Dr. Richard J. Jungkuntz is losing his job as executive secretary of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations. Jungkuntz’s dismissal, to be effective January 31, came in a 14–7 vote of the twenty-three-member commission during a reorganization meeting following appointment of five new members after the church’s 1969 convention.
Reasons for the dismissal were not immediately made public. Jungkuntz has held the appointment since 1965, when he was named to a four-year term. The period has been one of ferment for the Missouri Synod, climaxed by the convention this past summer in which a more conservative president was elected. Selection of a successor to Jungkuntz has been delayed.
