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Düsseldorf (dpa) - The new President of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, Thorsten Latzel, will be in office today (11 a.m.).
After a service in the Johanneskirche in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU), Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki and the Council Chairman of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, will give greetings.
The 50-year-old theologian Latzel was previously director of the Evangelical Academy in Frankfurt.
In January the regional synod elected him to the head of the second largest Protestant regional church with 2.4 million members.
The previous President Manfred Rekowski is retiring after eight years in office.
The Rhenish Church extends over areas in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and the Saarland.
Latzel had mentioned, among other things, the continued commitment of the church for refugees as an important task.
The church also wants to give people hope in the stressful time of the corona pandemic and continue to strive to maintain contact with its members.
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Latzel, who was born in Biedenkopf in Hessen, studied theology in Marburg and Heidelberg and worked as a pastor in Hessen.
From 2005 to 2012 he headed the “Reform Process Project Office” of the EKD:
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210319-99-893113 / 2