LCC Declares Fellowship with Finnish Lutherans

CANADA – Lutheran Church–Canada has declared altar and pulpit fellowship with the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland.

The action was taken during LCC’s synodical convention meeting in Kitchener, Ontario, and was adopted unanimously. It comes following discussions between representatives of the two church bodies revealed doctrinal unity, with LCC’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations recommending the declaration of fellowship.

The Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland emerged out of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland as a result of that church’s departure from historic Christian teaching. The Mission Diocese was founded in 2013, and is headed by Bishop Risto Soramies. As of 2016, it has 32 congregations.

The Mission Diocese of Finland, along with other Nordic Lutherans, has established closer relations with confessional Lutherans in the International Lutheran Council (ILC) in recent years, applying for membership in the ILC and conducting fellowship talks with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in England and the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany (SELK). Both the ELCE and SELK are partner churches of Lutheran Church–Canada and fellow members with it of the ILC.

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