Evangelical Lutheran Church of America

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approximately 3.3 million baptized members in 8,972 congregations.
In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 1.4 percent of the U.S. population self-identifies with the ELCA. It is the seventh-largest Christian denomination by reported membership,. In 2012 larger churches in terms of number of members were the Catholic Church, Southern Baptist Convention, United Methodist Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church of God in Christ, and the National Baptist Convention, USA. and the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.. The next two largest Lutheran denominations are the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) (with approximately 2.0 million members) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) (with approximately 350,000 members). There are also many smaller Lutheran church bodies in the United States, some of which were formed by dissidents to the major 1988 merger.
The ELCA belongs to the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and the Lutheran World Federation. The ELCA is in full communion with the Episcopal Church, Moravian Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.
==History==
Historically various Lutheran churches in the United States formed out of association of congregations formed related to national immigration waves. For instance, members of the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) (centered in New York City, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) were largely descendants of immigrants in the colonial and mid-19th century period. The American Lutheran Church (ALC), with headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was influenced by descendants of the waves of Scandinavian and German immigration to the Midwest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) (which had earlier withdrawn from the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod after 1975), was made up of many congregations through the lower Midwest. Over time, the national or ethnic identification by certain church associations lessened as descendants became more assimilated into general American society. Members across organizations began to have more in common as areas of the country urbanized and more people made their livings in suburbs and cities, rather than in rural farming areas. The ALC and LCA were already the result of earlier mergers among associated congregations once related to ethnic immigrant groups.
In 1970, a survey by Strommen et al. found that 79 percent of Lutheran Church in America clergy, 62 percent of American Lutheran Church clergy, and 58 percent of Lutheran Church Missouri Synod clergy surveyed agreed that "a merger of all Lutheran groups in the United States into one organization is desirable".For laity, the figures were 70 percent LCA, 70 percent ALC, and 62 percent LCMS. Including clergy and laity, 4,745 Lutheran adults between the ages of 15 and 65 were surveyed. See Merton P. Strommen et al., A Study of Generations (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing, 1972), p. 283. Disagreements among various congregations in the 1970s resulted in many leaving the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod after 1975, as it became dominated by theological and social conservatives. These dissidents churches formed the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC).
Following several years of discussions, the LCA, ALC, and AELC formally agreed in 1982 to unite. Implementing this agreement took longer: the new Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) was effective on January 1, 1988, creating the largest Lutheran church body in the United States. The ALC and LCA had been formed by previous mergers.Lowell Almen, One Great Cloud of Witnesses, (Minneapolis:Augsburg Fortress, 1997) pp.9-12 for a brief recounting of the formation of the ELCARoots of the ELCA 
===The American Lutheran Church===
In 1960, The American Lutheran Church was formed as a merger of the earlier ALC of 1930, largely members of German heritage; the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (UELC), with members of Danish background; and the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC), made up of members of Norwegian background. The Lutheran Free Church (LFC) joined three years later in 1963.
The ALC brought approximately 2.25 million members into the new ELCA. It was the most theologically conservative of the forming bodies, having a heritage of Old Lutheran theology.Nelson, E. Clifford. The Lutherans in North America. Revised ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1980. p. 509 It had been in fellowship for a decade with the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and officially held to biblical inerrancy in its constitution. It seldom enforced that stance by means of heresy trials or other doctrinal discipline. Its geographic center was in the Upper Midwest, especially Minnesota. Its headquarters and publisher (Augsburg Publishing House) were based on South Fifth Street in Minneapolis and one of its several seminaries was located in neighboring St. Paul. Its denominational magazine was The Lutheran Standard, published in Minneapolis. Some congregations in the ALC chose not to join the 1988 merger and instead formed the American Association of Lutheran Churches.
===The Lutheran Church in America===
The Lutheran Church in America (LCA) had been created in 1962, by a merger among the United Lutheran Church in America (created in 1918 by an earlier merger of three German Lutheran synods in the eastern U.S.); Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, of Swedish ethnicity with some dating to the colonial era; the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and American Evangelical Lutheran Church, made up of ethnic Danish families.
The LCA was the slightly larger partner and brought approximately 2.85 million members into the new ELCA. Their administrative offices were in the Church House, a former townhouse mansion on Madison Avenue in New York City. Its publishing house, Fortress Press, was on Queen Lane in northwest Philadelphia, and produced the church magazine, The Lutheran. Its demographic focus was on the East Coast, centered on Pennsylvania). It also had large numbers in the Midwest and some presence in the Southern Atlantic states. There are notable exceptions, but LCA-background churches tend to emphasize liturgical expression more than the ALC-background churches. Its theological orientation ranged from moderately liberal to neo-orthodox, with tendencies toward conservative Pietism in some rural and small-town congregations. Its theology originated in the Neo-Lutheran movement.
===The Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches===
In 1976, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) was formed by 250 congregations that had left the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) in a schism precipitated by disputes over biblical inerrancy and ecumenism. These were part of the overall Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy that had been roiling American Protestant churches for several decades. In 1969 the LCMS had elected more conservative leadership under President Jacob A.O. Preus, replacing moderate incumbent Oliver Harms. The new leadership opened an investigation at the synod's Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, about the faculty's commitment to inerrancy in Biblical interpretation. It also opposed ecumenism.
As a result, most of the faculty and student body walked out and established a separate institution named "Concordia Seminary-in-Exile" (but usually referred to as "Seminex"). The AELC was formed in 1976. It brought approximately 100,000 members into the ELCA. Its ethnic heritage was primarily from German immigrants of the mid-19th century, who came to the US following the revolutions in various principalities. Many were abolitionists and Unionists during the American Civil War. By the 1980s, the AELC theology generally resembled that of the LCA.
==Organization==
The ELCA is headed by a Presiding Bishop, who is elected by the Churchwide Assembly for a six-year term (it was a four-year term until 1995). To date, four people have been elected to the position of Presiding Bishop of the ELCA. Herbert W. Chilstrom served as the first Presiding Bishop from 1987 to 1995. He was followed by H. George Anderson (1995–2001), who had previously been the President of Luther College. The third Presiding Bishop was Mark Hanson, who is the past president of the Lutheran World Federation, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Hanson began his tenure as Bishop of the Church in 2001 and was re-elected in August 2007 for a second term. Elizabeth Eaton was elected Presiding Bishop in August 2013 and took office on November 1, 2013. She was reelected for a second term in 2019.
In addition, the body of the Church Council is composed of representatives elected for a stated number of years from the various synods. These meet regularly with legislative powers in between sessions of the Churchwide Assemblies.
The Conference of Bishops, which meets at least twice a year, is formed of 66 bishops (the 65 elected synodical bishops, together with the presiding bishop), plus the ELCA church secretary. It is consulted by the Presiding Bishop and the Church Council for advice on matters of doctrine, faith and order, and ecumenical relations. The ELCA website states that "While primarily advisory, the role of the Conference of Bishops is significant within the life of this church."
The ELCA is divided into 65 synods, one of which is non-geographical (the Slovak Zion Synod) and 64 regional synods in the United States and the Caribbean, each headed by a synodical bishop and council; these synods are in turn grouped into nine regions.For further information about the ELCA's structure and organization, see 2005 ELCA Constitution (pdf document, retrieved March 27, 2007) Within the ELCA the term synod refers to the middle judicatory, which is referred to in some other denominations as "presbyteries", "districts", "conferences" or "dioceses" (the most ancient and traditional term in Christianity). In other Christian churches, the term "synod" is used for a meeting or conference of ministers such as priests or bishops of a diocese, province (region) or nation or, in some Protestant churches, as the term for their annual governing convention. Some Evangelical Lutheran denominations overseas continue to use the ancient church title of "diocese".
Outside of the United States, ELCA also has congregations in the Caribbean region (Bahamas which is combined with Florida in one synod; Bermuda, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands); and one congregation in the border city of Windsor, Ontario, a member of the Slovak Zion Synod. Before 1986, some of the congregations that form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada were part of the ELCA's predecessor churches.
Within the church structure are divisions addressing many programs and ministries. Among these are support for global mission, outdoor ministries, campus ministries, social ministries, and education. They include the Lutheran Peace Fellowship, Lutheran Women's Caucus, Lutheran Volunteer Corps, and the Lutheran Youth Organization ELCA Youth Gathering (formerly known in predecessor denominations as the Luther League). They cooperate with an ecumenical inter-Lutheran college/university student organization known as the Lutheran Student Movement-USA founded in 1922 and reorganized in 1969. The denominational publishing house is Augsburg Fortress, and the official denominational magazine is Living Lutheran. ELCA predecessor bodies established twenty-six colleges and universities, which are now affiliated with the ELCA and a large number of associated theological seminaries. Some of these are associated with neighboring universities or theological consortia.
Most local congregations are legally independent non-profit corporations within the state where they are located and own their own property. Governing practice within the congregation ranges from congregational voters' assemblies or annual and special congregational meetings to elder-and-council-led, to congregations where the senior pastor wields great, if informal, power (more common in larger churches).See the Model Constitution for Congregations (retrieved March 27, 2007) - especially Chapter 5 "Powers of the Congregation" and Chapter 7 "Property Ownership".
===Churchwide Assemblies===
The Churchwide Assembly consists of elected lay and ordained voting members. The Churchwide Assembly met biennially in odd-numbered years until 2013. Between meetings of the Churchwide Assembly, the ELCA Church Council governs the denomination, along with the advisory Conference of Bishops.
At the Assembly, elections are held for general officers of the Church such as the Presiding Bishop, Vice President and Secretary, budgets are adopted, social statements examined and approved, and various other church business enacted, along with reports made and ecumenical visitors acknowledged. A constitutional amendment was passed in 2011 to change the Assembly to one meeting on a triennial basis after 2013. The Assembly was known as the "General Convention" in the ALC and the "Biennial Convention" in the LCA.
*1987 Columbus, Ohio (ELCA Constituting Convention)
*1989 Chicago, Illinois
*1991 Orlando, Florida
*1993 Kansas City, Missouri
*1995 Minneapolis, Minnesota
*1997 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
*1999 Denver, Colorado
*2001 Indianapolis, Indiana
*2003 Milwaukee, Wisconsin
*2005 Orlando, Florida
*2007 Chicago, Illinois
*2009 Minneapolis, Minnesota
*2011 Orlando, Florida
*2013 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
*2016 New Orleans, Louisiana
*2019 Milwaukee, Wisconsin
*2022 Columbus, Ohio
==Beliefs==
=== Lutheranism===
Lutheranism is associated with the theology of Martin Luther, with its official confessional writings found in the Book of Concord. The ELCA accepts the unaltered Augsburg Confession (not the variata) as a true witness to the Gospel. The ELCA is less conservative than the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) or the more conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), the second and third largest Lutheran bodies in the United States, respectively.See also http://archive.elca.org/questions/ , and http://archive.elca.org/communication/faith.html Although having a sizable conservative minority, most ELCA Lutherans are theologically moderate-to-liberal. Most other Lutheran bodies in the U.S. hold more strictly to Confessional Lutheranism.
==References==
==Further reading==
* Bodensieck, Julius, ed. The encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church (3 vol 1965) vol 1 and 3 online free
* Brauer, James Leonard and Fred L. Precht, eds. Lutheran Worship: History and Practice (1993)
* Granquist, Mark. Lutherans in America: A New History (2015)
* Meyer, Carl S. Moving Frontiers: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (1986)
* Roeber, A. G. Palatines, Liberty, and Property: German Lutherans in Colonial British America (1998)
* Trexler, Edgar R. Anatomy of a Merger: People, Dynamics, and Decisions That Shaped the ELCA (1992)
* Wengert, Timothy J. and Mark Granquist, eds. Dictionary of Luther and the Lutheran Traditions (2017)
* Wolf, Edmund Jacob. The Lutherans in America; a story of struggle, progress, influence and marvelous growth. New York: J.A. Hill. 1889. A history of many of the bodies that merged to form the ELCA.
* About the Concordat: 28 Questions about the Agreement between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Church of America [i.e. the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]. Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications, [1997?]. 43 p. Without ISBN
* A Commentary on [the Episcopal Church/Evangelical Lutheran Church in America] Concordat of Agreement, ed. by James E. Griffes and Daniel Martensen. Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg-Fortress; Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications, 1994. 159 p. 
* Concordat of Agreement [between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]: Supporting Essays, ed. by Daniel F. Martensen. Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg-Fortress; Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications, 1995. 234 p. 
==External links==
*Denominational website
*Lutheran-Episcopal Coordinating Committee
 
Category:Christian organizations established in 1988
Category:Lutheran denominations in North America
Category:Members of the World Council of Churches
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Category:Lutheran World Federation members
Category:1988 establishments in Illinois