Lutheran Church - Canada

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Logo of Lutheran Church - Canada

The Lutheran Church – Canada (LCC) was founded in 1988 when most of the Canadian congregations of St. Louis-based Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) formed an autonomous Canadian church body (fifteen LCMS congregations remain in Canada - one in Montreal, the rest in Ontario). The Synodical office is located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is a member of the International Lutheran Council together with the LCMS and several others. Like the LCMS, the Lutheran Church - Canada is a conservative, confessional, Lutheran Christian denomination.

Following its founding in 1988, LCC created three districts. The Alberta-British Columbia District offices are in Edmonton, Alberta; the Central District in Regina, Saskatchewan; and the East District in Kitchener, Ontario. The denomination retains close ties with the LCMS and other Lutheran church bodies around the world which follow the Biblically-based Lutheran Confessions. The church professes the Lutheran confessions as contained in the Book of Concord. Although LCC practices closed communion it will allow members of the LCMS and other Lutheran churches which it has full altar pulpit fellowship with to share the sacrament of Holy Communion. Many LCC congregations use Lutheran Worship as their hymnal. At its 2005 synodical convention LCC commended the new Lutheran Service Book, scheduled for publication in 2006 by LCMS, to its congregations for use. The current president of LCC is Rev. Dr. Ralph Mayan.

The church body owns and operates Concordia University College of Alberta in Edmonton, and two seminaries, Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario and Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Lutheran church is a direct result of the Protestant Reformation begun in 1517 by Martin Luther in Wittenberg, Germany.