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 2021, it has approximately 3.04 million baptized members in 8,724 congregations.
Seminex is the widely used abbreviation for Concordia Seminary in Exile, which existed from 1974 to 1987 after a schism in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). The seminary in exile was formed due to the ongoing Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy that was dividing Protestant churches in the United States. At issue were foundational disagreements on the authority of Scripture and the role of Christianity. During the 1960s, many clergy and members of the LCMS grew concerned about the direction of education at their flagship seminary, Concordia Seminary, in St. Louis, Missouri. Professors at Concordia Seminary had, in the 1950s and 1960s, begun to utilize the historical-critical method to analyze the Bible rather than the traditional historical-grammatical method that considered scripture to be the inerrant Word of God.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is Canada's largest Lutheran denomination, with 95,000 baptized members in 519 congregations, with the second largest, the Lutheran Church–Canada, having 53,165 baptized members. Together with the LCC and the Canadian Association of Lutheran Congregations, it is one of only three all-Canadian Lutheran denominations. It is a member of the Lutheran World Federation, the Canadian Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, and the Anglican-Lutheran North American grouping Churches Beyond Borders. According to the 2011 Canadian census, a larger number of 478,185 adherents identify as Lutheran.
Mark S. Hanson is an American bishop who served as the third Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Before being elected presiding bishop, he served as bishop of the Saint Paul Area Synod as well as pastor of three Minnesota congregations: Prince of Glory Lutheran Church, Minneapolis; Edina Community Lutheran Church; and University Lutheran Church of Hope in Minneapolis. In addition to serving as Presiding Bishop, Hanson was the 11th President of the Lutheran World Federation.
The Lutheran Church in America (LCA) was an American and Canadian Lutheran church body that existed from 1962 to 1987. It was headquartered in New York City and its publishing house was Fortress Press.
Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (LTSS) is a theological seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and located in Columbia, South Carolina. It offers theological degrees. In 2012, it merged with Lenoir-Rhyne University, also affiliated with the ELCA. Although Lenoir-Rhyne is based in Hickory, North Carolina, LTSS operates as a satellite campus in Columbia.
Rev. Marie C. Jerge is a former bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Wilma S. Kucharek is bishop of the Slovak Zion Synod.
Herbert W. Chilstrom was an American religious leader, who served as the first Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). He was re-elected to a four-year term at the 1991 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Orlando, Florida. He served as bishop of the Minnesota Synod of the Lutheran Church in America, one of the three church bodies which merged to form the ELCA on Jan. 1, 1988.
The Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod (1820–1920), commonly known as just the Tennessee Synod, was a Lutheran church body known for its staunch adherence to the Augsburg Confession and commitment to confessional Lutheranism. The synod began with six ministers in 1820 and had forty by 1919, plus ten students and candidates for ministry. It merged into the United Synod of North Carolina in 1920.
The North American Lutheran Church (NALC) is a Lutheran denomination with over 420 congregations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, counting more than 142,000 baptized members. The NALC believes all doctrines should and must be judged by the teaching of the Christian Scriptures, in keeping with the historic Lutheran Confessions. It was established on August 27, 2010. The group describes itself as embodying the "theological center of Lutheranism in North America," noting that it stands between the more liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the more conservative Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and other Lutheran church bodies in North America, "firmly within the global Lutheran mainstream".
Leonard H. Bolick is a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and served as the bishop of the North Carolina Evangelical Lutheran Synod from 1997 to 2015. Bolick is known for seeking ecumenical reconciliation and improving relations with the Roman Catholic Church in North Carolina while he has been bishop. Prior to serving as Bishop of North Carolina, Bolick served as a pastor at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church in Concord, North Carolina and St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He later joined the Bishop of North Carolina's personal staff and served in youth ministry and evangelism, and was a member of the Synod's transition team. He was consecrated as Bishop of the North Carolina Synod on February 2, 1997. He was succeeded in this position by Timothy Smith, who was officially installed as bishop of the North Carolina Synod on September 12, 2015.
The Reverend Dr Jacob Luther Mauney was an American Lutheran pastor who served as President (Bishop) of the Virginia Synod from 1948 to 1976.
The Reverend Richard F. Bansemer is a Lutheran pastor who served as Bishop of the Virginia Synod from 1987-1999. Richard F. Bansemer was born to Reinhold Matthias and Oralee Ann Brierly Bansemer.
R. Guy Erwin (Osage) is an American Lutheran bishop. He was elected in 2013 to a six-year term as bishop of the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Since August 2020, he has served as president of the United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia.
Elizabeth Amy Eaton is the fourth Presiding Bishop, and the first female Presiding Bishop, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). She was first elected to this post in 2013 and was re-elected for a second term in 2019. Prior to becoming presiding bishop, she served as bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod.
April Ulring Larson is an American retired Lutheran bishop. In 1992, she became the first woman to be elected to serve as a bishop by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Concordia College was a Lutheran college and high school in Conover, North Carolina. Founded as a high school by members of the Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod in 1878, it added college courses in 1881. The English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States took over control of the school in 1893. Control passed to the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod when the English Synod merged with it in 1911. In April 1935, a fire destroyed the main building, and the school closed permanently at the end of the spring semester.
