Bishop Voigt elected Chairman of the International Lutheran Council

Chairman Hans-Jörg Voigt

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario – On September 20, the International Lutheran Council (ILC) elected its officers for the new triennium, with Bishop Hans-Jörg Voigt of the Independent Lutheran Church in Germany elected to serve as Chairman of the ILC.

“It was a very hard decision to stay for this election,” admitted Chairman Voigt, “but I accept the election.” He continued: “I ask our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to support me in this service, and for the welfare of the ILC and this conference.”

Bishop Voigt has served as Interim Chairman of the ILC since 2010, when previous Chairman Gerald Kieschnick was not re-elected as President of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. The ILC’s constitution requires the Chairman to be actively serving as the head of a member church body. As a result, Bishop Voigt, Vice-Chairman of the ILC at the time, was automatically advanced to Interim Chairman.

The assembly of the ILC also elected President Gijsbertus van Hattem of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Belgium to serve as Secretary for the Executive Council.

In addition to the Chairman and Secretary, the Executive Council of the ILC is composed of a Vice-Chairman and five World Area Representatives. According to the ILC constitution, members elect church bodies rather than individuals to fill the world area roles. Elected to represent the Africa world area was the Lutheran Church of Nigeria. The Lutheran Church of the Philippines will represent the Asia world area. The Latin America world area will be represented by the Lutheran Church of Brazil. For the Europe world area, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in England was elected. Finally, Lutheran Church–Canada was elected to represent the North America world area.

The Vice-Chairman of the ILC is elected not by the assembly but by the Executive Council from among its World Area Representatives. The Vice-Chairman will be elected at the first Executive Council meeting, and will come from either the Africa, Asia, Latin America, or North America world area.

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