CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Gary M. Wollersheim was re-elected June 18 to a third six-year term as bishop of the Northern Illinois Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) at the synod assembly June 18-19 at Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill. Augustana is one of 27 ELCA colleges and universities.
Wollersheim, 59, was re-elected on the first ballot for bishop with 331 of 433 votes. He was first elected bishop in 1998 and re-elected to a second term in 2004.
Born in Chicago, Wollersheim earned a bachelor of arts in secondary education in 1973 from Augsburg College, Minneapolis. In 1977 he earned a master of divinity from Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary (now Luther Seminary), St. Paul, Minn. In 1995 he earned a doctor of divinity from Luther Seminary. Augsburg College is an ELCA college; Luther is one of eight ELCA seminaries.
Following his ordination in 1977, Wollersheim served as pastor of Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Cicero, Ill., and as pastor-developer and pastor at Hosanna! Lutheran Church, St. Charles, Ill. From 1990 to 1998, he was assistant to the bishop, ELCA Northern Illinois Synod, and was a mission director and stewardship specialist.
During his first term as bishop of the synod, Wollersheim served in numerous denominational capacities, including chair of the ELCA Evangelism Task Force. That effort resulted in the adoption of an evangelism strategy for the ELCA at the 2003 Churchwide Assembly in Milwaukee.
Wollersheim and his wife Polly are parents of three grown children. The ELCA Northern Illinois Synod has more than 100,000 baptized members in 160 congregations. The synod office is in Rockford.
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GJ - All the sects love their little popes, and the little popes love their power. Pope Gary the Unready spent an inordinate amount of time trying to split Faith Lutheran Church in Moline while the parish was taking the legal steps required to leave the Lavender Mafia.
All the little popes behave the same way. When faced with blatant apostasy, they reply meekly, "But I have no power to deal with that." When they find someone daring to question their leadership in the slightest way, they will move heaven and earth to get even, not seven times, but seventy times seven. They meddle with the congregation, denigrate the pastor behind his back, and pull all kinds of illegal and dishonest stunts.
No wonder people are clamoring to join the mainline denominations! The bad news is - the Syn Conference is mainline, Methodist in doctrine, unionistic in practice.
promoting Martin Luther College as a citadel of sodomy.
