03.06.2005
Edmund Ratz Is New Archbishop in Russia and Other States
Despite Decreased Membership, ELCROS Has Promising FutureST 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, Göttingen, 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 Güntsch from Castell, northern Bavaria, Germany, will succeed 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. (443 words)
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