So much time has to be. Before he announces the election result, Walter Schnell, Vice President of the Bavarian Evangelical State Synod, reads out a passage from the Bible. His daughter had sent it to him via Whatsapp during the seventh ballot, it says in 1 Corinthians: “I admonish you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak with one voice; and do not refrain from divisions be with you, but hold fast to one another in one mind and one mind.”
In one sense and in one opinion – the 106 members of the evangelical church parliament were not like that in the past few days. At least they did not succeed in electing a new evangelical bishop in six ballots on Monday. But on Thursday, after a total of four days, endless hours of deliberations and finally a night session until just before 1 a.m., the synodal leaders chose Christian Kopp, the 58-year-old regional bishop for the Munich and Upper Bavaria church district, as Heinrich Bedford-Strohm’s successor. After twelve years in office on the day of the Reformation, Kopp will be officially inducted into office in St. Lorenz Church in Nuremberg.
In the seventh ballot, Kopp prevailed with 56 votes against Nina Lubomierski, the 47-year-old dean from Landshut. Lubomierski received 43 votes. A woman has never been at the head of the Evangelical Church in Bavaria. However, Lubomierski and Kopp were almost equally strong: In the fifth ballot on Monday there was a stalemate of 51 to 51, in the sixth ballot Kopp received 52 votes, Lubomierski 50, with four abstentions – not enough for an absolute majority. The other two candidates, Gabriele Hoerschelmann and Klaus Schlicker, had already withdrawn on Monday after the third and fourth ballot respectively.
Kopp was born in Regensburg. After studying theology and being ordained, he was a pastor in Nuremberg and director of studies at the Rummelsberg parish academy, a counseling and advanced training facility of the Evangelical state church. From 2013 to 2019 he was dean in Nuremberg-South. Kopp is married to the pastor Julia Rittner-Kopp, they have a daughter and two grandchildren. Her son died two years ago at the age of 26. As a Munich regional bishop, Kopp is a member of the regional church council, which is why he was considered the preferred candidate for church leadership. As the only candidate, he was not a member of the synod and therefore could not vote.
On Thursday, however, the state synod still showed a sense and an opinion: by disregarding an explicit recommendation of the election preparation committee. After the embarrassing failure of the election on Monday, he saw the danger that the stalemate would not be resolved in the seventh and eighth ballot. A continued failure of the election “would also damage the candidates and would be devastating for the public image of our entire church,” said Oberkirchenrat Hans-Peter Hübner. But the synod voted against it with a majority and decided on another ballot – this time with success. At the end, Synod President Annekathrin Preidel happily exclaimed: “Yes, that’s how the evangelical church works!” Some synod members laughed.
After all, Christian Kopp made no secret of the fact that the past few days had exhausted him quite a bit: “We’ve all had exhausting days together,” he said. On the way forward to receive the certificate and congratulations, he stopped at his opponent Nina Lubomierski and hugged her warmly. “Now it’s about getting back together.”
These are also difficult times for society – and the synod reflected part of them. To look for the common and connecting again, “that’s what I’m up for,” says Kopp, whose Instagram profile is called “let shine”. “For me it is central that we concentrate on what makes us different – and that is pastoral care.” And then he added: “I’m pretty floored and that’s why I’m stopping now.”