Elizabeth Amy Eaton (born April 2, 1955) is the fourth Presiding Bishop, and the first female Presiding Bishop, of the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approxim ...

(ELCA). She was first elected to this post in 2013 and was re-elected for a second term in 2019. Prior to becoming presiding bishop, she served as bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod.

Early life and education

Eaton was raised in West Park, in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. She attended the

College of Wooster The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian Church as the University of Wooster, it has been officially non-sectarian since 1969 when ownership ties with the Presbyterian Church ...

where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in music education in 1977. Drawn to the ministry, she attended

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

where she earned a

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and divi ...

degree in 1980.

Ministry

Eaton was ordained in 1981, and served as the associate pastor at All Saints Lutheran Church in

Worthington, Ohio Worthington is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States, and is a northern suburb of Columbus. The population in the 2020 Census was 14,786. The city was founded in 1803 by the Scioto Company led by James Kilbourne, who was later elected to ...

, from 1981 to 1990. In 1984, she served as a delegate to the Lutheran World Federation assembly in Budapest, Hungary. In 1990, Eaton was appointed to a one-year term as interim pastor at Good Hope Lutheran Church in

Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County, Ohio, Mahoning County. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of ...

. She then moved to

Ashtabula, Ohio Ashtabula ( ) is a city in Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States, and the center of the Ashtabula micropolitan area. It is located at the mouth of the Ashtabula River on Lake Erie, northeast of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, the city ha ...

in 1991, where she became the pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church. She served there for fifteen years. Eaton was elected to the national ELCA Church Council in 2005, and in 2006, she was elected bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod. Eaton became the first woman to serve as bishop in the synod when she was installed on February 7, 2007, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County, Ohio, Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 C ...

. She succeeded Marcus J. Miller, who resigned in 2006 to become the president of the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in South Carolina.

Election as Presiding Bishop

Eaton was elected Presiding Bishop of the ELCA on Wednesday, August 14, 2013, on the fifth ballot. She received 600 votes by the Churchwide Assembly, and the incumbent Presiding Bishop

Mark Hanson Mark S. Hanson (born December 2, 1946) is an American bishop who served as the third Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Before being elected presiding bishop, he served as bishop of the Saint Paul Area Synod as wel ...

received 287 votes. She was installed as presiding bishop of the ELCA on October 5, 2013, at

Rockefeller Chapel Rockefeller Chapel is a Gothic Revival chapel on the campus of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. A monumental example of Collegiate Gothic architecture, it was meant by patron John D. Rockefeller to be the "central and dominant fea ...

Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...

(

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

). Chicago is also the location of the ELCA headquarters. Her first six-year term as presiding bishop of the ELCA began November 1, 2013. In 2019, she was reelected to a second term as Presiding Bishop at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly. In 2016, Eaton was awarded an honorary

Doctor of Humane Letters The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (; DHumLitt; DHL; or LHD) is an honorary degree awarded to those who have distinguished themselves through humanitarian and philanthropic contributions to society. The criteria for awarding the degree differ ...

degree by Luther College.

Personal life

Eaton is married to T. Conrad Selnick, a priest of the Episcopal Church, who is vice president of the Bexley Seabury Seminary Federation in Chicago, and together they have two adult daughters, Rebeckah and Susannah.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaton, Elizabeth Presiding Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 20th-century American Lutheran clergy Place of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century Lutheran bishops College of Wooster alumni Harvard Divinity School alumni Women Lutheran bishops 1955 births 21st-century American Lutheran clergy

Early life and education

Ministry

Election as Presiding Bishop

Personal life

See also

References