The International Lutheran Council (ILC) is a worldwide association of confessional Lutheran denominations. Member bodies of the ILC hold "an unconditional commitment to the Holy Scriptures as the inspired and infallible Word of God and to the Lutheran Confessions contained in the Book of Concord as the true and faithful exposition of the Word of God." The member church bodies are not required to be in church-fellowship with one another, though many of them are.
The organization was constituted in 1993 at a council held in Antigua, Guatemala, although it traces its roots back to theological conferences held in various locations during the 1950s and 1960s. It is to be distinguished from the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference.
The council has 59 participating churches as of 2022. Among its larger members are the Malagasy Lutheran Church, the Lutheran ChurchâÂÂMissouri Synod (LCMS), the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil, and the Lutheran Church â Canada. Altogether, approximately 7,150,000 adherents belong to ILC member churches.
The council's chairman is Bishop Juhana Pohjola of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland. The executive secretary is Albert B. Collver III of the LCMS. Delegates to the ILC meet every two years.
The organization has not accepted the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, an agreement reached by the Catholic Church's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) and the Lutheran World Federation, in 1999. However, the ILC has been involved in dialogue with the PCPCU, with a final report released on 30 November 2021.
History
The origins of the ILC go back to a meeting at Uelzen, Germany, in July 1952 by Lutherans who were not happy with the theological course being taken by the Lutheran World Federation. Among the participants were delegates from the Lutheran ChurchâÂÂMissouri Synod who had been observers at the LWF assembly in Hannover. Other delegates were present from churches affiliated with the LCMS from Germany, Australia, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. Two further meetings were held, in Oakland, California, in 1958 and in Cambridge, England, in August 1963. At the latter meeting it was decided to create a permanent organization, a "Continuation Committee", to act for the group in between meetings, which were now dubbed International Lutheran Theological Conferences. The committee was also tasked with publishing a theological journal and a committee bulletin, and with facilitating exchanges of pastors, theological professors, and students. However, the meeting explicitly disclaimed it was founding a group in opposition to the LWF.
Five more "theological conferences" were held until the name was shortened to International Lutheran Conference at the Eighth Conference in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Resolutions passed during this period described the ILC as a partnership, forum, or "group of independent Lutheran churches". At the Fifteenth Conference in Antigua, Guatemala, the group decided on creating a more formal structure as an association of churches and adopted a set of Guiding Principles that would serve as a constitution and theological point of reference. The "Continuation Committee" was replaced by an "Executive Council".
At the 2018 World Conference meeting, held in Antwerp, Belgium, on 25âÂÂ26 September 2018, the ILC voted to admit 17 new church bodies, 11 as full members and 6 as associate members. This increased the church members of ILC to 54 and their faithful to 7.15 million members.
At the 2022 World Conference meeting, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia was accepted as a full member. It had already been accepted as an observer member in February 2022.
Chairmen
- 1993-1995: Edwin Lehman, Lutheran ChurchâÂÂCanada
- 1995âÂÂ1998: Leopoldo Heimann, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil
- 1998âÂÂ2007: Ralph Mayan, Lutheran ChurchâÂÂCanada
- 2007âÂÂ2010: Gerald B. Kieschnick, Lutheran ChurchâÂÂMissouri Synod
- 2010-2022: Hans-Jörg Voigt, Independent Evangelical-Lutheran Church, first as interim chairman, and since September 20, 2012, as regular chairman
- 2022âÂÂpresent: Juhana Pohjola, Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland
World Conferences
International Lutheran Theological Conference (1952âÂÂ1975)
1. 1952 â Uelzen, Germany
2. 1959 â Oakland, USA
3. 1963 â Cambridge, England
4. 1966 â Frankfurt, Germany
5. 1968 â Cambridge, England
6. 1970 â St. Louis, USA
7. 1973 â Madras, India
8. 1975 â Porto Alegre, Brazil (At this meeting, the name changed to âÂÂInternational Lutheran ConferenceâÂÂ)
International Lutheran Conference (1978âÂÂ1993)
9. 1978 â Papua New Guinea
10. 1981 â St. Louis, USA
11. 1984 â Obot Idim, Nigeria
12. 1987 â Berlin, Germany
13. 1989 â Seoul, South Korea
14. 1991 â Hong Kong
15. 1993 â Antigua, Guatemala (At this meeting, the name changed to âÂÂInternational Lutheran CouncilâÂÂ)
International Lutheran Council (1995âÂÂpresent)
16. 1995 â Adelaide, Australia
17. 1997 â St. Louis, USA
18. 1999 â Cambridge, England
19. 2001 â Warburg, South Africa
20. 2003 â Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil
21. 2005 â Berlin, Germany
22. 2007 â Accra, Ghana
23. 2009 â Seoul, South Korea
24. 2012 â Niagara Falls, Canada
25. 2015 â Buenos Aires, Argentina
26. 2018 â Antwerp, Belgium
26. 2022 - Kisumu, Kenya
Members
By country in alphabetical order
Full members
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina (Iglesia Evangélica Luterana Argentina)
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Belgium (Evangelisch-Lutherse Kerk in België)
Lutheran Church in AfricaâÂÂBenin Synod
Christian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bolivia (Iglesia Cristiana Evangélica Luterana de Bolivia) - also a member of the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil (Igreja Evangélica Luterana do Brasil)
Lutheran Church â Canada
Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Republic of Chile (Iglesia Evangélica Luterana de la República de Chile)
Lutheran Church-Hong Kong Synod (é¦Â港路德æÂÂ)
- China, Republic of (Taiwan)
China Evangelical Lutheran Church (ä¸Âè¯ç¦Âé³éÂÂ路德æÂÂ)
Ethiopian Evangelical Lutheran Church
Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Denmark (Den evangelisk-lutherske Frikirke i Danmark)
Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland (Finnish: Suomen evankelisluterilainen lähetyshiippakunta, Swedish: Evangelisk-lutherska missionsstiftet i Finland)
Evangelical Lutheran Church-Synod of France ()
Independent EvangelicalâÂÂLutheran Church ()
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana - also a full member of the Lutheran World Federation
Lutheran Church of Guatemala (Consejo Luterano Iglesia Luterana en Guatemala)
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti (Eglise Evangelique Lutherienne D'Haiti)
India Evangelical Lutheran Church - also a full member of the Lutheran World Federation
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya - also a full member of the Lutheran World Federation and a member of the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum
Lutheran Church in Korea (기ëÂÂ
êµÂÃÂÂêµÂ루ðÃÂÂ) - also a full member of the Lutheran World Federation
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia - also a full member of the Lutheran World Federation
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia
Malagasy Lutheran Church - also a full member of the Lutheran World Federation
Lutheran Synod of Mexico (Sinodo Luterano de Mexico)
Lutheran Church Synod of Nicaragua (Iglesia Luterana SÃÂnodo de Nicaragua)
Lutheran Church of Nigeria
Lutheran Church in Norway (Den Lutherske Kirke i Norge)
Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of Norway (Det evangelisk-lutherske stift i Norge)
Gutnius Lutheran Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Paraguay (Iglesia Evangélica Luterana del Paraguay)
Lutheran Church in the Philippines - also a full member of the Lutheran World Federation
Portuguese Evangelical Lutheran Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (ÃÂòðýóõûøÃÂõÃÂúðÃÂ-ûÃÂÃÂõÃÂðýÃÂúðàæõÃÂúþòàÃÂÃÂÃÂàÃÂÃÂ) - also a full member of the Lutheran World Federation
Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church (áøñøÃÂÃÂúðàÃÂòðýóõûøÃÂõÃÂúþ-ÃÂÃÂÃÂõÃÂðýÃÂúðàæõÃÂúþòÃÂ)
Free Evangelical Lutheran Synod in South Africa
Lutheran Church in Southern Africa
Spanish Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELE)
Ceylon Evangelical Lutheran Church, replacement body for the Lanka Lutheran Church - also a full member of the Lutheran World Federation
The Mission Province (Missionsprovinsen) - also a member of the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum
Lutheran Church of Togo
Lutheran Church of Uganda
Evangelical Lutheran Church of England
Lutheran ChurchâÂÂMissouri Synod
American Association of Lutheran Churches
Lutheran Ministerium and Synod â USA
Lutheran Church of Uruguay
Lutheran Church of Venezuela (Iglesia Luterana de Venezuela)
Associate members
Indonesian Lutheran Christian Church - also a member of the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum
Evangelical Lutheran Church - Peru (Iglesia Evangélica Luterana - Perú) - also a member of the Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum (Note: this is not the same Lutheran denomination as Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en el Perú, known as Christuskirche, member of the Lutheran World Federation).
Lutheran Mission in AfricaâÂÂSynod of Thousand Hills
St. Peter Confessional Lutheran Synod of South Africa
South Sudan Evangelical Lutheran Church
The Lutheran Church of the Republic of China - also a full member of the Lutheran World Federation
Former members
The Lutheran Church of Australia and the Lutheran Church of Japan were removed from associate membership on March 21, 2025, due to their failure to adhere to the doctrinal position of the ILC. In particular, both churches had decided to allow the ordination of women into the pastoral office.
See also
References
External links