wfn.org | Werger Named Interim Bishop of ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

September 27, 2001

WERGER NAMED INTERIM BISHOP OF ELCA SAINT PAUL AREA SYNOD
01-240-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- On Sept. 19 the council of the Saint Paul Area
Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) named the
Rev. Paul M. Werger to serve as the synod's interim bishop.  The synod's
current bishop, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, was elected in August to become
ELCA presiding bishop on Nov. 1.
     Werger begins his responsibilities as interim bishop Oct. 1 with
meetings in Chicago.  He will attend Hanson's installation as presiding
bishop Oct. 6 at Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago.
     The ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod will elect a new bishop at its
assembly April 19-21, 2002, at Concordia University, St. Paul, Minn.
Werger, 70, will serve as interim bishop through June 1, 2002.
     Born in Greenville, Pa., Werger is a graduate of Thiel College, an
ELCA college in Greenville.  He earned his master of divinity degree in
1957 from Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary, Minneapolis (now
Luther Seminary, St. Paul).
     Werger served as pastor of Lutheran Church of the Apostles,
Shoreview, Minn., and St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Bloomington, Minn.  In
1978 the Iowa Synod of the former Lutheran Church in America elected him
president.
     The ELCA was formed in 1988, and Werger served as the first bishop
of the ELCA Southeastern Iowa Synod until his retirement in 1996.  Since
then he has served as interim pastor at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer
in the Old City of Jerusalem (Israel) and at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church,
Iowa City, Iowa.
     Werger is married to Dianne Ellisen Werger, and they currently
reside in Iowa City.  They are the parents of four adult children and
grandparents to seven.
     The Saint Paul Area Synod is one of 65 synods in the ELCA and
includes 120 congregations with some 165,000 baptized members in
Minnesota's Anoka, Chisago, Dakota, Isanti, Ramsey, Scott and Washington
counties.

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