| Married? Life Partner? She got her honorary degree in Mishawaka, Indiana. No jokes, please. |
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
November 9, 2011
First ELCA member installed as National Council of Churches president
11-134-MRC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Kathryn M. Lohre was installed as president of the National Council of Churches Nov. 9 at a service held at the Lutheran Center here. A member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Lohre is the first Lutheran and ELCA member to serve as president of the council and the youngest woman to serve in that role.
While her presidency marks these two historic firsts, it will also be the first time a woman succeeds a woman as president of the council. [ GJ - Maybe no straight man wanted to helm the S. S. Titanic.]
Lohre said her presidency also provides a unique opportunity for the ELCA. It will "visibly demonstrate (this church's) commitment to the ecumenical vision, as well as its commitment to lifelong ecumenical formation, leadership development and women's leadership," she said. [GJ- WELS has been doing that for decades, working with Babtists, Pantingcostals, Mefodists, New Agers, ELCA, and - big secret - Missouri.]
Lohre joined the ELCA churchwide staff in October as part of the ecumenical and inter-religious relations team under the leadership of the Rev. Donald McCoid, assistant to the presiding bishop, ELCA Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations.
The installation was a service of word and sacrament. McCoid was the presiding minister and ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson preached the sermon.
Reflecting on the Book of Amos, Hanson told the assembly, "God's promise, justice and righteous will flow like refreshing waters of the highest mountain, it will flow abundantly upon you and through you and me, flowing into the life of the world just as the light of Jesus will now flow into your life through bread and wine."
The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary for the National Council of Churches, presided over the installation, which included the installation of other council officers for the organization. Ecumenical guests also participated in the service.
In addition to her positions with the ELCA and the National Council of Churches, Lohre represents the ELCA as a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches.
Before joining the ELCA churchwide staff, Lohre was assistant director of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University, a research project on the changing religious landscape in the United States.
Lohre was a member of the ELCA Bishop's Communal Discernment Task Force and on the Bishop's Global, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relationships Roundtable. She served on the former ELCA Commission for Women Steering Committee and as an assistant to the 2000 ELCA Youth Gathering.
Lohre is a summa cum laude graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and earned a Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School. St. Olaf is one of 26 ELCA colleges and universities.
In May 2011, the Graduate Theological Foundation in Mishawaka, Ind., conferred an honorary Doctor of Divinity to Lohre, "in recognition of her election as president-elect of the National Council of Churches and also in recognition of her contributions to women's interfaith issues and pluralism."
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Kathryn M. Lohre
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Kathryn M. Lohre, assistant director of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University and an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America representative to the World Council of Churches Central Committee, began her term as the President Elect of the National Council of Churches on January 1, 2010.
She was installed in her office on November 12, 2009, in St. Mark's Cathedral in Minneapolis. The Rev. Peg Chemberlin, current NCC President Elect, was installed as NCC President.
Chemberlin and Lohre will serve in their new offices until December 31, 2011. Constitutionally, the NCC President Elect succeeds to the Presidency.
Lohre, 32, will be 34 when it is time to succeed to the National Council of Churches Presidency in 2012. She will be the second youngest president of the Council since the Rev. Dr. M. William Howard, an American Baptist, became president in 1979 at the age of 33.
Kathryn Lohre has been assistant director of the Pluralism Project at Harvard since 2005, serving with project director Dr. Diana Eck, a member of the NCC Governing Board and chair of the NCC's Interfaith Relations Commission. Lohre has been a member of the Pluralism Project's staff since 2000.
As assistant director, Lohre supervises graduate and undergraduate student research on religious pluralism, provides leadership to the women's initiative and multi-religious women's network, convenes and plans events including colloquia, conferences, panels and public conversations, teaches workshops, prepares grant proposals and oversees fundraising.
Lohre is a summa cum laude graduate of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., and earned the Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School.
She is a member of Faith Lutheran Church in Cambridge, Mass., and serves on the Bishop's Communal Discernment Task Force in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She is a member of the World Council of Churches U.S. Conference Board of Directors and has served on the National Council of Churches Ecumenical Young Adult Women’s Working Group.
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GJ
She wants to transform the world too, just like Ski and Glende.
