Yesterday we bid farewell in Hannover to Petra Bosse-Huber, Bishop for International Affairs of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), as she retired, and welcomed Frank Kopania as her successor.
Petra Bosse-Huber had been Bishop for International Affairs of the EKD and head of the main department “Ecumenism and Global Ministries“ of the EKD Churchwide Office since 2014.
During these years, I have worked with her repeatedly as ecumenical officer and head of the Ecumenical Centre in Frankfurt. She has shared with us her experiences in various national and international ecumenical bodies such as the Central and Executive Committees of the World Council of Churches and the Religions for Peace. She played a key role in preparing for the WCC’s 2022 Assembly in Karlsruhe.
Amidst all the processes of change in our churches, she saw our Ecumenical Center, as a joint institution of two churches, as a model and invited the Conference of Ecumenical, Mission, and Development Officers of the regional churches to visit us, giving us the opportunity to present the Ecumenical Center.
The EKD’s global ecumenical relations were particularly close to her heart. Last year in May, I was able to join her in a consultation with the United Church of Christ in the USA. The aim was to secure our long-standing partnership as a church communion.
We have appointed Frank Kopania as her successor to the office of Bishop for International Affairs.
He is Reverend of my Church and since 2018 he served as head of the Global Ministries Department in the EKD Churchwide Office. In this capacity he made a lot of ecumenical and international experiences. During his time as Reverend in my church he developed a partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT). In February 2023 we both went together to Seoul to join an international consultation with the National Council of Churches Korea (NCCK) on Peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula. He was the head of the EKD Delegation.
https://www.ekd.de/en/kopania-appointed-bishop-of-the-protestant-church.htm