The Rev. Deborah Hutterer was elected the sixth bishop of the Grand Canyon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at the synod's 31st annual assembly held at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Oro Valley, Ariz.
She will assume the office on September 1 and will be installed on September 8 at 10 a.m. The service will take place at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Phoenix, Ariz.
Bishop-Elect Hutterer, 63, currently is the chief development officer for Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest.
She was ordained as a minister of Word and Sacrament on August 18, 2004, following her graduation with a Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. She graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in communications from Augsburg University in Minneapolis in 1999.
Before being called to service in Arizona, she served as transformational ministry pastor in St. Paul Lutheran Church in Pontiac, Ill., executive director of Faith in the City in Minneapolis, and parish life coordinator in Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Baldwin, Wis.
She is a member of Desert Cross Lutheran Church in Tempe, Ariz.