Nikolaus Schneider (born 3 September 1947) was from 9 November 2010 to 10 November 2014 president of the council of the

Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (german: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheranism, Lutheran, Continental Reformed church, Reformed (Calvinism, Calvinist) and united and uniting churches, United ( ...

(EKD).

Life

Born in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...

, Schneider studied in Wuppertal, Göttingen and Münster and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

on 14 November 1976. He was vice-praeses of the synod of the

Evangelical Church in the Rhineland Protestant Church in the Rhineland (german: Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland; EKiR) is a United Protestant church body in parts of the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Hesse (Wetzlar). This is actually th ...

(EKiR) and succeeded in 2003 Manfred Kock as praeses of the EKiR until in 2013 Manfred Rekowski was elected his successor due to Schneider's pensioning. Since

Margot Käßmann Margot Käßmann (; born 3 June 1958) is a Lutheran theologian, who was '' Landesbischöfin'' (bishop) of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover in Germany. On 28 October 2009, she was elected to lead the ''Evangelical Church in Germany'', a ...

's resignation in February 2010, Schneider was acting president of the council of the EKD and was elected president on 9 November 2010. On 30 June 2014 he announced his resignation as president and member of the council due to severe sickness of his wife, taking effect on 10 November 2014.''Evangelische Kirche: EKD-Chef Schneider tritt zurück''.
Spiegel Online, 30 June 2014. (German) Between 1998 and 2003 he served as praeses of the synod of the Evangelical Church of the Union, a position in which he had also succeeded Kock.

References

External links

Website at Evangelical Church in the Rhineland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schneider, Nikolaus 1947 births Living people People from Duisburg University of Münster alumni University of Göttingen alumni Presidents of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany