Augsburg/Zurich. Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber will go into retirement during this Sunday’s Pentecost service. Forty-four years of ministry in the New Apostolic Church will thereby come to an end. He conducted his last divine service before the change in leadership last Sunday in Augsburg. Everyone present was overcome with great joy.

All were delighted with the Chief Apostle’s visit and their experience of the divine service, but many in attendance were also a little wistful. The Chief Apostle based his sermon on a Bible passage from Ephesians 4: 15: “But, speaking the truth in love, [let us] grow in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.” Love and truth—these were the basic themes that defined the sermon—and also distinguished the eight-year term of office of Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber. Thus his appeal to the congregations almost sounds like a caption over his time in ministry: “Let us treat one another with love!”

District Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider was also present. He will succeed the Chief Apostle on Sunday and be ordained Chief Apostle of the New Apostolic Church. 

2005 in Fellbach

It was exactly eight years ago this very day that the then District Apostle Wilhelm Leber from Hamburg assumed the highest spiritual ministry of the New Apostolic Church. That was also on Pentecost Sunday, namely on 15 May 2005. A video of this event is available on this website. Approximately 1.5 million Church members in over 8,000 congregations around the world watched the international satellite transmission at the time.

We wish the Chief Apostle a blessed retirement filled with divine peace!