Christian Krause Elected LWF President

CHRISTIAN KRAUSE ELECTED LWF PRESIDENT

Bishop Christian Krause, 57, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick was elected
president of the Lutheran World Federation, July 14, to succeed Gottfied Braakemeier of
Brazil.  Krause is the third German president of the worldwide Lutheran communion.  He
was elected on the second ballot by more than 300 delegates to the LWF Assembly.  He
received 215 votes and the Rev. Dr. Prasanna Kumari of the United Evangelical Lutheran
Church in India received 142 votes.  In addition to Krause and Kumari, Bishop Julius Filo,
46, head of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic,
and the Rev. Doctor Naohiro Kiyoshige, 58, head of the Lutheran Church in Japan were
nominated.  Addressing the assembly, Krause thanked the delegates for their confidence
and invited those who had not voted for him to cooperate in the future.  Krause has been
connected with the LWF for 31 years.  He stressed the importance of remaining within the
Lutheran tradition and at the same time being part of the ecumenical movement.  He
expressed a wish that there could be a federation of world Lutheran and Reformed
churches.  The church should be an advocate for those who suffer, he said.  Krause has
served as general secretary of the German Kirchentag (Church Assembly);  worked for the
LWF Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service from 1971-1972; and was on the LWF
Geneva staff as program secretary in the Department of Studies from 1969-1970.  From
1972-1985 he was executive secretary for Mission and Service of the United Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Germany and of the LWF German national committee.  Krause is a
graduate of the University of Gottingen in Germany and studied in the United States in
1962 under a Fulbright scholarship.

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Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
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