Dr. Susanne Schenk will succeed Dr. Mario Fischer, who, as of 1 May 2026, will take up his new position as Director and Catholica Officer of the Konfessionskundliches Institut in Bensheim, Germany.

Regarding her new role, Susanne Schenk says:
“I am very pleased about my election as General Secretary and grateful for the trust placed in me by the members of the Council and Presidium. I value CPCE as a communion of churches that lives from the shared experience of reconciliation in Word and Sacrament. From this, it draws both the mandate and the courage to open up perspectives of reconciliation—both in dealing with differences and matters of dissent within the communion and as a contribution to social coexistence in Europe. As General Secretary, together with the team of the Vienna office and alongside the Presidium and Council, I would like to help further develop CPCE as a network of understanding and reconciliation in Europe and to strengthen its visibility among the member churches and congregations.”

Rita Famos, Executive President of CPCE, says about Schenk’s appointment:
“In the past seven years, the role of the General Secretary of CPCE has become more complex due to its full-time character. I am therefore very pleased and grateful that, in Susanne Schenk, we have gained a distinguished church historian and experienced ecumenist who has been connected with CPCE for many years and to whom we confidently entrust this responsibility. We look forward to working together and will support her in her future role to the best of our ability.”

After graduating from the Protestant Seminary in Blaubeuren, Susanne Schenk studied theology in Bethel (Bielefeld), Oxford, Princeton, Heidelberg, and Tübingen. She completed her vicariate and began her ministry as a pastor in the Protestant Church in Württemberg. From 2006 to 2011, she served as a research assistant in Church History at the Augustana Theological University in Neuendettelsau, and from 2011 to 2014 in the same capacity at the University of Tübingen. In 2012, she was awarded a Dr. theol. for her dissertation entitled “Perspectives of Salvation in Anselm’s Correspondence with Women.” She subsequently served in parish ministry and, for three years, held a special pastoral position for the Reformation Anniversary in the Deanery of Ulm. Since 2019, she has been Ecumenical Affairs Officer in the Oberkirchenrat (Church Council) of the Protestant Church in Württemberg, where she is responsible, among other things, for interconfessional dialogues and maintaining European church relations.

She is well acquainted with the content, processes, and many actors of CPCE: Susanne Schenk contributed to the doctrinal dialogue on “Church Communion,” was a member of the South-East Europe regional group, participated in the General Assemblies in Basel in 2018 and in Sibiu in 2024, and since 2024 has also served as a deputy member of the CPCE Council.

Susanne Schenk is married and the mother of two adult children.

[from www.elk-wue.de]