Tomorrow, 19 June, the Council elections of the Lutheran World Federation will take place, in which a new LWF General Secretary will be elected. Two candidates, from Estonia and Zimbabwe, are vying for this office:
Pastor Anne Burghardt and Pastor Dr. Kenneth Mtata.
The elected candidate will be able to take up the office of LWF General Secretary after 1 November 2021, when the current General Secretary, Pastor Dr. Martin Junge, steps down. Junge announced his departure in May 2020. Junge was elected in November 2010 for a seven-year term and was later re-elected for a second term. Before that, Junge served as the presiding pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile.
The General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation implements the decisions of the LWF Assembly and Council. He or she is the chief officer of the LWF for ecumenical relations. The Council elects the General Secretary for a seven-year term.
The LWF is a global communion uniting 148 churches in the Lutheran tradition and representing more than 75 million Christians in 99 countries.
If the Estonian pastor Anne Burghardt is elected to the office of LWF General Secretary, she will become the first woman to hold the office of General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation.
The Latvian Association of Lutheran Women Theologians wishes our sister Anne Burghardt from Estonia every success.
Source: Lutheran World Federation news