With 121 votes out of 135 the Synod of the German Evangelic Church (EKD) recently elected a new president of their ruling Council. He is Wolfgang Huber, bishop of the Evangelic Church of Berlin-Brandeburg, who takes over from the outgoing president, Manfred Kock. The president of the German Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann has expressed his warm personal congratulations on Huber’s election, recalling the “many positive experiences” he had shared with the new president. He emphasized Huber’s “solid theology”, his “sensitivity to social and political issues” and his “courageous commitment to justice and human rights, that springs from the evangelic spirit”. “I am certain”, he continued, “that we will continue to work well together and to walk with constancy along the ecumenical path that was prepared by our predecessors and that we helped to build”. Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, called Huber’s election “fortunate for the WCC” and referred to his commitment to ecumenism. In a letter of congratulations, Hans Joachim Meyer, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics( ZdK), recalled “with profound gratitude” Huber’s “fundamental contribution to the success of the ecumenical Day of the Churches of Berlin”.
