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ST. PAUL (AP) -- The Rev. Peter Rogness was elected bishop of the St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at the annual St. Paul Synod assembly meeting at Concordia University on Sunday.
Rogness, who has been bishop of the Milwaukee Synod of the ELCA since 1988, grew up in St. Paul and is a graduate of Luther Seminary.
He succeeds the Rev. Mark Hanson, who was elected presiding bishop of the church at its national assembly last summer.
The runner-up to Rogness was the Rev. Susan Tjornehoj, assistant to the synod bishop.
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Rogness' term as bishop of Milwaukee was to end this August. Several St. Paul ELCA members asked him to run for election to this synod bishop's seat.
St. Paul "has changed a little in the 29 years since I've been gone," he said at the assembly meeting Sunday, remarking that he felt at home coming into town on Friday. Both he and his wife have relatives in the Twin Cities, he said, and their youngest child is a student at the University of Minnesota.
There are 120 congregations in the St. Paul synod, with a total membership of 164,500. It is the third-largest synod in the ELCA, after Minneapolis and Northeast Pennsylvania.
Rogness will be installed on June 23.
