By AP/St. Louis Public Radio
Houston – For the first time in nine years, the nation's second-largest Lutheran denomination has a new president.
Delegates for the suburban St. Louis-based Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod elected the Rev. Matthew Harrison as president during their convention in Houston Tuesday. He defeated the incumbent, Dr. Gerald Kieschnick, by a vote of 54 percent to 43 percent.
Kieschnick was elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2004 and 2007. He drew the ire of some pastors soon after his first election for allowing a pastor to participate in an interfaith service at Yankee Stadium following the terrorist attacks.
Harrison has been director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care.