wfn.org | Landahl Elected Bishop of ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

June 5, 2001

LANDAHL ELECTED BISHOP OF ELCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO SYNOD
01-144-KS*/JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Paul R. Landahl, 63, was elected June 1
to a six-year term as bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  Landahl, associate to
the bishop, ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod, will succeed the Rev.
Kenneth R. Olsen. Olsen announced earlier this year he planned to pursue
other opportunities in the church and would not seek re-election as
bishop.
     Landahl was elected at the synod assembly at the Arthur Andersen
Worldwide Center for Professional Training, St. Charles, Ill.   He will
become bishop Sept. 1.
     He was elected on the third ballot for bishop with 393 votes over
the Rev. Said R. Ailabouni, ELCA Division for Global Mission, Chicago,
who received 103 votes.  Others receiving votes on the third ballot were
with Rev. M. Wyvetta Bullock, executive director, ELCA Division for
Congregational Ministries, Chicago, 61 votes; and the Rev. Mary W.
Anderson, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Evanston, Ill., 35 votes.  There
were 43 names on the nominating ballot.
     The Rev. H. George Anderson, ELCA presiding bishop, will install
Landahl as bishop  Sept. 22 at Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, Ill.
     Landahl, who was born in Chicago, earned a bachelor's degree in
history from Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Ind., and a master of
divinity degree from Concordia Theological Seminary, Springfield, Ill.,
a seminary of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS).  The seminary
is now located in Fort Wayne, Ind.
     Following his ordination in 1965, Landahl was mission developer
and pastor at Hope Lutheran Church, Warren, Mich., an LCMS congregation.
He was pastor at Ascension Lutheran Church, an ELCA congregation in
Riverside, Ill., before he became assistant to the bishop.
     He and his wife Carolyn are parents of three grown children.
     The ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod, with offices in Chicago, has
119,561 members in 231 congregations.
-- -- --
[*Karen Stetins is a program administrator with the ELCA Metropolitan
Chicago Synod.]

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