Ecumenical Relations

The church confesses itself to be "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic." The unity of the church exists in its Head, the Lord Jesus, who with the Father and the Spirit is one God. 

As the apostle Paul tells us, we become members of the one church through one baptism and we show forth the unity of the church in the unanimity of confession and the participation in the one bread and the one cup. This unity the church confesses in faith and in hope.

To advance this unity in the midst of the reality of church divisions and separations, the ELCL participates in a variety of ecumencial organizations and dialogues and seeks to strengthen and expand the fellowship its has with other churches. The ELCL belongs to the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, and participates in discussions with the Leuenberg Church Fellowship and the Porvoo Communion of Anglican churches and Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches. In 2001 official fellowship with The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod was mutually recognized.

World Council of Churches (WCC): http://www.oikoumene.org/

Conference of European Churches (CEC): http://www.cec-kek.org/

Lutheran World Federation (LWF): http://www.lutheranworld.org/

Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) – Leuenberg Church Fellowship: http://www.leuenberg.eu

The Porvoo Churches: http://www.porvoochurches.org/ 

Communication Committee of Lutheran Minority Churches in Europe/ Kommunikationsausschuss Lutherischer Minderheitskirchen in Europa (KALME): http://www.kalme.net/

Theobalt – Baltic Church Network: http://www.theobalt.org/

Churches Alive International (CAI): http://www.churchesalive.org/