Dortmund/Zurich. This Sunday, Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider will conduct a divine service in Dortmund, Germany in which he will retire District Apostle Armin Brinkmann, who has served the New Apostolic District Church of North Rhine-Westphalia for many years. His successor as District Apostle and Church president will be Rainer Storck (56). The divine service will be transmitted to many hundreds of congregations via satellite.

In addition to the congregations in its care within Germany, the District Apostle district of North Rhine-Westphalia also encompasses another 20 countries which are served from its head office in Dortmund. Over 400,000 members of the Church are in its administrative and pastoral care. In the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, there are approximately 85,000 members who attend services in 370 congregations.

District Apostle Armin Brinkmann was ordained a District Apostle in June 2005 by the then Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber. He thereby also assumed the official duties of Church president, which were previously in the hands of Chief Apostle Leber. After his ordination as Church leader, the latter appointed Armin Brinkmann as his successor in the region. The divine service in which he was ordained took place in Bonn’s Bundeshaus (we reported).

Rainer Storck to be successor

Apostle Rainer Storck was already appointed as the designated successor to the District Apostle a year ago (we reported). The 56-year-old is originally from Kamp-Lintfort and today lives in Rheinberg with his family. Before entering into the full-time service of the Church in January 2013, Rainer Storck worked as a graduate engineer and ran a family-owned construction business. Since 2009 he has worked as an Apostle in the District Church of North Rhine-Westphalia. In this capacity, Rainer Storck was responsible for some 100 New Apostolic congregations in the western part of the country. Moreover, he served a number of congregations in Russia for over ten years and was also the Apostle responsible for the believers in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. In his pastoral care activity, the future Church president also worked in a multiregional capacity within Germany, committing his efforts to the care of hearing impaired members and giving special attention to “Handicapped Kids”, an initiative that supports disabled children and their families.

Change to take place this Sunday

This Sunday, 23 February 2014, Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider will come to Dortmund and make the change official. The divine service will be transmitted by satellite to many hundreds of congregations both within and outside of Germany. Several District Apostles from around the world are also expected to attend.

We will report further.