Synod elects General Church Board

Hobart barrister Kim Baumeler has been elected to serve on the LCANZ’s General Church Board (GCB) by the LCANZ’s General Synod.

Joining Ms Baumeler as fellow lay members on GCB are Paul Argyle, Charmaine Harch, Tim Wiebusch, Mel Zerner and Peter Zweck, who were re-elected at the 20th Convention of General Synod’s online sessions on 2 October.

Rev Dr Tim Stringer, who joined GCB part-way through the last term after the death of NSW and ACT Bishop James Haak, was re-elected by Synod as GCB pastor member.

The other two members of the GCB by virtue of their positions are LCANZ Bishop John Henderson and new Assistant Bishop Pastor Neville Otto. Bishop-elect Pastor Paul Smith will replace retiring Bishop Henderson on GCB in 2022.

Ms Baumeler was chair of the LCANZ’s three-member Ecclesiastical Discipline Review team, which, based on a General Synod 2018 resolution, reviewed and made recommendations into the way the LCA deals with matters of church discipline. Chair of St Peter’s Hobart congregation, she was also part of a working group for LCANZ’s constitution review and is deputy chair of the board of Eastside Lutheran College in Hobart.

Former GCB members Faye Schmidt, who was first elected to General Church Council as it was then called in 2015, and Assistant Bishop Pastor Andrew Pfeiffer who also served from 2015, did not nominate for re-election and were thanked for their service by Bishop Henderson.