The management of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Austria is female for the first time. Cornelia Richter was chosen for the first bishop at the Synod in Vienna-Donaustadt, followed by Michael Chalupka at the end of the year, who retires age reasons. The 54-year-old theology professor, who comes from Bad Goisern and currently teaches at the University in Bonn, was the only candidate.
Richter was nominated by all seven superintendial meetings in which the representatives of the individual parishes come together in the respective diocese. She received the necessary two -thirds majority in the first vote, 64 of the 68 votes cast, the candidate, who immediately accepted the elections. It was chosen for the usual period of twelve years. Call action is January 1, 2026, when Chalupka, who has been Bishop since 2019 and will soon be 65 years old, has retired.
Good Friday “Must come back”
Just like her predecessor Chalupka, judges also want to work for the reintroduction of the Good Friday as a vacation, as she emphasized for the delegates before her election: “I would do everything for it. He has to come back, it’s no different at all.” It was remarkable that the application came at that time of the ÖVP and FPö – “two parties that constantly see the fall of the West, mainly because of another religion. And then they leave the holiday that defines Christianity like no other,” Richter said.
Before her election, Richter also announced that he would give up her professorship in Bonn for the office of the bishop. “As a Bishop, it would be my first task to ride over the communities in Austria,” she also announced. It’s about listening. The church is not in the first place an institution, but rather the community also emphasizes it for the delegates. Moreover, she emphasized that she is committed to the inter -religious dialogue. “You need 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 Professor of Systematic Theology was a focus on teaching training from 2012 to 2020, and since 2020 she has held Bonnel teacher for dogmatics and religious philosophy.
Richter has also been co-director of the Bonn Institute for Hermeneutics since 2012. She also teaches at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland since 2024. From 2020 to 2024 she was the first dean to lead the Protestant-theological faculty and since 2024 she has been the chairman of the Senate of the University of Bonn. During her teachings in Germany, Richter was also a pastor in her higher Austrian home country.
237,000 members in Austria
The Evangelical Church (the confession of Augsburg) in Austria has just over 237,000 members. There is only one evangelical Lutheran Bishop or a bishop.
Source: Krone
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