EKD: Annette Kurschus is new Council Chair

At its session in Bremen this morning, the EKD Synod and Church Conference elected Annette Kurschus, Church President of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, as chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) by a majority of 126 out of 140 votes cast. „We are delighted that, with Annette Kurschus, we have elected an excellent theologian who has both experience of leadership and is very approachable,” said EKD Synod president, Anna-Nicole Heinrich, in her words of congratulation. “Together with the members of the Council, Annette Kurschus will, as chair, make the voice of the Protestant church heard in urgent social questions“, Anna-Nicole Heinrich emphasised.

Annette Kurschus was born on 14.2.1963 in Rotenburg an der Fulda and grew up in a parsonage in Obersuhl (Hesse) and Siegen (North Rhine-Westphalia). She studied theology from 1983 in Bonn, Marburg, Münster and Wuppertal. From 1989 she did ministerial training and then served as parish pastor in several congregations in Siegen. In 2005 she became superintendent of the Siegen church district. Since 2012, Präses Annette Kurschus has been church president of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, the fourth largest regional church in Germany. In 2019 the University of Münster awarded her the honorary doctorate of its Faculty of Protestant Theology. Since November 2015 she has been deputy chair of the EKD Council and since 2016 also its special representative for relations with Polish churches.

Bremen, 10 November 2021

EKD Press Office
Carsten Splitt

About the EKD Synod:  The EKD Synod, with the Council and Church Conference, is one of the three governing bodies of the EKD. It is convening from 7 to 10 November in Dresden. In accordance with the EKD’s constitution, the 13th Synod has 120 members. The assignments of Synod include drafting declarations and decisions on contemporary questions and accompanying the work of the EKD Council by issuing guidelines. Synod also discusses and adopts the budget and church laws. Synod is chaired by a body of moderators (presidium), under its president Anna-Nicole Heinrich. She is also a member of the 15-person EKD Council. Chair of the EKD Council is Annette Kurschus. The EKD is a community of 20 Lutheran, Reformed and United regional churches in Germany. 20.2 million Protestants belong to one of the 13,200 congregations.