The majority of the Evangelical-Lutheran state synod in Munich on Monday could not agree on one of the four candidates.
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa)
The bishop election in the Bavarian Evangelical Church was canceled on Monday without a result: Even in the sixth and according to the bishop election law, the last possible ballot, neither the Munich regional bishop Christian Kopp (58) nor the Landshut dean Nina Lubomierski (47) got the necessary absolute majority of 55 votes of all 108 synodal voters. Such a situation has never existed in the history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (ELKB).
Lubomierski received 50 votes in the sixth ballot, Kopp 52 votes. Because there were four abstentions, there was no absolute majority. The election preparation committee of the church parliament must now create a new election proposal. In all likelihood, this is no longer to be expected on Monday. It is unclear whether the bishop election will take place at all during the spring conference. The term of office of State Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm ends on October 31 of this year.