Title: CHRISTIAN KRAUSE ELECTED LWF PRESIDENT ELCA NEWS SERVICE - NEWSBRIEF July 16, 1997 CHRISTIAN KRAUSE ELECTED LWF PRESIDENT Bishop Christian Krause, 57, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick was elected president of the Lutheran World Federation, July 14, to succeed Gottfied Braakemeier of Brazil. Krause is the third German president of the worldwide Lutheran communion. He was elected on the second ballot by more than 300 delegates to the LWF Assembly. He received 215 votes and the Rev. Dr. Prasanna Kumari of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India received 142 votes. In addition to Krause and Kumari, Bishop Julius Filo, 46, head of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Slovak Republic, and the Rev. Doctor Naohiro Kiyoshige, 58, head of the Lutheran Church in Japan were nominated. Addressing the assembly, Krause thanked the delegates for their confidence and invited those who had not voted for him to cooperate in the future. Krause has been connected with the LWF for 31 years. He stressed the importance of remaining within the Lutheran tradition and at the same time being part of the ecumenical movement. He expressed a wish that there could be a federation of world Lutheran and Reformed churches. The church should be an advocate for those who suffer, he said. Krause has served as general secretary of the German Kirchentag (Church Assembly); worked for the LWF Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service from 1971-1972; and was on the LWF Geneva staff as program secretary in the Department of Studies from 1969-1970. From 1972-1985 he was executive secretary for Mission and Service of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany and of the LWF German national committee. Krause is a graduate of the University of Gottingen in Germany and studied in the United States in 1962 under a Fulbright scholarship. For information contact: Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html