Ansbach, Germany
On August 31 after a long illness Archbishop Emeritus of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Russia and Other States (ELCROS), Dr. Edmund Ratz, passed away.
Edmund Ratz was born in the Bavarian city of Zeitlofs. He studied theology in Germany and the USA; he worked as a pastor in England and then as the secretary for inter-church cooperation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, the director of the Worldwide Lutheran Service, and the German National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation in Stuttgart. Edmund Ratz twice received an honorary doctorate – in Zagreb in 1987 and in the Gurukul Theological Institute in Madras (India) in 1994.
In 1999 Edmund Ratz moved to Odessa, where he became the visitation bishop and then the bishop of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine. He remained in this post until his election as the Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia and Other States (ELCROS) in 2005. From 2005 to 2009 Dr. Ratz served as Archbishop of ELCROS and lived in St. Petersburg; then until June 2010 he served as the Archbishop's assistant. From 2007 to 2011 Edmund Ratz combined this ministry with the ministry of the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in European Russia, having been elected to this post at the ELCER synod assembly in 2007.
The ceremony of burial for Archbishop Emeritus Ratz took place on September 9 in Neuendettelsau (near Ansbach). We express our deep sympathies to his widow, Doris Ratz, and to all his friends and relatives. Archbishop Ratz will remain in our memories as a pastor and theologian, a person with a big heart, attentive to the needs of those around him, willing to help in any way he could.
May the graceful Father take him into his eternal dwellings. “Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” (Heb 13.7)
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