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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 72

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

India
Substantial progress has been made in our tireless effort to
assist our first daughter church, the India Evangelical Lutheran
Church (IELC), with its anti-corruption reforms. Numerous
court verdicts in favor of the honest, legitimate administration
have been handed down, and the legitimate officers are now
legally established and recognized and have a court-appointed
administrator to assist them in putting the affairs of the church
in order. As a result, stability is slowly beginning to return to the
administration, though much work remains to be done to undo
the effects of decades of corruption. The IELC’s seminary,
Concordia Theological Seminary, Nagercoil, continues to be a
bright spot. Its administration has been improving dramatically
with LCMS support. The campus is presently undergoing major
renovation work with LCMS support.

Sri Lanka
The Office of Church Relations supported an initiative
by the Office of International Mission to re-constitute the defunct Lanka Lutheran Church (LLC) as a new and legal church
body called the Ceylon Evangelical Lutheran Church (CELC),
which applied for and was inducted into International Lutheran
Council (ILC) membership in 2018. The CELC will apply for
official partner church status with the LCMS in the near future.
An overture to remove the defunct LLC from the list of LCMS
partner churches is before this convention.

Taiwan
Great strides have been made with church relations in Taiwan. In addition to the LCMS partner China Evangelical Lutheran Church, there are six other Lutheran church bodies in
Taiwan with which the LCMS had previously had little or no
contact. Within the last triennium, the Office of Church Relations reached out and met with each of these Lutheran church
bodies multiple times, resulting in the establishment of warm
and friendly relations with each of them. Now they are in routine contact with the LCMS and occasionally receive and accept invitations to LCMS-sponsored events in Taiwan such as
theological conferences. One of the six has already joined the
International Lutheran Council, and more are expected to join
in the future.

Inter-Church Relationships of the LCMS
The Inter-Church relationships of the LCMS have continued to grow by leaps and bounds in the last triennium. In addition to our growing family of official “Partner Church” bodies with which the LCMS is in altar and pulpit fellowship, the
LCMS also has a growing number of “Allied Church” bodies
with which we collaborate in various ways but with which we
do not yet have altar and pulpit fellowship. We presently have
35 official partnerships that have already been recognized by
the LCMS in convention and an additional two partnerships
to be considered for solemnizing by this convention, as well as
good relationships with an additional 42 allied church bodies,
many of which are in various stages of fellowship talks with
the LCMS.
In addition, the LCMS also has 17 “Emerging Relationships” with Lutheran church bodies that we are getting to know
but with which we do not yet have a formal relationship. Most
2019 Convention Workbook

of these have approached the LCMS out of a desire to share our
solid, biblical theology.
These various relationships make for a total of 96 Lutheran
church relationships in a total of 76 countries! This represents
a substantial increase in relationships over this last triennium.
Lastly, the LCMS also has a growing number of “Ecumenical Relationships” with non-Lutheran church bodies for the
sake of dialogue and cooperatio in externis.

Partner Churches (already recognized by the
LCMS in convention)
1.

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil

Lutheran Church—Canada

Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile

Evangelical Lutheran Church—Synod of France

Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (Germany)

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana

Lutheran Church in Guatemala

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti

10. Lutheran Church—Hong Kong Synod
11. India Evangelical Lutheran Church
12. Japan Lutheran Church
13. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kazakhstan
14. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya
15. Lutheran Church in Korea
16. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia
17. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia
18. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania
19. Lutheran Synod of Mexico
20. Lutheran Church of Nigeria
21. Lutheran Church in Norway
22. Gutnius Lutheran Church (Papua New Guinea)
23. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Paraguay
24. Lutheran Church in the Philippines
25. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (Russia)
26. Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church (Russia)
27. Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (South Africa)
28. Free Evangelical Lutheran Synod in South Africa
29. Lanka Lutheran Church (Sri Lanka)
30. China Evangelical Lutheran Church (Taiwan)
31. Lutheran Church of Togo
32. Evangelical Lutheran Church of England
33. The American Association of Lutheran Churches
(USA)