Title: RUSCH TAKES NCC POST

        NEW YORK (ELCA) -- The Rev. William G.
Rusch, former director of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America#s Department for Ecumenical Affairs, will
become director of Faith and Order for the General
Secretariat of the National Council of Churches of Christ
in the U.S.A.
        The NCC Executive Board named Rusch during its
Feb. 12-13 meeting at the NCC#s offices in New York.
He is expected to assume his new duties on either March
1 or April 1.
        Rusch held his post with the ELCA from the time the
5.2-million member church was formed in 1987 until the
end of his term on Oct. 31, 1996.  He was director for
ecumenical relations in the former Lutheran Church in
America (LCA), 1979-1987.
        Prior to that he was director of Fortress Press with
the LCA's Board of Publication, associate executive
director of the Division of Theological Studies with the
Lutheran Council in the U.S.A., assistant professor and
chairman of the Department of Classical Languages at
Augsburg College in Minneapolis, and associate pastor at
the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in
New York.
        Rusch has been a member of the governing board
and vice president of the NCC, a member of the Central
Committee of the World Council of Churches and a
member of the WCC#s Faith and Order Commission.

Contact: ELCA News and Information
               8765 W. Higgins Road
               Chicago, IL   60631
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Ann E. Hafften (dir), Frank Imhoff, Lia Christiansen,
Brenda Williams