LEADING LUTHERAN BISHOP TO VISIT IRELAND

The Chairman of the Council of the {Lutheran) Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Bishop Dr Wolfgang Huber will be visiting Ireland between 17th and 19th May 2008 at the invitation of the Lutheran Church in Ireland. Bishop Huber is, as Chairman of the Council of the EKD, the leading Protestant Bishop in Germany and the head of a United Federation of German Protestant Churches comprising over 25 million members. He is also Bishop of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg and Silesian Oberlausitz.

On his visit to Ireland Bishop Huber will be accompanied by Council members Dr. Beate Scheffler, Inspector in the Department of Education of the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen and Marlehn Thieme, Senior Manager with Deutsche Bank AG.

During their visit to Ireland, the delegation will meet with the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr John Neill, the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Alan Harper and His Eminence, Cardinal Seán Brady. The delegation will be hosted by the Irish Council of Churches and the Irish Interchurch Meeting in Belfast.

Bishop Huber will also deliver two public lectures while in Ireland. The first, entitled “Remembering the Past in Reconciliation – Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Europe” will take place on Saturday, 17th May at 5 pm at Litton Hall in the Methodist Centenary Church, Leeson Park, Dublin. The second entitled "Theological Reasons for Human Rights and their Consequences for the Ecumenical Process” will take place on Monday, 19th May at 10 am in the Walton Theatre (Room 2039) Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin.

Bishop Huber will also preach in St. Finian’s Lutheran Church in Adelaide Road on 18th May at 11am and he will meet the congregation over a cup of coffee following the service.

- ENDS –