wfn.org | Zimbabwean Theologian Ishmael Noko Re-elected LWF General Secretary

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank_Imhoff@elca.org>]

Zimbabwean Theologian Ishmael Noko Re-elected LWF General Secretary
Noko to Serve Another Seven-Year Term

LWF-Council Meeting, Geneva 1 * 7 September 2004

PRESS RELEASE NO. 03-2004

GENEVA, 1 September 2004 (LWI) - The Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) today re-elected Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko as LWF General Secretary for another seven-year term. 

The 49-member Council elected the 60-year-old Zimbabwean theologian in a closed session at Chavannes-de-Bogis near Geneva, where the LWF governing body is meeting, September 1-7. 

Noko expressed deep appreciation to the Council on his re-election. With regard to his term, he expressed the hope that he would attend the next LWF Assembly scheduled between 2009 and 2010 as a guest. 

Noko was first appointed as general secretary in June 1994 and assumed office on November 1 the same year, becoming the first African to hold this position in the LWF. Prior to that he served as director of the then Department of Church Cooperation, later named Department for Mission and Development. 

Born on 29 October 1943 in then Rhodesia, Noko received his primary and high school education locally. He pursued his theological studies at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, and at the University of Zululand. He completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971, majoring in systematic theology, church history and biblical studies. 

After his ordination in 1972, he studied for a Master's degree at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, and completed in 1974 with a thesis on "Communion of Saints from the African Perspective."