THE REV. RICHARD H. GRAHAM, BISHOP

The Rev. Richard H. Graham was elected to a six-year term as bishop of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod of the ELCA on June 8, 2007, by the 2007 Synod Assembly. He took office on September 1, 2007, and was installed on October 14, 2007.

Graham most recently served as pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in College Park, Maryland. Additionally, he has been Assistant Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Hagerstown, Maryland; and Associate Pastor of St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, Annapolis, Maryland.

Graham received a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1977 and a Master of Arts degree in Church History from the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. in 1989.

Prior local leadership included as synod secretary, member of the synod’s Candidacy Committee and member of the Board of Trustees of the National Lutheran Home for the Aged, Rockville, Maryland.

Graham succeeded the Rev. Theodore F. Schneider who retired from the position after serving two terms following his election in 1995.

Graham is married to Nancy Ann Graham and has two adult daughters.

THE REV. AMY THOMPSON SEVIMLI, ASSISTANT TO THE BISHOP

The Rev. Amy Thompson Sevimli took office as assistant to the bishop of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod of the ELCA on January 1, 2008.

Sevimli came to the position from serving as Associate Pastor at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Arlington, Virginia. Among the synod activities in which Sevimli has participated are the Singles and Young Adults Team of the Division for Congregational Life, Church Vocations Committee of the Division for Ministry, Reference and Council Committee and Lutheran-Episcopal Coordinating Committee. She has participated in Lutheran-Jewish Dialogue and continues to serve as a Discernment Advocate with Project Connect, an initiative of the Eastern Cluster of Seminaries.

She received her Master of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, in 2003. Included in her studies were a year at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (LTSG) and a year at the University of Bonn (Germany). She did her undergraduate work at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, an ELCA institution of higher education. After graduating, Sevimli was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and taught in Germany. In 2008, Sevimli completed a Master of Sacred Theology (STM) in New Testament at LTSG.