Peter Rogness re-elected bishop of ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service*

The Rev. Peter Rogness was elected May 30 to a second
six-year term as bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA) Saint Paul Area Synod. Rogness was
re-elected on the first ballot during the synod assembly
May 30-31 in Burnsville, Minn. He received 319 votes, with
304 votes needed for election. There were 10 names on the
nominating ballot.

Rogness, 62, was born in Mason City, Iowa, and graduated
from Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Luther Seminary,
St. Paul, Minn. He holds honorary doctorates from Carthage
College, Kenosha, Wis., and Augustana. Augustana and Carthage
are two of 28 ELCA colleges and universities; Luther is one
of eight ELCA seminaries. Rogness studied also at Union
Theological Seminary, New York. Ordained in 1973, he served
as pastor of Wellington Park Lutheran Church and Hephatha
Lutheran Church, both in Milwaukee. In 1985 the former
American Lutheran Church's Southern Wisconsin District
elected Rogness bishop. When three Lutheran church bodies
merged in 1987 to form the ELCA, the ELCA Greater Milwaukee
Synod elected him bishop. Synod rules made him ineligible
to serve that synod as bishop after 2002. In April 2002
the ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod elected him as bishop.

Rogness and his wife Gerry, a fifth grade teacher in the
Saint Paul Public Schools, live in St. Paul and are
members of Christ Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill, St.
Paul. They are the parents of four adult children. The
ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod consists of approximately
160,000 Lutherans in 114 congregations across seven
counties in the eastern metropolitan Twin Cities area.
The synod office is located in Christ Lutheran Church
on Capitol Hill, St. Paul.

* Beth Helgen, assistant to the bishop for administration,
ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod, provided the information for
this report.