New staff member at the Council on International Relations

Thorsten Roerbaek set to strengthen the theological profile.

The Council on International Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark has appointed 33-year-old Thorsten Roerbaek to its staff. He is a former board member of World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) and is currently on the board of the Ecumenical Centre in Aarhus. In September Thorsten is defending his Ph.D. in systematic theology at Aarhus University on “Healing accounts in Vita Antonii and Vita Hilarionis. The former translates as the Life of Anthony, written by Athanasius around 360 CE, the latter as the Life of Hilarion written by Jerome around 390 CE. Following his defence , Thorsten will join the council full-time.

 

Thorsten Roerbaek will be responsible for cooperation with the Lutheran World Federation and for coordinating theological reflections and responses of the council. ”With the appointment of Thorsten Roerbaek we strengthen both our theological profile in the council and our cooperation with other Lutheran churches in the world. Thorsten’s ecumenical commitment and professional base are assets that we look forward very much to benefiting from,” says Secretary General, Joergen Skov Soerensen. 

 

Thorsten already has relatively wide international experience both from his work on with the WSCF which has taken him to a number of countries and from his 3-month stay in Bloomington, Indiana while studying for his Ph.D. He says of his new post: “I’m keen to pursue the ecumenical dialogue with other churches on the basis of a firm foundation in the Lutheran church and a deep respect for other viewpoints. We need to understand other contexts than our own and to acknowledge and accept our differences – as is the case with the Porvoo Declaration. I see this as an open invitation to dialogue.”

 

Born in Vejle Thorsten graduated from high school in Toerring before studying Theology at Aarhus University. He and his wife Marie are in the process of settling in Copenhagen with their 10-month-old son, Elias.

 

Photo: Thorsten Roerbaek /AAU

 

By: Edward Broadbridge

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