- Johann Wilhelm Ernst Sommer
Johann Wilhelm Ernst Sommer (
31 March 1881 –15 October 1952 ) was aBishop of theMethodist Church , elected in 1946 for service inGermany .Birth and Family
Johann was born
31 March 1881 inStuttgart, Germany , of German andYorkshire, England , ancestry. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Johann Jakob Sommer (1850-1925), a Methodist preacher who was arrested and reprimanded for persistent preaching in public places, and Zillah Elizabeth Barratt (1848-1935).He was educated in Germany, at
Kingswood School , Bath, andCaius College , Cambridge, in England and inSwitzerland . From 1906 until 1912 he was a MethodistMissionary inTurkey . He also attended Methodist Conferences inLausanne (1927) and inEdinburgh (1937). He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Free Church Council of Germany. DuringWorld War II , his family lived in the basement of their looted home, and eight times he was called before theGestapo for questioning.Episcopal Ministry
Johann was elected to the
Episcopacy by the Germany Central Conference of the Methodist Church, and consecrated by Bishop R.J. Wade, assisted by Bishops P.N. Garber and Theodor Arvidson. Bishop Sommer was assigned to theFrankfort-on-Main Episcopal Area (which included the Central, Northeast, Northwest, South and Southwest Germany Annual Conferences).Bishop Sommer died
15 October 1952 in Zurich, Switzerland. Bishop Sommer's son, Ernst, was elected to the Episcopacy in 1968.References
* Leete, Frederick DeLand, Methodist Bishops. Nashville, The Parthenon Press, 1948.
*Short, Roy Hunter, Bp., History of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church 1939-1979, Nashville, Abingdon, 1980.External links
* [http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/s/sommer_j_w_e.shtml Bautz Theological and Biographical Dictionary (German)]
ee also
*
List of Bishops of the United Methodist Church
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