wfn.org | Knoche Elected Lutheran Bishop of Delaware-Maryland Synod

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

June 20, 2000

KNOCHE ELECTED LUTHERAN BISHOP OF DELAWARE-MARYLAND SYNOD
00-165-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. H. Gerard Knoche Jr., New Hope Lutheran
Church, Columbia, Md., was elected June 17 to a six-year term as bishop
of the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) during the synod's assembly at Western Maryland College,
Westminster, Md.  On the fifth and final ballot, Knoche received 291
votes to 112 for the Rev. Phillip C. Huber, St. Matthew Lutheran Church,
Washington, D.C.
     The Rev. Glenn E. Ludwig, First Lutheran Church, Ellicott City,
Md., was also considered on the fourth ballot.  Ludwig received more
votes than any of the other 100 nominees on the first and nominating
ballot.
     "My mother was never happy that I went into the ministry, but she
always said, 'If you must do it, at least get to be a bishop,'" Knoche
told the assembly, after the results of the election were announced.
     Born in Baltimore, Knoche, 57, graduated from Harvard College,
Cambridge, Mass.; Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Conn.; and the
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa.  Ordained in 1967, he
served as pastor for Grace Lutheran Church, Westminster, Md.; associate
chaplain for Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pa.; and director for
Lutheran Campus Ministry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
     Knoche succeeds the Rev. George P. Mocko, 66, who plans to retire
as the synod's bishop at the end of August.  Mocko was elected bishop in
1991, succeeding the Rev. Morris G. Zumbrun, and re-elected in 1995 to a
term that was to end in 2001.
     The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, will
install Knoche as the synod's bishop in a ceremony Oct. 14 at a place to
be determined.
     The Delaware-Maryland Synod includes almost 100,000 Lutherans in
195 congregations across Delaware, the city of Baltimore and 18 counties
in Maryland, and two counties in Virginia.  Synod offices are in
Baltimore.

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