Seven women Lutheran Bishops in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. (News).

Voting members attending synod assemblies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) this spring and summer elected two women and re-elected another to serve as ELCA synod bishops. That brings to seven the number of women who will be serving as bishops of ELCA synods. Lutheran churches in North America have ordained women as clergy since 1970.

Elected this year to six-year terms were the Rev. Marie C. Jerge, ELCA Upstate New York Synod, Syracuse, N.Y., and Rev. Wilma S. Kucharek, ELCA SIoyak Zion Synod. The Rev. April Ulring Larson was re-elected to a second term as bishop of the ELCA La Crosse (Wisconsin) Area Synod. Jerge, 49, has served as an assistant to the bishop of the 84,510-member Upstate New York Synod since 1988. She was elected June 4 and will assume the role of bishop September 1, succeeding Rev. Lee M. Miller, 63. Kucharek, 47, pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Torrington, Connecticut, was elected June 22 succeeding Rev. Juan Cobrda, 71. The Slovak Zion Synod is the ELCA's only non-geographic synod and includes 6,010 Lutherans in 32 congregations scattered across the mid-western and northeastern states. It is also the only ELCA synod organized on an ethnic basis, with historic roots in Slovakia and the surrounding regions.

Larson, 52, has been serving as bishop of the La Crosse Area Synod since 1992. She was the first woman in the ELCA to be elected to the office of bishop. Other women serving as synod bishops include:

Rev. Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, 52, ELCA South Dakota Synod, Sioux Falls (elected in 1995, re-elected in 2001); Rev. Margaret G. Payne, 55, ELCA New England Synod, Worcester, Massachusetts, (2000); Rev. Carol S. Hendrix, 61, ELCA Lower Susquehanna Synod, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (2001); and Rev. Margarita Martinez, 54, ELCA Caribbean Synod, Dorado, Puerto Rico (2001).

The ELCA is organized into 65 synods, each headed by a bishop. It joined the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in 1988, and is the fourth-largest Protestant denomination in the United States, with 5.13 million members.

To date, 22 women-bishops (16) and presidents (6) have been elected to head LWF member churches. North America has eight bishops including Saskatchewan Synods Cynthia G. Halmarson, early July, the first in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Nordic countries have five bishops--Rosemarie Kohn (1993), Norway; Sophie Petersen (1995) and Lise-Lotte Rebel (1996) Denmark; Christine Odenberg (1997) and Caroline Krook (1998), Sweden. Germany has three bishops, Maria Jepsen (1992, re-elected 2002), Margot Kassmann (1999) and Barbel Wartenberg-Potter (2001).

Women presidents include Ilse Labadie (elected 1986, died in 1999), Suriname; Victoria Cortez Rodriguez (1990); Nicaragua; Josephine Tso (1996, re-elected 2002) Hong Kong, China; Gloria Rojas (2000), Chile; Angelene H. Swart (2001) Moravian church, South Africa; and Ilona Fritz (2002), the Netherlands. A recognized congregation, the Peruvian Evangelical Lutheran Church, is headed by President Patricia Cuyatti.

CHICAGO, United States of America/GENEVA, 11 July 2002 (ELCANEWS/LWI)