WCC congratulates new EKD Council chairperson

The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has congratulated Bishop Dr Margot Kässmann on her election as chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany. In a 28 October letter to Kässmann, Kobia highlighted her "exceptional participation" and "many years of commitment […] to ecumenism and to the WCC", and expressed the conviction that under her leadership the EKD will "continue to flourish and be a significant actor in German society in the years to come".

Kässmann, who has been bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover since 1999, was elected chairperson of the EKD Council by the church's highest governing body, its synod. At 51, she is the youngest person and the first woman ever chosen for that position in which she is succeeding Bishop Wolfgang Huber, who is retiring. Kässmann was a member of the WCC Central and Executive Committees for many years, until her resignation in 2002.

Full text of the congratulatory letter

More on Kässmann's election as EKD Council chairperson

More information on the Evangelical Church in Germany

WCC books by Margot Kässmann:

• With hearts, hands and voices: Spirituality for Everyday Life
• Overcoming violence: challenge to the churches