Delaware-Maryland Synod Bishop and Staff
Bishop of the Delaware-Maryland Synod ELCA: The Rev. H. Gerard Knoche
E-Mail: hgknoche@demdsynod.org
Baltimore native Henry Gerard "Jerry" Knoche has come full circle. After a number of years of education and employment outside the state, he is back home as the bishop of the Delaware-Maryland Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
After graduating first in his class at Baltimore's Milford Mill High School, he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Harvard College in 1964. Three years later, he earned the Bachelor of Divinity degree, cum laude, from Yale Divinity School, having spent time doing Clinical Pastoral Education at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. He received the Master of Sacred Theology degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1973.
Following his ordination on June 9, 1967, by the Maryland Synod, Lutheran Church in America, Knoche began his career as assistant pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Westminster, Md., a "town and country" parish of 1,700 members. In 1969, he took a new position, as assistant chaplain at Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pa., where he was promoted to associate chaplain in 1971. He continued his work on college campuses when he moved to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, when he became campus pastor with Lutheran Campus Ministry in 1974. In 1984, he was promoted to director of that program. During that time, he received both the award for Outstanding Campus Pastor in the United States and the Joseph Sittler Communication Award.
Knoche came home to Maryland in 1991, accepting a call to be pastor of New Hope Lutheran Church, a floundering young congregation in Columbia, Md. When Knoche arrived, the congregation of 250 people was worshiping at a local elementary school cafeteria. During his nine-year tenure, he brought the congregation through two building programs and has seen the membership grow to almost 1,100. The congregation was about to undertake a major capital fund drive when he was elected bishop of the Delaware-Maryland Synod on June 17, 2000, at the annual Synod Assembly in Westminster, Md.
Throughout his career, Knoche has been active in various church and community activities. Presently, he serves on the Committee for Horizon Internships for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and on the Board of Directors of the Mar-Lu-Ridge Conference and Educational Center, Jefferson, Md. For the past 20 years, he has served on the Harvard Schools Committee for the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Maryland, assisting in interviewing potential students. Previously, he served on the Delaware-Maryland Synod Candidacy Committee, which oversees candidates for rostered church positions, and on the Directing Committee for Lutheran Campus Ministry, University of Maryland, College Park. At the churchwide level, he has served on the Advisory Committee to The Lutheran magazine. Within the Howard County community, he served on the Board of Directors of Grassroots Shelter and, for many years, on the Board of Directors of Christmas in April and. He is a graduate of the 1999 class of Leadership Howard County.
The bishop is the author of two books. Concordia published The Creative Task: Writing the Sermon, in 1977. The Gift of the Gospel, Augsburg Fortress, 1984, summarized the Christian faith for adults.
Knoche was one of 52 accomplished statewide leaders selected for the Leadership Maryland Class of 2002, an eight-month program designed to inform top-level executives from the public and private sectors about the critical issues, challenges and opportunities facing the state of Maryland and its regions.
As bishop of the Delaware-Maryland Synod, Knoche oversees a professional staff of 11 full-time and part-time people. He works closely with the Synod Council, an elected group that directs the synod's ministry between annual meetings of the Synod Assembly. The synod is one of 65 geographic subdivisions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the fourth largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Headquartered in The Lutheran Center in Baltimore's Inner Harbor area, the synod serves some 96,000 Lutherans in 188 congregations across the two-state area.