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The Lutheran World Federation
Lutheran World Information |
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| 16.09.2002 |
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| Council Press Release No. 14 - Three New LWF Council Members and Vice-President |
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LWF Council Meeting, Wittenberg, Germany, 10-17 September 2002
U. S. Bishop Mark Hanson Represents North American Region
WITTENBERG, Germany/GENEVA, 16 September 2002 (LWI) – There are three new church representatives on the Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). At its September 10-17 meeting, the Council elected Rev. Mark S. Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) as one of its members. Hanson was also elected as the LWF vice-president for North America. Also joining the 49-member LWF annual governing body is Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) National Bishop, Raymond L. Schultz and Alfonso Corzo Garcia, a youth member from Colombia.
In both positions Hanson succeeds former ELCA presiding bishop, Rev. H. George Anderson, who retired as head of his church end October 2001, subsequently giving up his function on the LWF Council, where he served on the Program Committee for Theology and Studies. Prior to his July 2001 election as ELCA presiding bishop, Hanson, 55, was bishop of the St. Paul Area Synod. He pursued theological training in Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Union Theological Seminary, New York, Luther Seminary, St. Paul and Harvard Divinity School. Ordained in 1974, Hanson was a pastor in the University Lutheran Church of Hope and Prince of Glory Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, as well as in the Edina Community Lutheran Church in Edina, Minnesota.
The ELCA has around 5.1 million members in 10,851 congregations represented in 65 synods. Three North American Lutheran church bodies - the American Lutheran Church, Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and Lutheran Church in America – merged in 1988 to form the ELCA. It joined the LWF the same year.
On the LWF Council, ELCIC’s Bishop Schultz, 60, succeeds Bishop Telmor Sartison on the Program Committee for Communication Services. Telmor retired September 2001 as national bishop of the Canadian church. Schultz studied at Camrose Lutheran College, the University of Saskatchewan, Lutheran Theological Seminary and Vancouver School of Theology. He was ordained in 1966 and worked as a pastor in different congregations in Edmonton, and as a student chaplain in the University of British Columbia. From 1991 to 1998, he served as pastor of the Redeemer Congregation, Vancouver and was elected bishop of the British Columbia Synod in 1998. He assumed the position of ELCIC national bishop in October 2001.
With 188,654 members, the ELCIC is Canada’s largest Lutheran church. It joined the LWF in 1986, the same year that it was formed through the merger of two predecessor bodies.
Alfonso Corzo Gracia, 22, from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia, succeeds Zulma Ineyda Ojeda on the Program Committee for Communication Services. He is studying industrial engineering at El Bosque University in Colombia. The 3,000-member Colombian church joined the LWF in 1966.
The LWF President is Bishop emeritus Dr. Christian Krause, from Germany, elected at the Federation’s Ninth Assembly in Hong Kong, China in 1997. The five LWF vice-presidents, also elected at the last Assembly include Ms. Parmata Abasu Ishaya, (Nigeria), Africa region; Rev. Huberto Kirchheim (Brazil), Latin America and Caribbean; Rev. Dr. Prasanna Kumari (India), Asia and Bishop Dr. Juliús Filo (Slovak Republic) for Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Bishop Hanson for North America.
Participants in this year’s Council meeting include 103 representatives from LWF member churches, and an additional 140, among them staff, interpreters, stewards, press and invited guests. The Council, comprising the President, Treasurer and 47 other church representatives is the Federation’s annual governing body elected by the Assembly. The Assembly, the highest-decision making body, made up of delegates from all member churches, meets every six years. The Tenth Assembly will take place 21-31 July 2003 in Winnipeg, Canada, hosted by the ELCIC. The LWF currently has 133 member churches in 73 countries worldwide, representing 61.7 million out of the 65.4 million Lutherans worldwide.
Staff of the LWF Office for Communication Services at the Council meeting can be contacted at German mobile telephone No., +49-(0) 170-8345 177.
*News from the LWF Council is available on-line at www.lutheranworld.org
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