wfn.org | Degroot-Nesdahl Elected Vice Chair, ELCA Conference of Bishops

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 9, 2001

DEGROOT-NESDAHL ELECTED VICE CHAIR, ELCA CONFERENCE OF BISHOPS
01-248-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, bishop of the
South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA),
was elected vice chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops on Oct. 5.
     The Conference of Bishops, an advisory body of the ELCA's 65 synod
bishops, the presiding bishop and secretary, is meeting here Oct. 4-9.
     DeGroot-Nesdahl, Sioux Falls, succeeds the Rev. Mark S. Hanson,
who was elected presiding bishop of the ELCA by the 2001 ELCA Churchwide
Assembly in Indianapolis, Aug. 8-14.  The Conference of Bishops attended
Hanson's installation Oct. 6 at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on the
campus of the University of Chicago.
     Elected on the fifth ballot, DeGroot-Nesdahl received 32 votes.
The Rev. E. Roy Riley, bishop of the ELCA New Jersey Synod, Trenton,
received 31 votes.  DeGroot-Nesdahl led on the second, third and fourth
ballots.  The Rev. Steven L. Ullestad, bishop of the ELCA Northeastern
Iowa Synod, Waverly, Iowa, and DeGroot-Nesdahl received eight votes each
on the first ballot.
     The Rev. Donald J. McCoid, bishop of the ELCA Southwestern
Pennsylvania Synod, Pittsburgh, is chair of the Conference of Bishops.
     DeGroot-Nesdahl was a nominee for ELCA presiding bishop at the
2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.  She was one of seven candidates on the
third ballot.
     On May 31, DeGroot-Nesdahl was re-elected to serve a six-year term
as synod bishop at the South Dakota Synod Assembly.  On June 6, 1995,
she was the second woman in North America and the sixth in the world to
be elected a bishop in the Lutheran Church.

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