wfn.org | Bishop Edmund Ratz Is New Archbishop in Russia and Other

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

Bishop Edmund Ratz Is New Archbishop in Russia and Other States 
Despite Decreased Membership, ELCROS Future Is Promising

ST PETERSBURG, Russia/GENEVA, 3 June 2005 (LWI) * The Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Russia and Other States (ELCROS) has a new leader,
Archbishop Edmund Ratz. 

Ratz, 72, formerly bishop of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Ukraine (DELKU), succeeds Rev. D. Georg Kretschmar (79), who stepped
down for health reasons. The new archbishop was elected during the April
26-29 ELCROS General Synod, meeting under the theme, "Our Church's
Path to the Future." 

Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko, General Secretary of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF), on behalf of the Lutheran communion, congratulated
Ratz on his election. In a letter to the new archbishop, Noko said the
LWF Secretariat would "actively support" him and ELCROS "at all times,"
whenever assistance would be required. 

Upon his election, Ratz said he hoped the General Synod would
constitute "a foundation of trust for the future path of ELCROS." At his
proposal, the Bishops' Council unanimously appointed as his deputy
Bishop Siegfried Springer, who until then had been the Archbishop's
Representative for Internal Church Affairs. Since 1992, Springer has
been head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia. 

Edmund Ratz was born on 4 April 1933 in Zeitlofs, northern Bavaria,
Germany. After completing his studies in law and theology in Erlangen,
Heidelberg, Goettingen, Hamburg and Neuendettelsau (all in Germany) as
well as at Oberlin College (Ohio/USA), he worked as a pastor in Bavaria
(1960-1965) and in Great Britain (1965-1969). From 1969 until 1977, he
was head of the Lutheran Council of Great Britain. From 1977 until 1981,
he was the ecumenical representative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Bavaria, and from 1982 to 1998, served as Executive Director, Board
for Church Cooperation and World Service of the LWF German National
Committee in Stuttgart. 

In 1999, Ratz was named DELKU's Bishop "Visitator," and in September
2000, delegates to DELKU's Seventh Synod elected him as the church's
bishop. 

According to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, the Rev. Georg
Guentsch from Castell, northern Bavaria, Germany, will take over from
Ratz in Ukraine. 

The ELCROS General Synod says the regional body to which Lutheran
congregations of German tradition in Russia and other successor states
of the former Soviet Union belong, has fewer members than previously
assumed. With the emigration of many Russians of German descent, church
membership had declined to just under 16,000. Previously ELCROS had a
membership of approximately 250,000. 

Nevertheless, outgoing ELCROS Archbishop Kretschmar, speaking to German
Protestant press service, Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd) said the
future looked bright. Throughout the former Soviet Union, there were
again vibrant congregations whose membership included young people, he
added. 
(444 words)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 138
member churches in 77 countries all over the world, with a membership of
nearly 66 million Christians. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith
relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights,
communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work.
Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service.
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