LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 147

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5. THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
To Recognize Altar and Pulpit
Fellowship with the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Belgium
RESOLUTION 5-01
Overture 5-01 (CW, 425)

Preamble
The Lutheran Church in Belgium goes back to the very
beginnings of the Reformation in the 16th century. Many
writings of the Reformer Martin Luther were already
printed and distributed in Antwerp as early as 1518.
However, after the Diet of Worms, opposition to the
Reformation gradually grew in Belgium. Persecutions
began and many were taken prisoner to die at the stake,
burned alive. In 1523 the first two martyrs of the
Reformation were executed in Brussels. When Luther heard
about this, he wrote his letter to the Christians in the Low
Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands or Holland) “Eyn
Brieff an die Christen ym Nidderlande” and also the hymn
“Ein neues Lied wir heben an.”
Just 40 years later, after Luther’s death and the peace of
Augsburg, the Reformation became influential again in
Belgium, particularly in Antwerp. In 1566 the first Lutheran
congregation was organized and recognized by the city
magistrates. This was the first Lutheran congregation in
the entire region of the Low Countries. One of its pastors
was not so unknown—Matthias Illyricus Flacius.
Unfortunately, the period of religious freedom in Antwerp
was short. In 1585, Antwerp fell to Roman Catholic
Spaniards, who all but extinguished Lutheranism and
Protestantism in Antwerp. This was one of many battles in
the 80 years of religious war between the Dutch and the
Spaniards, a war that eventually spread throughout Europe
(the Thirty Years War) before its eventual end with the
peace of Muenster/Westphalia in 1648. In this treaty
almost half of the territory of the Low Countries, including
Belgium and the southern part of the Netherlands,
remained under a Roman Catholic government. The
northern part of the Netherlands was finally free from
Spanish dominion and established a Protestant
government. After the Fall of Antwerp most of the
Lutherans had fled to the north and established the first
Lutheran congregations in Amsterdam and other cities. A
Calvinistic environment prevailed, however, and
Lutheranism would remain a minority church, supported
mainly by German merchants.
In 1830, Belgium won its independence and crowned a
Lutheran monarch, King Leopold I of Saxe-Coburg.
Religious freedom was also guaranteed by the new
constitution. Nonetheless, apart from some Scandinavian
Resolutions

Seamans missions, it was not until 1939 that a Lutheran
congregation would exist anew in Belgium, once again in
Antwerp.
The origin of this Antwerp congregation is closely tied
together with the life and work of Pastor Lambert Hellings
(1889–1956). Reading the New Testament transformed his
life. He studied theology and began to work as an evangelist
in the suburbs of Antwerp in the early 1930s. Through his
friendship with a Norwegian Seamans pastor he became
aware of Lutheran theology. He also obtained the address
of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, resulting in other
contacts with Lutheran churches in England and France. In
1939 the small free evangelical Lutheran congregation in
Antwerp became a member of the French Synod, which
later changed its name to the Evangelical Lutheran
Church—Synod of France and Belgium.
In 1987 services in the Netherlands started. In 1992 English
speaking services in Brussels began. Unfortunately, current
work in the Netherlands is temporarily suspended, but the
work in Brussels has led to the establishment of a Lutheran
congregation: the All Lutheran Church of Brussels.
Presently, only services in English are offered.
The desire for independence from the French Synod
eventually took shape, since the Synod of France and
Belgium was formed by churches in two different countries
and contacts were nearly all administrative. In May 2002
the French and Belgian synods became separate entities,
but at the same time formed a partnership in order to stress
the good relationship that existed between the two
churches. In 2004, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Belgium (Evangelisch-Lutherse Kerk in België, ELKB),

Committee 5 Chairman Scott Murray
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION | 147