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

Interim Leader for German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine
Synod Bids Farewell to Bishop Edmund Ratz 

ODESSA, Ukraine/GENEVA, 3 November 2005 (LWI) * Dean Georg Guentsch was
installed as interim leader of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Ukraine (DELKU) October 5, initially for a one-year period. He succeeds
Bishop Dr Edmund Ratz, who this year was elected archbishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia and Other States (ELCROS). 

Guentsch, 64, recently retired as head of the Castell deanery,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. The DELKU synod will decide on
election of Guentsch as bishop in the second half of next year.

ELCROS Archbishop Ratz, assisted by Bavarian Bishop Dr Johannes
Friedrich, presided over the installation ceremony in Odessa's church
house, where the synod also bid farewell to Ratz, who served for five
years. 

An October 4 ceremony during the synod meeting marked the start to
restoration of St Paul's Church in Odessa, which was destroyed by fire
in 1976. Oberkirchenrat Dr Claus-Juergen Roepke, president of the Martin
Luther Federation, and representatives of major denominations in Odessa
participated, as well as political and civic dignitaries.

The church, in ruin next to the church house, will be completely rebuilt
during the next three years. The reconstruction is being financed by the
Bavarian church, the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of
Germany. The main nave will be reconstructed. In place of the destroyed
chancel, an extension will be built to accommodate some of the agencies
that have operated in Odessa for years, such as the Bavarian House, or
the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) office, with the aim to
constitute a "German Center." Income from rent would cover the running
costs of St Paul's Church and the extension. Since 2004, the church
house has covered its operating costs by renting out guest rooms.

St Paul's Church is one of the four largest ELCROS church buildings in
Russia. Others include St Peter's Church in St Petersburg; the Church of
St Peter and St Paul in Moscow; and the Church of the Holy Trinity in
Marx on the Volga. An 1818 decree of the Russian Czar Alexander I made
Odessa one of the first two consistorial districts of the Lutheran
church in the Russian Empire, along with Satarow on the Volga. The first
St Paul's Church, a neo-classical building, was consecrated as early as
1827. The present neo-Romanesque church was consecrated in 1897. Then
the tallest building in the city, its tower was a landmark that guided
ships to port. After the first almost complete reconstruction, its use
as a sports' facility, then a concert hall, the building burned down in
May 1976, allegedly due to arson. 

With 40 congregations, DELKU is one of ELCROS' regional member churches.
It has nearly 3,000 members, mostly of German origin. (465 words)

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