Lutheran theologian Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the Church of Norway’s ecumenical and international council, has been chosen as the top executive of the World Council of Churches. His election as general secretary took place on August 27 in Geneva during a meeting of the WCC Central Committee.

Tveit, 48, will succeed Samuel Kobia, a Methodist minister from Kenya, who leaves the post at the end of 2009. Kobia said early last year he would not seek a second term, citing “personal reasons.”

Two candidates were proposed by a search committee. The other was Park Seong-won, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church of Korea and a professor of theology at Youngnam Theological University and Seminary in Kyeongsan, South Korea.

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