EKD: Bedford-Strohm re-elected
Term of office until 2021. Heinrich Bedford-Strohm remains chair of EKD Council
This morning, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, received 124 of 125 votes cast by the Synod and Church Conference of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), currently convening in Bremen. Congratulating him on his election, Synod president Irmgard Schwaetzer declared, “We are delighted at this outstanding result.” Together with the members of the Council, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm would guarantee the presence of the church in the societal debates of the present, she added. “There is a growing need for ethical orientation,” she underlined. “And the upcoming Reformation anniversary will also pose high demands on public communication by theologians and church leaders.”
Bedford-Strohm (55), born in 1960 in Memmingen, Bavaria, has been bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria since the end of 2011 and a member of the EKD Council since November 2013. At the end of 2014 he followed Nikolaus Schneider as its chair. Having started out as a pastor in diaconal and congregational ministry, Bedford-Strohm then became professor for Systematic Theology and Contemporary Theological Issues at Bamberg University. Heinrich Bedford-Strohm is married and has three adult children.
Bremen, 11. November 2015
EKD Press Office
Carsten Splitt
About the EKD Synod: The EKD Synod, with the Council and Church Conference, is one of the three governing bodies of the EKD. It is convening from 8 to 11 November in Bremen. In accordance with the EKD’s constitution, the 12th Synod has 120 members. The assignments of Synod include drafting declarations and decisions on contemporary questions and accompanying the work of the EKD Council by issuing guidelines. Synod also discuses and adopts the budget and church laws. Synod is chaired by a body of moderators (presidium), under its president Irmgard Schwaetzer. She is also a member of the 15-person EKD Council to be elected in Bremen. Chair of the EKD Council is the Lutheran Bishop of Bavaria, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm. The EKD is a community of 20 Lutheran, Reformed and United regional churches in Germany. 23 million Protestants belong to one of the 15,000 congregations.