ELCA NEWS SERVICE

May 10, 2006

Michael Keys Elected Bishop of ELCA Alaska Synod
06-067-JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Michael F. Keys, senior pastor,
Central Lutheran Church, Anchorage, Alaska, was elected May 6 to
a six-year term as bishop of the Alaska Synod of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) at the synod assembly in
Juneau. Keys, who turns 52 this week, will assume the role of
bishop Aug. 1 and will be installed formally as bishop Oct. 1 at
Central Lutheran Church.
     Keys will succeed the Rev. Ronald D. Martinson, 70, who was
elected bishop in 2000 and did not seek re-election.
     Of his election, Keys told the ELCA News Service that "this
is a commitment from the Alaska Synod to do collaborative
ministry and discover new ways of doing ministry on a new
frontier."
     Keys was elected on the fifth ballot for bishop, 57-47, over
the Rev. Larry J. Jorgenson, pastor of Amazing Grace Lutheran
Church, Anchorage. On the fourth ballot for bishop Jorgenson led
with 45 votes; Keys had 36 votes, and the Rev. Martin W. Eldred,
Joy Lutheran Church, Eagle River, Alaska, had 24 votes. Eldred
did not advance to the fifth ballot.
     There were 21 names on the first or nominating ballot.
     Keys was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1976 he
earned a bachelor's degree in history at Gonzaga University,
Spokane, Wash, a master of theology degree in 1984 from Mount
Angel Seminary, a Roman Catholic seminary in Mount Angel, Ore.,
and a master of divinity degree in 1990 from Pacific Lutheran
Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif., one of eight ELCA
seminaries.
     Keys was ordained in 1990 in the ELCA. He was associate
pastor and later senior pastor from 1990 to 2001 at Trinity
Lutheran Church, Gresham, Ore. In 2001 Keys became senior pastor
at Central Lutheran Church.
     Keys and his wife Barbara are parents of four children:
Matthew, Patrick, Rebecca and Katherine. The Keys family resides
in Anchorage.
     The ELCA Alaska Synod has 10,665 baptized members in 31
congregations. The synod office is in Anchorage.
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     Information about the ELCA Alaska Synod is at
http://www.ELCAalaska.org/ on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
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