Pastor Zip's International Lutheran Web Links

Pastor Zip's International Lutheran Web Links

Lutheran Churches Around the World with English-language Web sites
(Update in progress. It's been a couple of years since the last one, so please be patient. Pr. Zip, June 2010)

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The Americas For the web sites of Lutheran Churches in the USA, please go to Pastor Zip's US Lutheran Web Links Page.
Argentina and Uruguay

United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina and Uruguay
An ELCA Global Mission description, with the official site for the Iglesia Evangélica Luterana Unida being in Spanish. Lutheran missionaries from the General Synod in the U. S. first arrived in 1908. The IELU serves both natives of Argentina and Uruguay and immigrants from historically Lutheran lands.

Bolivia

Bolivian Evangelical Lutheran Church
An ELCA Global Mission description, with the official site for the Iglesia Evangélica Luterana Boliviana being in Spanish. Lutheran missionaries from the World Mission Prayer League in the U. S. first arrived in 1938.

Brazil

Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil
An ELCA Global Mission description, since the official site for the Igreja Evangélica de Confissão Luterana no Brasil is in Portuguese. The largest South American Lutheran Church with about 716,000 members, IECLB's roots were first planted with the arrival of German immgrants in 1824. Congregations developed in Southern Brazil and were supported by German Lutheran Churches. The first Synods were organized in 1886, still relating to the Mother Church in Germany. After World War 2 the Synods began to work more with each other than the church in Germany, and the independent IECLB was formally established in 1968.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brazil
The English page of the Igreja Evangélica Luterana do Brasil, which was established in 1904 through the efforts of LCMS missionary activity that started in 1900. For another English site, check this personal site on the IELB.

Canada

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC)
The largest Lutheran church body in Canada, the ELCIC was formed in 1986 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada (which had been the Canadian congregations of the American Lutheran Church until 1966) and the Canada Section of the Lutheran Church in America.
Lutheran Church-Canada
The other main Canadian Lutheran Church, until 1988 part of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Its first congregations were established by LCMS missionaries in 1854.

The Association of Free Lutheran Congregations
"A venture of faith...ongoing since 1897," the AFLC (Canada) is a group of conservative, independent, autonomous congregations that co-operate on matters too large for a single congregation. (See also a listing of these congregations on the US AFLC site.)
The Canadian Association of Lutheran Congregations
A Biblical, non-hierarchical association of Canadian Lutherans who gathered together to proclaim the Gospel in 1991.

Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad
This is the church (formerly called the "EELC in Exile") that escaped the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1944. It is now the congregations of the EELC in England, Sweden, Germany, the USA, Canada, and Australia.
Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Was organized in 1975 by exiles of (then Soviet-occupied) Latvia who had immigrated to the US and Canada. The site is entirely in Latvian.
Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Diaspora
This small Lutheran Church formed by exiles from (then Soviet-occupied) Lithuania who had immigrated to the US and Canada merged back into the mother church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania, in 2008.

Chile

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile
An ELCA Global Mission description, with the official site for the Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en Chile being in Spanish. The IELCH traces its beginnings to the 1860s, when the first German Lutherans immigrated to Chile. However the formation of non-Roman Catholic churches was not permitted until 1925, after which Lutheran congregations organized an association that later became the IEHLC. In the 1960s the church began missionary work in Spanish. The church underwent schism during the Pinochet regime, resulting in the formation of a separate Lutheran Church in Chile (Iglesia Luterana en Chile). Both churches are part of the LWF and have formed the Lutheran Church Council in Chile with a goal of unification in 2014.

Colombia

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Colombia
An ELCA Global Mission description, with the official site for the Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de Colombia being in Spanish. Independent Lutheran missionaries from the United States first arrived in 1936 and the (Danish-American) United Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (a predecessor of the ELCA) took charge after World War 2. Initially persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church, relations have been generally positive since Vatican II. The IELC organized in 1958 but, partly because of the anti-government guerrilla war since 1948, remains highly dependent on support from Europe and North America. Currently the IELC has 25 congregations and missions.

Costa Rica

Costa Rican Lutheran Church
News from the Iglesia Luterana Costarricense, the rest of the site being in Spanish. This body organized in 1988.

El Salvador

Salvadoran Lutheran Church
An ELCA Global Mission description, with the official site for the Iglesia Luterana Salvadoreña being in Spanish. First established in the early 1950s by Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod missionaries, the church's mission was strongly affected by the civil war of 1980-92. The largest Lutheran church in Central America.

Guatemala

Lutheran Augustinian Church of Guatemala
This site for the Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala is bi-lingual English-Spanish. See also the ELCA's Global Mission description of this church founded in 1991 to serve with peoples affected by Guatemala's civil war of 1960-1986.

Guyana

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana
Dutch colonists established this church in 1743, but it was dependent upon the leadership of occasional Dutch pastors. At one point it went 39 years (1779 Ð 1818) without the services of a pastor! The last Dutch pastor left in 1841, leaving the church without a pastor until the ordination of a Guyanese native in 1878 by the London Missionary Society to serve less than a dozen members — the church had continued to exist because its members could not agree how to distribute its meager resources. The new pastor began to grow the church, adding a second congregation. In 1890 the church affiliated with a Lutheran synod in Pennsylvania and became a mission, enabling greater growth of the church (including immigrants from India) at the cost of its self-sufficiency. Joining the LWF in 1947, the LCG has 48 congregations served by 13 pastors.

Haiti

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Haiti
The Eglise Evangelique Lutherienne D'Haiti receives support from the Haiti Lutheran Mission Coordinating Committee. See also the site of the related Haiti Lutheran Mission Society, USA. Formed in 1993, the ELCH has 163 congregations.

Mexico

Lutheran Synod of Mexico
This listing of congregations in the Sinodo Luterano de Mexico is part of the site for All Saints Lutheran Church in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

Peru

Peruvian Evangelical Lutheran Church
This well-done offical site of the Iglesia Luterana Evangélica Peruana is bi-lingual English-Spanish. While Lutherans began immigrating to Peru in the 19th century, the ILEP's beginnings are in work by Lutheran Church in America missionaries in and around Lima beginning in 1963. The ILEP formed in 1990, registered in 1992, and now has "over a dozen" congregations plus other "communities of faith."

Uruguay

United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina and Uruguay
The Iglesia Evangélica Luterana Unida en Argentina y Uruguay, whose website is in Spanish, has one congregation in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Europe and the Baltics

Nordic lands
Denmark

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark
The English-language site for den Danske Folkekirke, which includes Greenland and the Faeroe Islands. Christianity was adopted as the official religion in Denmark in 960. The national Church of Denmark became Lutheran in 1536.
The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Denmark
The English page for Den evangelisk lutherske Frikirke, which was established in 1855 (shortly after religious freedom became part of the Danish Constitution) as a reaction to the secularism and rationalism of the state Church of Denmark.

Finland

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
The English language site for the Suomen Evankelis-Luterilainen Kirkko, the national Church of Finland. Christianity was established to Finland in 1157, with missionary activity beginning in the early 12th century. The doors to the Reformation were opened by Gustavus Vasa in 1527 (Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden), though it would be 1544 before Sweden (and thus Finland) was declared a Lutheran nation. The state church remained Lutheran while Finland was part of the Russian Empire. Since Finnish independence in 1917 the Church of Finland has grown more and more autonomous of the state.
The Confessional Lutheran Church of Finland
The Suomen Tunnustuksellinen Luterilainen Kirkko is a free synod established in the mid-19th Century, with ties to the LCMS since the late 1920s. The only English sections are a study and a group of sermons in englanniksi.
The Lutheran Confessional Church in Finland
The Suomen Luterilainen Tunnustuskirkko organized in 2002, and outgrowth of the Confessional Lutheran Church in Sweden and Norway that began in 1979.

Iceland

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland
The English web section for Þjóðkirkjan, the national Church of Iceland. Iceland was first settled by Christian Celtic hermits. They were driven away by the Norse settlers, some of whom were Christian. Christianity was adopted as the official religion in the year 1000, 70 years after the Republic was established. The Lutheran Reformation came in 1540, when Iceland was under the Danish crown. While religious freedom was established in 1874, the Evangelical Lutheran Church remained the national church and has continued as such since Icelandic independence in 1944.

Norway

Church of Norway
The English web pages for Den Norske Kirke. Missionary activity in Norway began in the 9th century. While the year 900 is considered the beginning of the Church's establishment, it was the death of King Olav Haraldsson in 1030 the led to the end of the old Norse beliefs. The Evangelical-Lutheran faith was became the official religion in 1537, when Norway was ruled by the Danish kingdom. The Church of Norway remains the state church, with the King as its constitutional head (he appointed parish pastors until 1989), but was granted more autonomy by the Storting (Parliament) in 1981.
Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway
The English web page for Den Evangelisk Lutherske Frikirke, which was established in 1877 to have a church free from state control.
Confessional Lutheran Church of Sweden and Norway
The Norwegian pages of den lutherske bekjennelseskirke, a conservative, free church founded in 1974. See their Swedish site below for their English pages.

Sweden

Church of Sweden
The English Home Page for the Svenska kyrkan. Some older English pages can also be found here. The French Benedictine monk St. Ansgar first preached the Gospel in Sweden in 839, but it would be the year 1000 before Christianity was established well enough for a Swedish king to be baptized. Church and state were first united in 1210 when the first king was crowned by a bishop. Lutheranism began to be cautiously introduced shortly after Gustav Vasa declared an independent Swedish Kingdom in 1523, with the riksdag (parliament) declaring Sweden an evangelical kingdom in 1544 and the Augsburg Confession being formally adopted in 1593. After years of increased autonomy, the Church of Sweden was in most respects separated from the state in 2000. An "open, democratic national church," many church elections are now contested by candidates of political parties.

The Church Coalition for Bible and Confession
The English-language page for the Kyrklig samling kring bibeln och bekënnelsen, an umbrella organization established in 1958 for traditionalist movements within the Church of Sweden.

The Mission Province in the Church of Sweden
An English-language page for the Missionsprovinsens i Sverige, "a free, non-territorial province" seeking to "preserve and carry on the spiritual tradition of the Church of Sweden," offering refuge for orthodox Christians in the increasingly secularized Svenska kyrkan. Formed in September 2003, the Mission Province's first Bishop was consecrated in February 2005. While the MP intends to remain within the Church of Sweden, priests who join are being subjected to removal from office.

Confessional Lutheran Church of Sweden and Norway
The English pages for the Lutherska Bekënnelsekyrkan (LBK), a conservative, free church founded in 1974.

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Africa and the Middle East
Jordan, Israel, and Palestine

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
Lutheran Germans came to the birthplace of Christianity in the mid-19th Century to support the poor Christian minority through diaconal service and teaching. Pupils in the schools soon began to establish a Lutheran mission church supported by the Evangelical Church in Germany. In 1979 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (until the 1967 Six-Day War the Lutheran congregations were all in Jordanian territory) became independent of the EKD by electing the first Palestinian Lutheran Bishop. With headquarters at the Church of the Redeemer right next to Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the site of Jesus' borrowed tomb) ELCJHL includes congregations in Jordan, Israel, and Palestine.

Augusta Victoria Hospital
Overlooking the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, this hospital is the primary medical facility serving the Palestinian population in Israel and Palestine. Built in 1907 by Kaiser Wilhelm II as a pilgrim's hospice, Augusta Victoria Hosspital is a heaelth care institution of the Lutheran World Federation.

Ethiopia

Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus
With missionary activity begun by Swedish Lutherans in 1866, the EECMY was established by the merger of several Lutheran and Reformed missions in 1959. Also a member of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the EECMY has experienced rapid growth in the last decade.

Kenya

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya
The ELCK was organized in 1958 following mission work by an independent Swedish mission begun 10 years earlier. Since 2004 this church has also been in full fellowship with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and in 2007 joined the International Lutheran Council.
Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church
The Kenya Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania was begun in 1956 to care for Tanzanian Lutheran immigrants. The smaller of two Lutheran church bodies in Kenya, the KELC became independent in 1992.

Liberia

Lutheran Church in Liberia
The first Lutheran missionary affort in Africa was established in Liberia in 1860 by American Lutherans whose vision was to work among the indigenous population rather than the Americo-Liberians that other Christians concentrated on. First organized in 1947, the LCL was reorganized under indigenous Liberian leadership in 1965. Current Bishop Sumoward Harris, then an LCL pastor, was attending a US seminary with Pastor Zip when Liberia's civil war broke out.

Madagascar

Malagasy Lutheran Church
Norwegian missionaries first came to Madagascar in 1866. Norwegian-American Lutherans quickly joined in the efforts and, despite harsh conditions and an uncooperative French colonial government, the faith began to take hold. The Malagasy Lutheran Church (Fiangonana Loterana Malagasy) became an independent church body in 1950 and became the first "mission field" church to join the Lutheran World Federation. One of the fastest growing churches in the world, its extensive health department, SALFA, has a web presence.

Sierra Leone

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone
The ELCSL was founded by indigenous lay Christians in 1988. While the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America helped guide the young church, the first missionary pastor was from the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, with additional supervision of the Lutheran Church in Liberia. The ELCSL ordained its first pastors for this war-torn nation in 1996 and installed its first Bishop in 2003.

South Africa

Free Evangelical-Lutheran Synod in South Africa
Official site for FELSISA, which was established in the 1890's by German colonists.
The United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa
The UELCSA was established as a union of 3 German-speaking Lutheran bodies in South Africa and Namibia in 1964.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (Natal-Transvaal)
The ELCSA (N-T) was established in 1981, a latest result of various mergers of German-speaking Lutheran churches first established by German missions in the mid-18th Century.
The United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (Cape)
The ELCSA (Cape) was organized in 1895 by congregations of German immigrants who started arriving near the Cape mainly in the 1850s, though German Lutherans had been settling in the Dutch (and therefore Reformed) Cape Colony since its beginnings 200 years earlier. Most of its congregations now worship in Afrikaans or English.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa
An unofficial personal Web Site for the largest of the Lutheran Churches in South Africa, with information about other Lutheran Churches in Southern Africa.

Tanzania

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania
Official site for the Lutheran Church in the Land of Kilimanjaro, officially formed in 1963, but which really began in the mid-19th Century through the efforts of German, Swedish, and (beginning after World War 1) American (Augustana Synod -- a Swedish-American predecessor of the ELCA) Lutheran missionaries. Makumira University College is the ELCT's theological college and seminary. In 2004 the Tanzanian Bishops issued the important Bukoba Statement on globalization, human sexuality, and AIDS.

Uganda

The Lutheran Church of Uganda
Formed in 2004, this church describes itself as "a small and friendly Christian congregation which happily engages in the old historic mission." It seems to relate to LCMS World Mission and has had connections with the Lutheran Orthodox Church.

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Asia, Australia, and Oceania
Australia

Lutheran Church of Australia
The LCA is an associate member of both the LWF and the ILC. Its roots are in German immigrants fleeing the Prussian Union, first arriving in Australia in 1838. Other German Lutheran immigrations ocurred in the 1840s. A combined synod of Lutheran churches met in 1846, but split over doctrine. The first of several synods in Australia was finally established in 1856. Pastors from the US Missouri Synod's seminary began serving in Australia in 1880. Australia suppressed the German-language during World War 1, seriously hurting the Lutheran churches and schools. Lutherans, who had been gathered into 2 synods since 1926, started growing again after World War 2. In 1966 the 2 synods merged into today's LCA.
Australian Evangelical Lutheran Church
An independent synod formed by conservative, confessional Lutherans "dedicated to the true teachings spelled out in God's Word, the Bible" who left the LCA in 1992 apparently over disagreement with its ecumenical directions.

China

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong
Formally organized in 1954, the ELCHK history begins with Lutheran missionaries to China in the late 19th century who helped form the Chinese Lutheran Church in 1920. Christian missionary activity collapsed in the 1940s, though some native Lutherans and missionaries were able to escape to Hong Kong to continue working there. See also the website for the Lutheran Theological Seminary of the ELCHK, the Chinese Rhenish Church, the Tsung Tsin Mission, and the Taiwan Lutheran Church.
The Lutheran Church-Hong Kong Synod
Missionaries from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod had been evangelizing in China since 1915. In 1949, after the Communist takeover, the missionaries continued to serve refugees in Hong Kong and gradually an independent synod was established.

India

United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India
The official website for this communion of eleven Lutheran church bodies in India. Lutheran missionary work began 300 years ago. The UELCI was founded as the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in 1926, which fucussed on theological education at Gurukul Lutheran Theological College. In 1974 the federation re-organized to strengthen the witness and service of Lutheran Churches. The site is including good descriptions of its member churches

The Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church
One of the UELCI churches, Tamil Suvesesha Lutheran Thiruchabai was organized in 1919. The church's history goes back to 1706, when the Royal Danish Mission began work here. German missionaries took over in 1841. They were joined by Swedish missionaries in 1848, who in 1901 organized the first diocese that would lead to the TELC's formation.

Japan

Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church
This church was first organized in 1898 when it was being served by Lutheran missionaries from the US and Finland.
Japan Lutheran Church
Begun by Missouri Synod missionaries in 1948, the JLC became independent about 25 years ago. The Japan Lutheran Hour is its radio ministry.
Lutheran Evangelical Christian Church of Japan
Starting with missionary efforts in the late 1950s by the Wisconsin Synod, the LECC organized as a self-governing church body in 1965 and now has 9 congregations.

Korea

The Lutheran Church in Korea
The Home Page is currently in Korean only, however some of the links across the top of the page will give you bi-lingual (Korean-English) pages. This page tells a bit about the church, established as an LCMS mission in 1958 and organized in 1971 as the sole Lutheran synod in Korea.

Malaysia

Basel Christian Church of Malaysia
Missionaries of the Basel Mission Society (protestants Switzerland, France, Austria, and Germany) began working in China in 1846. In 1882, Chinese laborers evagelized by the Basel Mission began immigrating to British-ruled Borneo and immediately established a church. Thanks to growth led by Chinese Chiristians, the Borneo Basel Self-Established Church was organized in 1925 and was renamed the BCCM in 1964 after the independent nation of Malaysia was formed.
Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore
Formed in the 1950s as a result of missionary work of US Lutherans among Chinese people in Malaya.

New Zealand

Lutheran Church of New Zealand
Lutheran missionaries first arrived in New Zealand in 1843, but those efforts didn't bear fruit. But German immigrants established a congregation that same years, and more immigration in the 1860s from Germany and Scandinavia enabled this small church to spread across the area. A district of the Lutheran Church in Australia, the church in New Zealand is beginning to develop a more independent identity.

Singapore

Lutheran Church in Singapore
An independent national church since 1996 that arose from the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore (see above).

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The Rev. Steven Paul Tibbetts, STS
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
1534 S. Easton Avenue
Peoria, IL 61605-3407
(309) 637-9150
pastorzip@mac.com
Copyright © 1996-2010 Steven P. Tibbetts. All rights reserved.
Pastor Zip's Christian Web Links created -- 2 December 1996
Pastor Zip's International Lutheran Web Links branched -- 30 December 2000
Last Revised -- 1 September 2010

URL: http://www.pastorzip.org/internationallinx.html