Title: ELCA Council Elects Schwich Director for Synodical Relations
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 31, 2000

ELCA COUNCIL ELECTS SCHWICH DIRECTOR FOR SYNODICAL RELATIONS
00-183-FI

     MUNDELEIN, Ill. (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) elected the Rev. Kathie Bender Schwich
to a four-year term as director of the ELCA Department for Synodical
Relations.  In that position she will be an executive assistant to the
presiding bishop.  She has served the ELCA Division for Outreach as
executive for leadership since 1997.
     The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as
the legislative authority of the church between its churchwide
assemblies.  Assemblies are held every other year; the next is in August
2001 in Indianapolis.
     The council met July 28-30 at the Center for Development in
Ministry, University of St. Mary on the Lake.  It elected Schwich after
a brief executive session July 30.
     The 10,862 congregations of the ELCA are organized into 65 synods,
each headed by a bishop.  The nomination of the director of the
Department for Synodical Relations was ratified by ELCA Conference of
Bishops -- the synod bishops, as well as the presiding bishop and
secretary of the church.
     Schwich will succeed the Rev. Michael Cooper-White on Sept. 1.
Cooper-White will be inaugurated Oct. 25 as president of the Lutheran
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa.
     Born in Saginaw, Mich., Schwich, 46, is a graduate of the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Saginaw Valley State University,
University Center, Mich.; and Luther-Northwestern (now Luther) Seminary,
St. Paul, Minn.
     Ordained in 1986, Schwich served as pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran
Church, Traverse City, Mich., 1986-1988, and St. Luke's Lutheran Church,
Park Ridge, Ill., 1995-1997.  She was director of church relations for
Stephen Ministries, St. Louis, 1988-1991, and bishop's associate for
developing a healthy ministerium, ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod, 1992-1995.
     Schwich and her husband, Dan, are parents of three sons.  The Rev.
Daniel J. Schwick is director of government relations, Lutheran Social
Services of Illinois, Des Plaines.

EDITORS: "Schwich" and "Schwick" are both spelled correctly.


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