Armstrong Names Church Successor

Herbert W. Armstrong, 93, the ailing founder and pastor general of the troubled Worldwide Church of God, has named a church administrator to succeed him upon his death, a church attorney said Tuesday.

The man designated to follow Armstrong as head of the wealthy, 80,000-member church based in Pasadena is Joseph K. Tkach, director of church administration for the last six years. Tkach, 59, has been appointed deputy pastor general of the church and its affiliated organizations, according to church attorney Ralph K. Helge.

“I am in a very physically weakened state enduring severe pain and with virtually no strength whatsoever,” Armstrong wrote in a letter announcing his choice to church members.

In recent months attorneys for the church have fought court orders requiring that Armstrong give a deposition in a libel suit brought by a former church member by arguing that the church patriarch was physically unable to comply.

The church is known largely for its television broadcasts, its magazine Plain Truth and its Ambassador College in Pasadena. Its television spokesman for many years was Herbert Armstrong’s son and heir apparent, Garner Ted Armstrong, until the two had a falling out in 1978. Garner Ted Armstrong has conducted an independent ministry since then.