Editors & Submissions

What is The Canadian Lutheran?

The Canadian Lutheran is the award-winning national publication of Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC), which has approximately 41,000 members in its 285 congregations. The magazine is published six times per year: January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October, November/December under the auspices of LCC’s Board of Directors (Committee for Communication and Technology). Stories and articles are also published in the online expanded version: www.CanadianLutheran.ca. Materials published in The Canadian Lutheran, with the exception of Letters to the Editor, news reports, and advertising, receive doctrinal review and approval before publication. Contents of supplements are the responsibility of the organization purchasing the space.

Subscriptions

Lutheran Church–Canada congregations receive The Canadian Lutheran magazine in print free of charge. If you are not a member of an LCC congregation, subscriptions are available for $30/year or you can “Buy-One/Gift-One” for $50/year ($25 each). Please contact Angela Honey, Advertising Manager.

Editor  – Mathew Block

Mathew Block is editor of The Canadian Lutheran magazine as well as the communications manager for the International Lutheran Council. Block is responsible for all feature stories, as well as magazine theme.

Features – Submission Guidelines

If an article is theological in content, or a longer factual account, we classify it as a “feature” story. Such stories can be Christian reflections on current events, teaching articles about our theology, discussions of contemporary culture in the light of faith, and more. Please see past issues of The Canadian Lutheran for more examples. Please forward feature article submissions to the magazine’s main editor, Mathew Block, with the subject line “Canadian Lutheran article.”

Please note that The Canadian Lutheran does not pay for unsolicited articles. Authors of solicited articles may be eligible for a small honourarium. However, in accordance with Lutheran Church–Canada’s guidelines for the magazine, clergy contributions to the magazine are understood to be part of their ministerial work, and are therefore not eligible for financial remuneration from the magazine.

Please also note that acceptance of an article does not guarantee publication. As The Canadian Lutheran is a publication of Lutheran Church–Canada, all feature articles pass through a doctrinal review process to ensure fidelity to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. Authors may be asked to rewrite some sections of their article based on reviewer feedback before publication.

The Canadian Lutheran accepts first-publication rights for all submitted articles (for both print and online versions of the magazine). It also reserves the right to reprint the article at later dates, and grants congregations of Lutheran Church–Canada the right to copy articles for parish use. All other rights revert to the author upon publication, but The Canadian Lutheran does ask a period of two months after publication in The Canadian Lutheran before the article is reprinted in another publication. The Canadian Lutheran generally does not reprint previously published material for its feature articles.

Regional News Editor – Michelle Heumann

Michelle Heumann manages content for the Regional News sections of The Canadian Lutheran. Michelle has a B.A. in English and History, as well as an M.A. in History from the University of Calgary. She has worked as a freelance copyeditor since 2012, and served from 2016 to 2019 as Acquisitions Editor for EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. She has long volunteer service in Lutheran Church–Canada, and currently serves on the Mission and Ministry Council of LCC’s West Region.

Story submissions about your local Congregation, Circuit, or Region can be directed to Michelle Heumann.

Regional News – Submission Guidelines

In general, stories published in the Regional News sections of The Canadian Lutheran magazine tell the story of events that that have already happened, not things that will happen. Regional News can include a congregation’s significant anniversary or other landmark occasion, a mission or outreach event, a retreat or special event hosted by an LCC organization or by the circuit, or other church involvement in the community. Regional News can also be something unique that your congregation is doing for its members, like hosting a hiking club, mentoring younger members into leadership positions, or preserving a heritage church building. Sharing our news is one way our geographically widespread Synod can stay connected, and if you’re not sure if a story qualifies as news, please ask!

Articles should include the date of the event, and be approximately 100 to 400 words long. Please send articles as a Word document attached to your email (no pdfs, please), or in the body of the email itself, with credit to the author. Articles will be edited for length, clarity, and to adhere with The Canadian Lutheran’s style guide. Attach to an email one to four high-quality photos in their original format. Do not shrink photos before sending. Please do not embed the photos in the body of the email, a Word document, or a .pdf file, as this leads to image quality reduction. If the photographer is not the author of the accompanying article, please include his or her name.

The information and photos received may be use in Lutheran Church–Canada publications, including, but not limited to, The Canadian Lutheran (print and online versions), InfoDigest, and social media sites. By sending information and photos to us you are agreeing to the terms of our privacy policy.

Please note that due to timing and volume of submissions received, your article might not appear in the next issue of The Canadian Lutheran, but in the one after that. All submissions will receive a confirmation of receipt, so if you don’t receive an email within a few days, please resend your submission.

Magazine Designer – Alex Steinke

Alex Steinke serves as Communications Director for Lutheran Church–Canada, and is in charge of the design of the magazine. She is also in charge of content pertaining to International, National, Education, and Mission news. Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts in Media Production with a minor in English. She studied at the RTA School of Media at Ryerson University, Canada’s premier school of media production and broadcasting.

International, National, Missions, and Education News – Submission Guidelines

If you wish to submit a story pertaining to national or international events, mission news, or regarding either of LCC’s two seminaries, you can direct it to Alex Steinke.

LCC’s InfoDigest – Submission Guidelines

To submit announcements or information about upcoming events for LCC’s InfoDigest e-newsletter, please contact the Director of Communications. Submissions are due by 9 a.m. EDT on Wednesday prior to publication, and are to be 100 words or less (with the option of linking to longer descriptions through a web URL as needed). Submissions may be edited for clarity and consistency by LCC’s Director of Communications.

Are you a Listed Service Organization (LSO) or Auxiliary of Lutheran Church–Canada involved in International or Domestic Missions? To submit a ‘Mission Minute’ news item for InfoDigest, simply contact LCC’s Director of Communications with the subject line “InfoDigest Mission Minute” and include in your email (if applicable)

Advertising Manager – Angela Honey

The Canadian Lutheran welcomes advertising in print and online to help offset the cost of operating the magazine (printing and shipping costs, as well as website hosting costs).

Classified ads appear on the second last page of the magazine. Classified space is sold at $0.50 per word, at a minimum of 50 words ($25.00).

All other advertising opportunities—including ads with graphics for the print version of the magazine, and online advertising opportunities—are explained in the 2023 Advertising Rate Card.

TCL Media Kit & Rate Card 2023

Please note: Some spaces listed in the rate card may already be booked. For all advertising related inquiries, please contact Angela Honey.