Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada Elects Susan Johnson National Bishop

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Susan C. Johnson was elected June
22 to a four-year term as national bishop of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC).  Johnson, assistant to the
bishop, ELCIC Eastern Synod, Kitchener, Ontario, received 206
votes on the sixth ballot of the ELCIC's Eleventh Biennial
National Convention, June 21-24, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
     The Rev. Edward Skutshek, Grace Lutheran Church, Kelowna,
British Columbia, received 172 votes on the final ballot for
bishop.  He led on the fifth ballot with 160 votes.  Johnson had
152 votes on the fifth ballot, and the Rev. Cynthia Halmarson,
bishop, ELCIC Saskatchewan Synod, Saskatoon, had 71 votes.  There
were 71 names on the first or nominating ballot.
     Johnson will succeed the Rev. Raymond L. Schultz on Sept. 1.
Schultz was elected national bishop of the ELCIC in 2001 and
2005.  He announced in January that he would retire in the middle
of his second term for personal and health reasons.
     Johnson has been assistant to the bishop of the ELCA Eastern
Synod since 1994.  She served as vice president of the ELCIC from
2001 to 2005.
     Johnson has been an advisor to the council of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) since 1998.  She served as a member of the
LWF North American Regional Committee and of the LWF Leadership
Development Task Force.  In 2003 she was runner-up to the Rev.
Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, in the election for LWF president.
     The ELCIC convention elected Ken Hartviksen, associate
professor of finance, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario,
its treasurer and re-elected Don Storch, Victoria, British
Columbia, its secretary.  Both positions are part of the
executive committee of the ELCIC National Church Council.
Johnson, Hartviksen and Storch will serve with Dr. Roger
Kingsley, ELCIC vice president, Winnipeg, as the church's four
officers.
     In other business, the ELCIC convention defeated a motion to
encourage the church's five synods to develop ways "to best
minister to people who live in committed same-sex relationships,
including the possibility of blessing such unions."  The motion
received 181 votes in favor and 200 votes against by secret
ballot.
     Earlier delegates blocked a motion to raise the number of
ballots required to a two-thirds majority.
     The ELCIC is Canada's largest Lutheran denomination with
174,555 baptized members in 620 congregations.  It is a member of
the LWF, the Canadian Council of Churches and the World Council
of Churches.
-- -- --
     Details about the 2007 convention are at
http://elcic.ca/In-Convention/2007-Winnipeg/ on the ELCIC Web
site.

* Trina Gallop, manager of communications, Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, provided information for
this story.

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