LCC declares fellowship with the Lutheran Church in Norway and Iceland

EDMONTON – On June 12, 2022, the synodical convention of Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) declared fellowship with the Lutheran Church in Norway and Iceland (LCNI) in a unanimous vote.

Rev. Joel Kuhl, chairman of LCC’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations, noted how refreshing it was to engage in dialogue and discover that our churches have the same confession of faith.

The LCNI is a young church body, having emerged in 2006, and has congregations and mission plants which serve Norwegian and Sámi speakers throughout Norway. The church also serves a mission site in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland.

Bishop Torkild Masvie of the LCNI was delayed in arriving and so addressed the convention the next morning. He thanked LCC for declaring fellowship, and expressed a desire to cooperate on seminary education. The LCNI requires its pastoral candidates to complete an additional year of training at a confessional Lutheran seminary in North America, currently limited to the seminaries of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). But as the church’s number of pastoral candidates expands, it is hoping to partner with LCC for that fifth year of education.

Bishop Masvie previously attended LCC’s convention in 2017.

The LCNI is a young church body, having emerged in 2006, and has congregations and mission plants which serve Norwegian and Sámi speakers throughout Norway. The church also serves a mission site in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland.

Like LCC, the Lutheran Church in Norway and Iceland is a member church of the International Lutheran Council. It previously entered into fellowship with The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in 2015.