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Düsseldorf (AP) - The Evangelical Church in the Rhineland is facing a change in leadership.
Next week, the synod of the second largest Protestant regional church will elect a successor to President Manfred Rekowski, who is leaving after one term.
For the first time, a woman could make it to the top of the Rhenish church with around 2.4 million members.
The church parliament with its 193 voting members is meeting digitally for the first time due to the corona pandemic.
At the start of the five-day synod on Monday (January 11th), Rekowski will submit his last report.
The election of the new president is due on Thursday.
Rekowski (62) is retiring after eight years in office.
He recently announced that he had had chronic leukemia for two years, which he had under control thanks to medication.
Three candidates are applying for Rekowski's successor: the theology professor Reiner Knieling, Thorsten Latzel from Darmstadt and Almut van Niekerk from Sankt Augustin.
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Van Niekerk (54) is superintendent of the church district An Sieg und Rhein and chairwoman of the regional diaconal work.
She is the only applicant from the ranks of the Rhenish Church and is considered practice-oriented.
In view of the decline in membership and the Corona crisis, the church must become more visible, understandable and diverse again, she said in an interview.
Latzel (50), who holds a doctorate in theologian and blogger, is director of the Evangelical Academy in Frankfurt and previously headed the “Reform Process Project Office” in the EKD Church Office.
Latzel wants to modernize the church to make it future-proof.
To do this, she must seek more contact with people digitally and analogously.
The 20 to 40 year olds in particular are an important target group, as they are the most likely to leave the church.
Latzel is the brother of the Bremen pastor Olaf Latzel, who was sentenced to a fine for inciting people after making pejorative statements about homosexuality.
The November ruling is not yet final.
President's candidate Thorsten Latzel spoke out clearly against any form of discrimination in a church interview.
For him, homosexuality is "as normal as chewing gum".
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Knieling (58) heads the community college of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany (VELKD) near Erfurt and is professor of theology at the Wuppertal / Bethel University of Applied Sciences.
He promotes good cooperation in the church, which should stand up as a “place of power” for justice.
He also wants to advance digitization.
The new president and other members of the church leadership are elected via a data-protected electronic voting system.
Rekowski, who has been in office since March 2013, had worked internally in the regional church as President, but had remained rather pale in public.
The Wuppertal theologian had to rebuild trust in the regional church after a financial scandal with losses worth millions.
The second largest Protestant church in Germany with 2.45 million members comprises parts of the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Saarland.
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Press release
Introductory interview with Reiner Knieling
Introductory interview with Almut von Niekerk
Introductory interview with Thorsten Latzel