Inken Wöhlbrand to become new director of LWF Center Wittenberg

The presence of the Lutheran World Federation in Wittenberg

(LWI) – The next director of the LWF Center in Wittenberg, Germany, will be Rev. Inken Wöhlbrand. The German National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation (GNC/LWF) has appointed the 54-year-old to this post, which she will take up on 1 October 2018. She follows Rev. Hans W. Kasch, who is retiring.

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is present through the center in Wittenberg. One of its main tasks is running seminars on Lutheran theology for participants from all over the world, along with accompanying conferences and international visitor groups in Wittenberg.

“With Inken Wöhlbrand we have gained a pastor for the LWF Center who has a worldwide approach and has excellent ecumenist credentials,” comments Bishop Gerhard Ulrich, chair of the GNC/LWF. “From the very start of her working life, she has gathered experience with the church and its mission worldwide. She is familiar with the Lutheran World Federation, its churches and programs. With all her experience, her broad horizon and her winning manner, she is an excellent choice for the post,” he underlines.

Keeping up traditions and developing new ideas

The future director is looking forward to her new responsibilities: “I am delighted to be going to Wittenberg and will take curiosity and openness along with me. After the Reformation year in 2017 we now have to keep up good traditions, and also develop new ideas.” The LWF’s mission goes on – worldwide and in Wittenberg, Wöhlbrand says. “I would like to contribute my part to that.” Regarding the international seminars, she adds: “Learning from, and with, one another is always at the heart of the LWF Center’s activity. Our theological seminars bring people together from all over the world. They do not just impart theological knowledge but always make the communion of the Lutheran World Federation very tangible. And they show how we are connected worldwide and how this connection enriches us.”

Learning from, and with, one another is always at the heart of the LWF Center’s activity.

Inken Wöhlbrand is a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany. She studied theology in Bethel, Bern and Hamburg. After graduating she spent time in South Korea and did her preparatory pastoral training in Eutin. Wöhlbrand was ordained in Lübeck in May 1992. She worked for the Hamburg-based Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany (EMW), as a pastor in Glasgow (Scotland) and in Heikendorf (Germany), as well as with the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany (VELKD) and the GNC/LWF in Hannover. Since 2014 she has been student chaplain at the West Coast University of Applied Sciences in Heide and also pastor to the Meldorf congregation in the Dithmarschen church district. She was also the Dithmarschen coordinator for the Reformation anniversary.

The LWF Center is an institution reporting to the GNC/LWF. It works on behalf of, and in consultation with the LWF. Besides the director, the staff consists of a tutor of studies and a project assistant. Wöhlbrand is, after Hans W. Kasch, the second director.

LWF Center Wittenberg