October 26, 2009

GENEVA – On Monday, 26 October 2009, Chilean pastor Martin Junge was elected as the eighth General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) for a seven-year term. The election took place in closed session.

The Council is holding its 22-27 October meeting at Chavannes-de-Bogis, near Geneva, Switzerland.

With this election, Junge becomes the first representative from the Latin America and Caribbean region to hold the highest position at the LWF Secretariat.

The LWF Council elected the 48 year-old theologian to succeed Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko who, upon election in June 1994, became the first African to hold the chief executive post in the LWF. An ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe, Noko's position was affirmed in 1997, and he was re-elected for a second seven-year term in 2004. He announced at the June 2008 Council meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, that he would be leaving office on 31 October 2010.

The seven-member search committee for a new general secretary was headed by the former president of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, Rev. Iteffa Gobena.

Since September 2000, Junge has been the area secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean at the LWF Department for Mission and Development (DMD). His key achievements as DMD area secretary include the strengthening and refocusing of the LWF's programmatic work in the region, and the implementation and structuring of the advocacy program launched by Latin American LWF member churches to deal with the problem of illegitimate foreign debt in the region.

Since 2008 Junge has been pursuing a diploma in the management of not-for-profit organizations at the "Verbandsmanagement Institut" (VMI) of the University of Freiburg in Switzerland.

From 1996 to 2000, Junge was President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile (Iglesia Evang̩lica Luterana en Chile РIELC). Following his 1989 ordination as an IELC pastor, Junge served in two congregations in Santiago de Chile from 1989 to 2000. He studied Protestant theology between 1980 and 1986 at the Georg August University in G̦ttingen, Germany.

General secretary-elect Junge is married, with two children.

The LWF General Secretary conducts the business of the Federation in collaboration with the Cabinet, which is made up of the directors of departments and units appointed by the Council. The position holder is responsible for the implementation of the Council and Assembly decisions.

More information on the 2009 LWF Council meeting is available on the LWF Web site at: http://www.lutheranworld.org/.

Around 75 representatives from LWF member churches and partner organizations are attending this year's Council meeting at Chavannes de Bogis near Geneva, Switzerland. An additional 90 registered participants include invited guests, stewards, interpreters and translators, media persons and LWF staff.

The 49-member Council is the LWF's governing body, meeting every 12-18 months between Assemblies held every six years. The current Council was appointed at the July 2003 Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada. It comprises the President, Treasurer as well as lay and ordained persons, representing the different LWF regions.

The Council host church, the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein has 6,818 members, and has been an LWF member church since 1979. It is headed by Ms Dagmar Magold.

Lutheran World Information