland China.
The ELCA is a member of the LWF.
     Besides her husband, Sovik is survived by daughter Liv Sovik of
Salvador, Brazil, and sons Nathan Sovik, Slidell, La., and Nord Sovik,
New Orleans.  A funeral service for Sovik was held at Central Lutheran
Church, Minneapolis, Tuesday, Jan. 18 at 11 a.m.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html