Friday, August 16, 2013

ELCA Assembly Elects First Female Leader of Denomination


Voters at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's 2013 Churchwide Assembly in Pittsburgh have elected the first female leader of the mainline Protestant denomination.

The Reverend Elizabeth Eaton, bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod, was elected ELCA Presiding Bishop with 600 votes, beating out incumbent Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, who got 287.

"We are a church that is overwhelmingly European in a culture that is increasingly pluralistic," said Eaton in remarks delivered Wednesday following the election. "We need to welcome the gifts of those who come from different places, that is a conversation we need to have as a church." Read more

See also
ELCA Holding Its Biennial Churchwide Assembly in Pittsburgh
Has the ELCA elected its own Katherine Jefferts Schori to head the denomination? The next 6 years will reveal how really "moderate" the new ELCA Presiding Bishop is.  In the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church liberals claim the label of "moderates."

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