05/10/2018

Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld elected bishop of South-Central Synod of Wisconsin

The Rev. Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld, Beloit, Wis., was elected May 6 to serve a six-year term as bishop of the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Thomas-Breitfeld is the second African American woman to be a bishop in the ELCA.

The election was held during the Synod Assembly May 5-6 at the Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in Wisconsin Dells, Wis.

Thomas-Breitfeld was elected on the fifth ballot with 224 votes to 150 votes for the Rev. Steven Kottke, assistant to the bishop of the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin.

The bishop-elect currently serves as interim pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church is Beloit. She served as pastor of Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Brookfield, Wis., from 2010 to 2013.

Thomas-Breitfeld earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1974 and she received her Master of Divinity from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago in 1979.

The Rev. Mary Stumme Froiland, current bishop of the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin, has served as bishop since 2013 and will retire June 30.

Thomas-Breitfeld will be installed on August 18 at First Lutheran Church in Janesville, Wis.

Please join Bishop Dillahunt and the synod staff as we pray for and celebrate with the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin as they transition leadership and continue God's work in their region.