Wesley Haugen, former bishop of ELCA Eastern North Dakota Synod, dies

​     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Wesley Haugen, former bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Eastern North Dakota Synod, died Sept. 6 in Moorhead, Minn. He was 84.
     Haugen served as bishop of the Eastern North Dakota Synod of the American Lutheran Church from 1984 to 1988. In 1988, when the American Lutheran Church merged with the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the Lutheran Church in America to form the ELCA, Haugen was elected bishop of the ELCA Eastern North Dakota Synod and served until 1992. From 1992 to 1994, Haugen served as pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Hatton, N.D. He retired in 1996.
     “We give thanks and praise for the life and witness of Pastor Wesley Haugen,” said the Rev. Terry A. Brandt, bishop of the ELCA Eastern North Dakota Synod. “Pastor Haugen will be remembered for his strong and courageous, yet gentle and graceful, leadership.”
     Prior to being elected bishop in the American Lutheran Church, Haugen was pastor of Grafton Lutheran Church in Grafton, N.D., from 1974 to 1984 and pastor of First and Trefoldighed-Battle Lake Lutheran in Rindal-Underwood, Minn., from 1966 to 1974. He served
as assistant pastor of Our Saviors Lutheran in Canby, Minn., from 1963 to 1966 and pastor of English and Bethany in Grantsburg, Wis., from 1957 to 1963.
     Haugen earned a Bachelor of Theology degree from Luther Theological Seminary (now Luther Seminary) in St. Paul, Minn., in 1957. Luther is one of eight ELCA seminaries.

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About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with more than 3.8 million members in nearly 10,000 congregations across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer, Martin Luther.

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