Elmārs Ernsts Rozītis

Elmārs Ernsts Rozītis (born March 30, 1948 in Esslingen am Neckar ) is a German Lutheran clergyman and emeritus Archbishop of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church abroad .

Rozītis, a son of a pastor who emigrated from Latvia to Germany, graduated from the Georgii-Gymnasium Esslingen in 1967 and then studied Protestant theology at the universities of Tübingen , Hamburg and Vienna . In 1973 he passed the faculty examination in Tübingen. Ordained , he was in the same year in the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in exile , as it was then called, and supervised from then on their communities in southwestern Germany, before his Second Theological Examination, which he in 1975 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Württemberg took off . From 1982 he headed the German branch of his church as provost, based in Esslingen. After the death of Kārlis Gailitis he ran in 1993 for his office as Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia , but was defeated by his opponent Jānis Vanags . His support for the ordination of women and his liberal stance, which is shaped by Western theology, are said to have played an important role.

Rozītis, who had been one of the vice-presidents of the Church Abroad since 1990, was elected Archbishop of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad after the death of Arnolds Lūsis and was appointed to his office on May 1, 1994 by the Swedish Bishop Henrik Svenungsson in Toronto . He moved the seat of the church back to his place of residence in Esslingen, where he had been until 1962. In 2001 and 2008 he was re-elected to serve as Church Spiritual Leader. When he reached the age limit, he retired in 2015; his successor was Lauma Zušēvica .

Rozītis has been married to Latvian Vera Volgemute, the former head of the Christian school in Riga, since 2000. They were married by Archbishop Vanags in Riga Cathedral .

Publications (selection)

• History and structure of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia in exile. In: Kirche im Osten 21/22, 1978, pp. 65–77.
• The contribution of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church abroad to European integration in cooperation with the Latvian home church and local churches of the host countries. In: Contributions to East German Church History 8 (2007), pp. 209–214.

Web links

• Short biography (German)
• Short biography (Latvian)
• Short biography (Latvian)
• Interview with Rozītis (German)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Latviešu luteriskās baznīcas - joprojām divas on the la.lv website , March 28, 2012, accessed on September 4, 2018.
2. ↑ Interview with Rozītis .