Evangelical Lutheran Church in America information
Largest Lutheran denomination in the United States
"ELCA" redirects here. For other uses, see ELCA (disambiguation).
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Classification
Mainline Protestant
Orientation
Lutheran
Polity
Modified episcopal polity with some powers reserved to the congregation as in congregationalism
Presiding Bishop
Elizabeth Eaton
Presiding Bishop Pro Tempore
Michael Burk
Associations
Lutheran World Federation
Christian Churches Together
Churches Uniting in Christ
National Council of Churches
World Council of Churches
Churches Beyond Borders
Region
United States and Caribbean
Headquarters
Lutheran Center, 8765 W Higgins Rd, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Origin
Constituting Convention on April 30, 1987, in Columbus, Ohio,[1] operations began January 1, 1988[2]
Merger of
Lutheran Church in America
American Lutheran Church
Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches
Separations
Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (2001)
North American Lutheran Church (2010)
Congregations
8,640 (2022)[3]
Members
2,904,686 baptized members (2022)[3]
Missionaries
About 150 fully supported, including nine evangelists[4]
Official website
www.elca.org
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. As of 2022[update], it has approximately 2.9 million baptized members in 8,640 congregations.[3]
In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 1.4 percent of the U.S. population self-identifies with the ELCA.[5] It is the seventh-largest Christian denomination by reported membership,[6] and the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.[7] The next two largest Lutheran denominations are the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) (with over 1.8 million baptized members[8]) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) (with approximately 340,000 members).[9] There are also many smaller Lutheran church bodies in the United States, some of which were formed by dissidents to the major 1988 merger.
The ELCA belongs to the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and the Lutheran World Federation. The ELCA is in full communion with the Episcopal Church, Moravian Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.[10]
^"ELCA Constituting Convention". Archived from the original on November 2, 2009. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
^"ELCA Family History 1900s". Archived from the original on April 20, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
^ abc"Summary of Congregational Statistics as of 12-31-2022" (PDF). Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. December 31, 2022. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
^David Neff. "'It's Not About the Past'". ChristianityToday.com. Archived from the original on October 14, 2012. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
^"Religious Landscape Study". pewforum.org. Pew Research. Archived from the original on March 29, 2016. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
^"National Council of Churches USA". www.ncccusa.org. March 20, 2012. Archived from the original on August 30, 2013. Retrieved March 23, 2019.. In 2012 larger churches in terms of number of members were the Catholic Church, Southern Baptist Convention, United Methodist Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church of God in Christ, and the National Baptist Convention, USA.
^"Quick Facts". ELCA. Archived from the original on October 26, 2007. Retrieved December 13, 2007..
^"LCMS Inc. Annual Report- 2020". Archived from the original on July 19, 2021. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
^"WELS ANNUAL REPORT 2022". Archived from the original on July 21, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
^"Full Communion Partners". ELCA.org. Archived from the original on November 16, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
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