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First Latin American to head Lutheran World Federation
Junge, who becomes the first representative from the Latin America and Caribbean region to hold the highest position at the LWF Secretariat, will serve a seven-year term.
He was elected during a closed session at the Oct. 22-27 meeting of the 49-member LWF Council in Chavannes-de-Bogis near Geneva, Switzerland.
Junge will succeed the Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko who, upon his election in June 1994, became the first African to hold the chief executive post in the LWF. An ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe, Noko was re-elected for a second seven-year term in 2004. He announced in 2008 that he would be leaving office on Oct. 31, 2010.
Since September 2000, Junge has been the area secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean at the LWF Department for Mission and Development (DMD). Junge is also pursuing a diploma in the management of not-for-profit organizations at the "Verbandsmanagement Institut" (VMI) of the University of Freiburg in Switzerland.
From 1996 to 2000, he was president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile (Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en Chile - IELC). Following his 1989 ordination as an IELC pastor, Junge served in two congregations in Santiago de Chile from 1989 to 2000. He studied Protestant theology between 1980 and 1986 at the Georg August University in Göttingen, Germany.
The LWF General Secretary conducts federation business in collaboration with the cabinet, which is made up of the directors of departments and units appointed by the council. The position holder is responsible for the implementation of council and LWF Assembly decisions.
The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF now has 140 memberchurches in 79 countries representing over 68.9 million Christians.
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