James Gonia elected bishop of ELCA Rocky Mountain Synod

CHICAGO (ELCA) - The Rev. James W. Gonia, West Dundee, Ill., was
elected April 28 to a six-year term as bishop of the Rocky Mountain Synod
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Gonia was elected
on the fifth ballot during the synod assembly April 26-28 in Colorado
Springs, Colo.
Gonia is program director for West Africa, Tanzania and Madagascar,
at ELCA churchwide ministries. He will be installed as bishop Sept. 23 at
Bethany Lutheran Church in Denver.
On the fifth ballot, Gonia received 263 votes and the Rev. Bruce
Kuenzel, Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Los Alamos, N.M., received 175. Of
the 438 votes cast, 220 votes were required for an election.
On the fourth ballot Gonia received 216 votes, Kuenzel received 117,
and the Rev. Steven Loy, pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Las Cruces,
N.M., received 116.
Gonia was associate pastor of Atonement Lutheran Church in Denver
from 1999 to 2009. From 1988 to 1998, he was an ELCA missionary in
Madagascar, a regional evangelism co-director and teacher and director of
Betela Seminary there.
Gonia received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Valparaiso University
in Valparaiso, Ind., in 1982; a Master of Divinity degree from Luther
Northwestern Seminary (now Luther Seminary) in 1988; and a Master of
Theology degree in Islamic studies at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn.,
in 1997. Luther is one of eight ELCA seminaries.
Information about the ELCA Rocky Mountain Synod is available at
http://www.rmsELCA.org.