Evangelical Lutheran Church in America begins

The largest Lutheran church in North America, formed by the merger of several Lutheran bodies

Date Created January 1, 1988

After years of discussions and smaller mergers, the majority of North American Lutherans came together in one church headquartered in Chicago, the ELCA.

As a result of the mass northern European immigration to North America during the nineteenth century, Lutheranism grew quickly on the continent, as more than fifty Lutheran organizational groups were formed. Over time, these groups merged or disbanded until, by the 1960’s, three large churches had emerged: the Lutheran Church in America (LCA), the American Lutheran Church (ALC), and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS). Although the ALC and LCMS had declared altar and pulpit fellowship in the 1960’s, the ALC’s decision to ordain women pastors later led the LCMS to withdraw from the fellowship. At the same time, the LCMS began removing professors at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis who used critical-scientific methods to interpret the Bible. These professors established a seminary in exile (Seminex) in 1974 that continued to provide pastors to congregations until four LCMS district presidents were removed for ordaining those pastors. In 1976, three hundred LCMS congregations left the organization to form the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC), which immediately issued the “Call to Lutheran Union” and began meeting with the LCA and ALC to discuss merging the three groups.

On September 8, 1982, the LCA, the ALC, and the AELC each met in convention, simultaneously communicating with one another via telephone hookup. The three church bodies voted to merge into one. The seventy-member Commission for a New Lutheran Church, intentionally selected to represent a broad specrum of church members, then met ten times to study the theological understandings of each predecessor body and to discuss ecclesiastical principles. The formal process to bring the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) into being began at a constituting convention in Columbus, Ohio, in May, 1987. The three previous bishops—James Crumley, David Preus, and Will Herzfeld—stepped down with the election of the ELCA’s first presiding bishop, Herbert Chilstrom. On January 1, 1988, the ELCA officially came into being, with headquarters in Chicago and sixty-five regional synods.

The ELCA is considered a Protestant denomination, recognizing the two sacraments of Baptism and Communion and following the Old and New Testaments as its source of doctrine, as expressed in the sixteenth century Augsburg Confession. The name Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was carefully chosen with a traditional understanding of “evangelical,” meaning “rooted in the gospel.” Its place on the American scene was to be inclusive, with a goal of establishing 20 percent of new congregations in ethnic minority communities and providing 20 percent minority representation on all churchwide boards and committees. Outreach was centered on mission and service, seeking cooperation with other North American churches and the global community.

Impact

The formation of the ELCA established theological principles and organizational structures held in common by the majority of North American Lutherans. The five million Lutherans in the ELCA represent two-thirds of all Lutherans in the United States and compose the second largest Lutheran Church in the world and the fifth largest church body in North America.

Bibliography

Almen, Lowell G. One Great Cloud of Witnesses. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2001.

Lagerquist, L. DeAne. The Lutherans: Student Edition. Denominations in America 9. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1999.

Skrade, Kristofer, ed. The Lutheran Handbook. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2005.