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.
Related Articles
United Methodists elect bishop for Sierra Leone
German United Methodists re-elect Bishop Wenner
Hans Vaxby elected United Methodist bishop for Eurasia
Resource
Central Conference 2009
UMC-Northern Europe
Board of Global Ministries |