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United Methodists elect Danish pastor as bishop

By United Methodist News Service*
Feb. 23, 2009

 
The Rev. Christian Alsted

 

A pastor from Denmark was consecrated Feb. 22 as the new bishop of the Nordic and Baltic Area of The United Methodist Church.

The Rev. Christian Alsted, 48, was elected two days earlier to succeed Bishop Øystein Ølsen, who is retiring. The new bishop has been pastor of the Jerusalem United Methodist Church in Copenhagen for 20 years. On May 1, he will assume leadership of 25,000 United Methodists in seven northern European and Baltic countries.

The new bishop was one of five candidates for the episcopacy at the meeting in Strandby, Denmark, of the United Methodist Northern Europe Central Conference, which convenes every four years. He received the necessary two-thirds majority vote of the 59 delegates on the 21st ballot.

Clergy and lay-delegate electors came from the seven countries in the Nordic and Baltic Area--Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway and Sweden--and also from the adjoining Eurasia Episcopal Area. That area incorporates conferences in Russia and the Ukraine. The central conference this year voted to change its name to the Northern Europe and Eurasia Central Conference.

Defining the focus

Alsted is a native of Denmark, where he has been a United Methodist pastor since 1984. After serving congregations in Esbjerg and Varde, he was appointed in 1989 to the Jerusalem church in Copenhagen. He received his basic theological education at the United Methodist Theological Seminary in Gothenburg, Sweden, and holds a doctor of ministry degree from Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky.

In a written presentation of himself to the central conference, Alsted stressed his commitment to leadership development and to creating new faith communities and planting new churches. These are current international priorities of The United Methodist Church.

"Our focus," he wrote, "is not the survival or even the growth of United Methodism in Northern Europe; it is to participate in God's mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ by proclaiming the gospel and living out the commandments to love God and neighbor for the transformation of the world."

Pledging broad accountability to United Methodist pastors and members, he added, “I intend to gather our best theological minds and our best ‘readers’ of culture to reflect on what it means to be United Methodist in this time in our context. I intend to listen to people living on the edge of the church in schools, media, technology, NGOs, and science -- to figure out where God is moving, and where we must change to stay relevant.”

A broad resume

Alsted has held a range of leadership positions in The United Methodist Church of Denmark and in the Northern Europe Central Conference. He was a delegate to the United Methodist General Conference, the denomination’s top legislative body, in 1996 and 2000. He has extensive experience in youth ministry and in ecumenical relations.

The new bishop and his wife, the former Elisabeth Flinck, were married in 1984 and have three children: Sara, 23; Mathias, 21; and Caroline, 17.

Archbishop Anders Wejryd of the Church of Sweden (Lutheran) and other ecumenical leaders were expected to take part in Bishop Alsted's consecration, to be held at the United Methodist church in Strandby, a community outside Copenhagen.

*Information for this report was provided by the press office of the Northern Europe and Eurasia Central Conference and by the Rev. Üllas Tankler, a staff member of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Resource

Central Conference 2009

UMC-Northern Europe

Board of Global Ministries

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