SIOUX FALLS - Voting members of the South Dakota Synod of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elected the Rev. David B.
Zellmer to serve a six-year term as bishop.
He's currently the senior pastor at Lutheran Memorial Church
in Pierre and Grace Lutheran Church in Hayes, which is west of
Pierre.
Delegates to the ELCA's 20th annual assembly chose Zellmer
Friday evening. He will be formally installed September 15 in a
service at the Augustana College Elmen Center in Sioux Falls.
Zellmer succeeds the Rev. Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, who served
the maximum of two six-year terms as bishop and was the first
female head of the synod.
The four other finalists were: the Rev. Olaf Roynesdal of
Sioux Falls, the Rev. Jeff Sorenson of Garretson, the Rev. Paul
Stjernholm of Sioux Falls and the Rev. Lawrence Wohlrabe of
Moorhead, Minn.
Zellmer defeated Sorenson and Wohlrabe on the second ballot
with 444 votes, well over the 370 needed to be elected, according
to a news release.
"What were you thinking?" he asked the assembly after the
results were announced.
The ELCA, the largest Protestant denomination in South Dakota,
has nearly 123,000 members in 253 congregations statewide and more
than 4.8 million members nationwide.
Nationally, ELCA membership has been dwindling, but South
Dakota congregations have been growing. Maintaining that growth
likely will be a priority for the new bishop, DeGroot-Nesdahl
said.
