Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Austria gets the first bishop-diepresse.com
With Cornelia Richter, a woman at the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Austria is for the first time. She was chosen at the synod.
The management of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Austria is female for the first time. Cornelia Richter was elected to the first bishop at the Synod in Vienna-Donaustadt, followed by Michael Chalupka at the end of the year, who retires for reasons of age. The 54-year-old theology professor, who comes from Bad Goisern and currently teaching at the University in Bonn, was the only candidate.
Richter had been nominated by all seven superintendial meetings in which the delegates of the individual parishes come together in the respective diocese. She received the necessary two-thirds majority in the first ballot, 64 out of 68 votes cast, the candidate, who immediately accepted the election. It was elected for the usual term of twelve years. Taking office is January 1, 2026, when Chalupka, who has been a bishop since 2019 and will soon be 65 years old, has retired.
Good Friday « has to come back »
Like her predecessor Chalupka, judges also want to work for the reintroduction of the Good Friday as a holiday, as she emphasized before the delegates before her election: « I would do everything for it. He has to come back, it is no different at all. » She found noteworthy that the application at that time came from the ÖVP and FPÖ – « two parties that constantly see the fall of the West, mainly because of another religion. And then they take off the holiday that defines Christianity like no other, » said Richter.
Before her election, Richter also announced that he would give up her professorship in Bonn for the Bishop’s Office. « As a bishop, it would be my first task to drive across the communities across Austria, » she also announced. It is about listening. Church is not primarily an institution, but rather community it also emphasized in front of the delegates. In addition, she emphasized that she is committed to the interreligious dialogue. « You have to know who you are, who you want to be, but then definitely go into the peaceful conversation. »
Growing up in Upper Austria
Richter (54) grew up in Bad Goisern, her father was a pastor, her mother organist. She completed her theology studies in Vienna and Munich. They led them to Hermannsburg, Zurich and Gießen. At the University of Bonn, judge was a professor of systematic theology with a focus on teaching training from 2012 to 2020, and since 2020 she has held the Bonn professorship for dogmatics and religious philosophy.
Richter has also been the co-director of the Bonn Institute for Hermeneutics since 2012. She has also been teaching at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland since 2024. From 2020 to 2024 she was the first dean to head the Protestant-theological faculty and since 2024 she is the first woman to be chair of the Senate of the University of Bonn. During her teaching in Germany, Richter was also a pastor in her Upper Austrian homeland.
237,000 members in Austria
The Evangelical Church (Augsburg’s Confession) in Austria has just over 237,000 members. There is only one Evangelical Lutheran bishop or a bishop. (APA)
