LWF Vice-President Rev. Huberto Kirchheim, during the 1998 LWF Council meeting in Geneva. Photo: LWF/C. Rothenbühler
Brazilian church leader was dedicated to the ecumenical movement
(LWI) – Brazilian church leader Rev. Huberto Kirchheim, former Vice-President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), died on 14 January at the age of 80.
Kirchheim was president of the LWF member church, the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB) from 1995 to 2002. He served on the LWF Council and was vice-president of the Latin America and Caribbean region from 1997 to 2003. He also served as president of the Latin American Church Leadership Conference (Conferencia de Liderazgo-COL).
“The LWF is grateful to God for Rev. Kirchheim’s committed service to the global Lutheran and ecumenical family,” said LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Martin Junge. “We offer our deep condolences to his family, his home church and the Latin American and Caribbean region,” he added.
The LWF is grateful to God for Rev. Kirchheim’s committed service to the global Lutheran and ecumenical family.
As LWF Vice-President, Kirchheim was one of the signatories to the LWF-Roman Catholic agreement, the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ) in October 1999.
Kirchheim’s dedication to the unity of the church and diaconal work continued in his retirement, and he volunteered for activities related to ecumenism and education in his native Taquari Valley.
Born on 11 December 1938, Kirchheim studied theology at the Faculty of Theology in São Leopoldo. He graduated in 1963, and began his pastoral activities in IECLB’s Palmitos parish in Santa Catarina. He went on to work in other parishes until his election as church president. In 1963, he married Marlene Nilsson Kirchheim and they had three children.
