September 7, 2004

GENEVA - Membership in the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has risen to nearly 65 million following the entry of three new churches in the global communion.

The LWF Council extended full membership to the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren (ECCB) in the Czech Republic; Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PCN) in the Kingdom of the Netherlands; and Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana (ELCG) in Ghana. One of the PCN predecessor churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (ELCNL), has been an LWF member church since 1947. The Councils action on September 6 was based on recommendations from the Standing Committee for Membership, presented by the chairperson, Rev. Claudia Schreiber, Church of Lippe (Lutheran Section), Germany.

The endorsement of the ECCB with 123,633 members; the 26,000-member ELCG; and the PCN with 2,530,000 members brings an additional 2,515,024 members, pushing the total membership in the LWF to 64,961,682. Until the Councils action, the LWF had 136 member churches in 76 countries, which now increases to 138 churches in 77 countries.

The Czech church has its origins in two streams of Bohemian reformation - Utraquists (Jan Hus), and the Unitas Fratrum (Moravians) from the early fifteenth until the early seventeenth centuries. Both communions were forbidden when the Counter-Reformation was introduced in 1620, and from 1781, were given the choice of either declaring themselves as Lutheran or Calvinist. Following the introduction of full religious freedom in 1918, both streams united to form the ECCB.

The ECCB has 263 congregations served by 217 pastors. It has membership in the Ecumenical Council of Churches in the Czech Republic, Conference of European Churches (CEC), World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Leuenberg Church Fellowship (LCF) that brings together most of the Reformation churches in Europe and some churches in Latin America.

The PCN was formally established in May 2004 following the merger of the former ELCNL - at that time with over 14,000 members, Netherlands Reformed Church (NRC) and Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (RCN). The former ELCNL, now the PCN Lutheran Synod, and the NRC both date from the sixteenth-century Reformation movement, while the RCN was formed from 19th-century schisms in the NRC.

The PCN is a member of the Council of Churches in the Netherlands and the Reformed Ecumenical Council. It also belongs to CEC, LCF, WARC, World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Council for World Mission. The PCN has 2,150 congregations served by 2,950 ordained pastors.

The Ghanaian church was established in the West African country in 1958 by missionaries from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and was formally registered in 1964. Its congregations and preaching stations throughout the countrys ten regions are served by 30 ordained pastors, 55 missionaries and evangelists, as well as over 600 lay leaders.

The ELCG belongs to the Christian Council of Ghana, of which it currently holds the position of chairperson. It recently joined the ecumenical All Africa Conference of Churches, and is a member of the WCC, International Lutheran Council (ILC) and Lutheran Communion in Western Africa.

During discussion on the three applications for membership, Council participants raised questions about the implications for altar and pulpit fellowship in relation to churches that have membership in both the LWF and ILC, the worldwide association of established confessional Lutheran church bodies. Of particular concern, was womens theological education and ordination. It was answered that womens ordination was not a prerequisite for membership in the LWF but it was encouraged.

Lutheran World Information