Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad

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The Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad (sometimes also called Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia Abroad ; Latvian Latvijas Evaņģēliski luteriskā baznīca ārpus Latvijas (LELBĀL); English Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad ) is a Lutheran church, the majority of which are members in Western Europe and North America dwell.

history

After Latvia became independent in 1918, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia was founded in 1922 , to which the majority of the population belonged at that time. Already after the occupation of Latvia in 1940 and again after it was conquered by the Red Army in 1944, many Latvians, including some of the Lutheran clergy, fled abroad. The second archbishop of the church, Teodors Grīnbergs , who had gone into exile in Germany, built up the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia in exile from there (that was the name until 1991). This church initially had around 120,000 members and was very important for coping with the exile experience. In the worldwide Christian community it was seen as a representative of the Latvian Lutherans, as the church in Latvia, even under Soviet occupation, had no opportunity to participate in international church life for a long time. In 1947, LELBĀL was one of the founders of the Lutheran World Federation .

Grīnbergs led the church as archbishop until his death in 1962. It was based at his place of residence in Esslingen am Neckar . After his death, the seat was moved to the USA, from there to Canada, and then again to Esslingen under Archbishop Rozītis. He has been in Milwaukee , Wisconsin since Lauma Zušēvica's inauguration as Archbishop .

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, there was a rapprochement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (ELCL). In 1998 a formal collaboration was agreed, and in 2003 a joint agenda was published. Then, contrary to the agreements, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia also founded its own congregations abroad, and in return the LELBĀL also founded congregations in Latvia. The conflict intensified after the ELCL abolished the possibility of ordination for women in 2016 and the Lutheran cross church congregation in Liepāja , which refused to accept this decision, converted to the LELBĀL. Since then, the collaboration has been on hold.

structure

The LELBĀL states (as of 2018) its number of members as 22,172. Most of the members live in North America; the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America , which includes congregations in the United States, Canada, and South America, had over 10,000 members in 2007 alone. There are also churches in Australia, New Zealand and several European countries, most of them in Great Britain, Germany and Sweden. The highest decision-making body is the synod ; it is managed by the Executive Board , presided over by the Archbishop. There are also nine deans; five for the area of ​​the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and one each for Australia, Great Britain, Germany and Sweden.

Ecumenical Relations

The church is a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the Community of Evangelical Churches in Europe (CPCE) and the Anglican-Lutheran Porvoo Community .

Archbishops

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Geert Franzenburg: Dievs, svētī Latviju! - God bless Latvia! The role of the Lutheran tradition in coping with exile using the example of Latvia. In: Christian Pletzing, Marcus Velke (ed.): Camp - Repatriation - Integration. Contributions to displaced persons research. Leipzig 2016, pp. 203–230. ( Online edition )
  2. ↑ Rokasgrāmata dievkalpošanai LELB un LELBāL draudzēs.
  3. ↑ The dispute over women's ordination divides Latvian Lutherans. In: Latvian Press Review, May 27, 2016.
  4. ^ Congregation splits from Lutheran church over women's ordination on the Latvijas Televīzija website , June 6, 2016; Cross parish in Liepāja gets its church back. In: Latvian Press Review, 25 August 2016.
  5. ^ Entry on the website of the Lutheran World Federation.
  6. ^ Church in Great Britain website
  7. ^ Website of the Church in Germany
  8. ↑ Church in Sweden website