Lutheranism by region

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Lutheranism is present throughout various regions of the world.

1 Australia
2 Europe
3 North America
4 See also

[edit] Australia

At present (2005) under 9% of the Australian population call themselves Lutherans. Most Lutherans in Australia are members of congregations that form the synod Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA). At present the Lutheran Church of Australia has elected only to be an associate member of the two large world wide Lutheran fellowships, LWF and ILC.

More conservative groups of Australian Lutherans exist as the Evangelical Lutheran Congregations of the Reformation (ELCR) and the Australian Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Most Lutherans in Australia live in rural areas, although this is changing. The very earliest Lutherans came to Australia under August Kavel in 1839, to escape religious persecution in Prussia under King Frederick William III, as a result of the Prussian Union. Later immigrants show much more diversity, which resulted in many splits and the formation of many small Lutheran synods throughout Australia. Lutherans are most prominent in South Australia, Queensland and Victoria. After many years of discussion in 1966 the two main synods and therefore most Lutheran congregations joined together to form the Lutheran Church of Australia.

At the end of World War I, the Lutheran Church in Toowoomba, Queensland was burnt down in an illegal protest against the German people.

[edit] Europe

Evangelical Lutheranism is the established church in most of the Nordic countries: Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. In these countries, where most people are Lutheran, the churches are supported by taxes, either directly in the form of a church tax, or indirectly through the general income tax paid by most citizens. The church tax, an income tax of about 1–2%, is collected only from the members of the church, but the church also gets its share from other taxes such as the municipal corporation tax. Priests are educated at the Faculties of Theology of the state universities. With the extension of the European Union, the status of state churches is largely revised; they remain a State Church but win greater autonomy. In Sweden, Lutheranism was the state religion up until 2000. The church is no longer supported by taxes, but the fees are collected along with taxes.

In the midst of the Church of Sweden's Constitution of 2000, different traditional and biblical movements continued dissension from the political bondage to the State. Notable personalities in the conflict include the first bishop of the Missions province, the Right Reverend Arne Olsson; and the Bishop of the Evangelical Church of Kenya, the Right Reverend Walter Obare.

Lutheranism is also prominent in Estonia and Latvia.

Members of the predominant churches in Germany, whether Lutheran and Reformed (EKD), or Catholic are also required by the state to pay a church tax in addition to their normal income tax. Certain parts of Germany are traditionally Lutheran (generally towards the north and east) while others are historically Catholic (especially Bavaria and areas along the Rhine). Modern mobility and a decrease in religiosity have, however, been instrumental in shifting the demographic situation, as did the movements of German refugees from areas lost to Poland and Russia as a result of World War II. In Germany (EKD), in the Netherlands and in Sweden the Lutheran churches permit gay priests in the ministry and their partners and allowed blessings for gay couples in their churches. In Germany there also exists the Independent Evangelical-Lutheran Church. This Church and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod are in full fellowship. The Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church does not ordain women as priests and they forbid blessings for gay couples. This Church is separate from the state affliated Lutheran churches. They have only minimal contacts.

There are smaller notable confessionally Lutheran denominations in Europe that are neither state religions nor supported by fees associated with taxes. They are supported by parishioners' tithings though the practice has been mostly lost in recent European generations. Examples include the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England (ELCE) and the Église Évangélique Luthérienne Synode de France et de Belgique (ELC-SFB), both of which are International Lutheran Council (ILC) members.

Notably, the larger, state-affiliated European churches have relatively low attending memberships at the offices; due to the history of those European churches, most parts of them knew persecution during the 17th and 18th centuries. The church attendance on Sunday is not decisive and house offices are still perennial, particularly in southern Europe. Most people feel it is more important to attend to the lot of conference and training and Biblical studies. So, in northern Europe many attend religious services only for baptisms, confirmations, weddings, funerals, and possibly at Christmas and Easter. Confirmation is treated seriously and is usually delayed until the end of the high school courses. The Lutheran confirmation training usually constitutes the largest exposure of Northern Europeans to Christian doctrines.

In 1993, the Lutheran Churches of the Nordic and Baltic states entered into a full communion agreement (the Porvoo Common Statement) with the Anglican Churches of Europe and the British Isles, to form the Porvoo Communion. The North American Lutheran and Anglican churches in full communion with each other are also in full communion with the Porvoo Communion. As Anglicans are in full communion with the Old-Catholic Churches of the Utrecht Union, that Union began negotiations in 2005 with the Church of Sweden on entering into a full communion agreement with the Lutherans.

In other European areas such as Spain, the presence of Lutherans was extinguished during the 16th century Inquisition. In Spain, new Lutheran missions activities started as recently as 2000 by missionaries from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina (IELA).

Recently, the Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands merged with two Reformed churches (the Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk and the Gereformeerde Kerken), creating the 2,000,000 strong Protestant Church of the Netherlands. The 'PKN' claims to be both Reformed and Lutheran and is a member of both the WARC and the Lutheran World Federation. The Lutheran congregations in the Netherlands have remained largely autonomous.

Except in Northern Europe (see above), very few seminaries are state-supported. Due to large agreements like the Concorde de Leuenberg (1962), involving many churches raising from the Reformation the training for students in theology embraces a wide range of theologies including modern and contemporary movements in biblical criticism and theology.

Many major seaports contain the outposts of the respective Nordic Lutheran churches (e.g. Norwegian and Finnish) to provide aid, social opportunities, and pastoral care for visiting seamen — in their own language.

[edit] North America

In the U.S., congregations are grouped into over 20 different denominations.

By far the largest Lutheran denomination is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Compared with other American Lutheran churches, the ELCA is considered to be most similar to Scandinavian Lutheran churches. The ELCA is one of the few American Lutheran churches that allows women to become clergy. It is also the only American Lutheran denomination in full communion with the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the latter, non-Lutheran denomination being a member of the much larger Anglican Communion. This communion was established in 1999 and 2000 when a document titled Called to Common Mission was passed by both the ELCA and Episcopal Church. The agreement was amended to allow Lutheran pastors to function in Episcopal churches and to admit Lutheran clergy according to the Episcopal Church's constitution. Remaining as two distinct denominations, the agreement enables both ELCA and Episcopalian churches to share clergy and fully recognize each other's members, ministries, and sacraments.

The next largest American synod is the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS), generally considered among Lutherans as a conservative denomination. Even more conservative than the LCMS are two synods that are in communion with each other: the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS). These national "church bodies" serve their united local congregations and entities with colleges and seminaries for their professional church workers and missionaries, resources for starting new missions, ecclesiastical supervision, and Sunday School and liturgical materials through "official" publishing companies, e.g. Augsburg-Fortress Press, Concordia Publishing House, and Northwestern Publishing House.

Although many in the LCMS, the WELS, and the ELS consider the ELCA to be liberal, many in the ELCA see the ELCA as moderate with demoninations they consider fundamentalist on the "right" and more liberal denominations on the "left" of the ecclesiastical-political spectrum.

In Canada, the two largest Lutheran denominations are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) and the Lutheran Church - Canada (LCC). The ELCIC was formed in 1986 when the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada (former congregations of the American Lutheran Church) absorbed the Canada Section of the Lutheran Church in America. The ELCIC is in full communion with the Anglican Church of Canada. The LCC was formed in 1988 when Canadian congregations of the LCMS formed their own denomination.

Many smaller Lutheran groups exist in North America. Some, such as the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC) are confessional, while others such as Church of the Lutheran Brethren, American Association of Lutheran Churches, Apostolic Lutheran Church of America, the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, Augsburg Lutheran Churches and Laestadian Lutheran Church are Piestic and Protestant-oriented. By far the most Roman Catholic in orientation of the smaller Lutheran Churches is the Evangelical Community Church - Lutheran (ECCL), which is a member of the Augustana Evangelical Catholic Communion (AECC).

These largest Lutheran denominations in the United States and Canada are members of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), a worldwide Communion of historic Lutheran churches. The LCMS and the LCC are affiliated with the International Lutheran Council (ILC). The WELS and ELS are affiliated with the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference(CELC).

[edit] Denominational organization

The ELCA is divided into convocations of a bishop, the bishop's presbyterium, and the laity, consisting of 64 geographical synods and one non-geographical synod (the Slovak Zion Synod). The ELCA has established relationships of full communion with The Episcopal Church, and the Moravian Church, as well as with the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Reformed Church in America and an interim agreement with the United Methodist Church. The ELCA ordains both men and women to the pastoral office. It does not ordain clergy in active same-sex relationships nor bless same-sex marriages, but such persons resigned to celibacy can be ordained; however, these rules are currently under study, and in some areas are not actively enforced.

The LCMS is divided into 35 districts, including 2 non-geographical districts. It permits only qualified men to serve as pastors. It encourages women to be active in the church and has affirmed women's suffrage within congregations since 1969. In 2004, resolution 3-08A of its synodical convention permitted women to "serve in humanly established offices" such as congregation president, elder, reader, or usher. The LCMS does not permit active homosexuals to serve in the ministry, and it has affirmed an exclusively heterosexual definition of marriage. Officially, the LCMS only communes members of its own Synodical congregations or those who are in full "Pulpit and Altar Fellowship" with the LCMS. Despite the official stance, Open communion and other practices contrary to its public doctrine have become widespread throughout the LCMS. ^[1]

The WELS is a Lutheran church of predominantly German ethnic origins and is also divided into districts. As with the LCMS, it permits only qualified men to serve as pastors and adopts similar positions on homosexuality and marriage. WELS does not permit women's suffrage in the church. WELS teaches the "Unit Concept" of fellowship. Strict adherence to this requires members to refrain from all worship, including prayer, with those not in fellowship with WELS. The synod also practices the concept of "closed communion" in which members may only receive holy communion in their own congregations, since only their own pastors know whether or not they are worthy recipients of this sacrament, and non-members are not allowed to participate until going through instruction on the doctrine of the church and being admitted as baptized members. The rise in doctrinal issues within the LCMS led to the cessation of fellowship between WELS and the LCMS in 1961. ^[2]

One historic difference between the ELCA and the LCMS that can be seen today are the ethnic origins of both synods. The synods that merged into the ELCA came from a mix of German, Nordic, and Baltic congregations, while the LCMS has a primarily German background.

In Canada, the ELCIC is divided into five synods and is in full communion with the Anglican Church of Canada. The LCC, based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, is divided into three districts and maintains strong ties to the LCMS.

There are at least 20 smaller Lutheran Denominations in the U.S., with many of them being cultural or doctrinal offshoots of the main three.

[edit] Inter-denomination relations

U.S. denominations differ on doctrine and practice. Doctrinally, the differences are primarily based on the degree of authority denominations place on the written text of Scripture. The ELCA subscribes to the "Historical-Critical Method" of Scripture interpretation, which attempts to interpret the text while taking account of the historical, cultural, and scientific limitations or biases imposed by the original writers. Recently the ELCA's leadership has begun to favor Contextual Analysis of Scripture, in which Scripture is interpred within the context of language, culture and the experience and consensus of each individual community, and a theology in which God is considered to be fully Immanent rather than Transcendent. Many members of the ELCA believe that such criticism represents the best efforts of modern scholarship.

The LCMS and WELS still largely follow the traditional "historical-grammatical" method of interpreting the Scripture text, which, llike the Evangelical Churches, upholds the plenary and verbal inspiration of Scripture and considers it to be verbally inspired, inerrent, and infallible in the autographs, and seeks to understand the text as it was written literally. Many members of these denominations believe this approach best reflects the original meaning of the text.

A detailed discussion of differences between the denominations can be found at their respective pages (ELCA, LCMS, WELS).

As a result of doctrinal differences, cooperation between different denominations varies: there is collaboration on some forms of outreach (for example, Lutheran World Relief); in worship practice, however, the conservative denominations typically practice closed communion, limiting celebration of the Eucharist (Lord's Supper) with only those in church bodies that are in communion fellowship with their own denominations out of concern for doctrinal differences.