New head of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine elected
On October 9, a meeting of the 5th convocation of the Synod of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine took place in Odesa during which representatives of most of the communities expressed distrust and terminated the authority of Bishop Sergey Mashevsky, and elected for a year the Episcopal Visitor in accordance with the Statute of the GELCU.
The 36-year-old pastor of the German Evangelical Lutheran community of the Holy Ascension of Kharkiv, Pavlo Schwartz was elected as the new leader, the official GELCU website reports.
Biography: Pavlo Schwartz was born on July 25, 1982 in Lutsk, Volyn region.
In 2004, he graduated from Lutsk Biotechnical Institute, (Bachelor - Computer Science).
In 2005, he graduated from the Biblical School in Dzingel (Poland), where later he served as a volunteer for a year (2005-2006) at the Center for Mission and Evangelization (Evangelical-Augsburg (Lutheran) Church in Poland).
In 2011, he graduated from the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw with a Master's degree in theology and began postgraduate studies.
In 2012, he completed a course of Pastoral Care and Pastoral Psychology of the SIPCC - Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counseling.
In 2011-2012, he was practicing at the Evangelical-Augsburg (Lutheran) Church in Poland
From 2012, he worked as a Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Communities of Kharkiv and Kremenchuk. In 2013-2015, he was elected a bishop of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine.
From 2004 to 2014, he was a co-organizer of the Gloria international Christian camps.
Since 2013, he was a member of the international ecumenical group Reconciliation which includes representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and the Lutheran Churches from four countries - Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.
From 2017, he was founder and director of the Charitable Fund Diaconia-Ukraine and Chairman of the Council of the Missionary Union of Evangelical Communities of Ukraine.
The new GELCU leader is married, with two daughters.
