Lutheranism was first introduced to Angola in the late 1800s, when Finnish missionaries began working in northern Namibia and southern Angola. Following the Portuguese defeat of Mandume Ya Ndemufayo in 1917, the Lutheran church in Angola was repressed by the Roman Catholic Portuguese authorities. In 1956, Lutheranism was reestablished in Angola, and in 1991, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Angola was organized as an independent church body. [1] In 1997, a smaller group of conservative Lutheran missionaries helped to organize a second Angolan Lutheran church: the Confessional Lutheran Church in Angola. [2]
Missionaries from the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (FELM) first arrived in the Ondonga kingdom in northern Namibia in July 1870. Two decades later, German missionaries from the Rhenish Missionary Society began evangelizing among the Oukwanyama people in northern Namibia and southern Angola. [3] [4] The latter group established mission plants in Ondjiva, Omupanda, Namakunde, and Omatemba, but these missions were threatened during the reign of Mandume Ya Ndemufayo, leading many converts to flee south to Ondonga. [5] Following Ndemufayo's defeat by the Portuguese, most of the Lutherans who remained in Angola moved to Namibia, while the rest either converted to Roman Catholicism or renounced Christianity entirely. Indigenous Lutheran missionaries from Namibia returned to Angola beginning in 1933, but they were largely driven out by the Roman Catholic Portuguese officials. [6]
In 1956, the first permanent Lutheran congregation was established in Angola since the departure of the Rhenish missionaries in 1915. Seven years later, a second congregation was established. Over the next several decades, more congregations were established under the auspices of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN), almost all of them in the Cunene Province. These missions were aided financially by both the ELCIN and the FELM. [7] In 1991, these congregations were organized as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Angola.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Angola (Igreja Evangélica Luterana de Angola or IELA) is an Evangelical Lutheran church body in Angola. The IELA traces its roots back to the 1950s–'60s missionary efforts of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia and Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission. It was officially organized in 1991, [7] registered with the Angolan government in 1996, and joined both the Lutheran World Federation and the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa in 1997. [8] [9] As of 2003, it had 31 congregations (19 in the Cunene Province and 12 in other provinces), with approximately 25,000 baptized members. [10] By 2009, the church had grown to 40,000 members, [11] and as of 2016, it had 49,500 members. [8] The church is mostly active in the Cunene Province, and its head office is located in Lubango. Its current president is Tomás Ndawanapo. [8]
The Confessional Lutheran Church in Angola (Igreja Luterana Confessional em Angola or ILCA) is a confessional Lutheran church body in Angola. The ILCA traces its roots to the late 1990s, when Pastor Jeremiah Mavungu and his son, Pastor Benjamin Nzuzi Mavungu, began missionary work in the city of Cabinda. In 2000, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil (IELB) and the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) began providing theological training for the pastors of the ILCA. [12] [2] [13] As of 2013, the church consisted of approximately 500 members and six pastors. [12]
The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.7 million members as of 2022 it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States, behind the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The LCMS was organized in 1847 at a meeting in Chicago, as the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, a name which partially reflected the geographic locations of the founding congregations.
Lutheran Church – Canada (LCC) is a confessional Lutheran denomination in Canada. It is the second largest Lutheran body in Canada after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC). Together with the ELCIC and the Canadian Association of Lutheran Congregations, it is one of only three all-Canadian Lutheran denominations. LCC was founded in 1988 when Canadian congregations of the St. Louis–based Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) formed an autonomous church body with a synodical office in Winnipeg, Manitoba. LCC has no substantial theological divisions from LCMS and the two church bodies are in full altar and pulpit fellowship with each other.
The International Lutheran Council (ILC) is a worldwide association of confessional Lutheran denominations. Member bodies of the ILC hold "an unconditional commitment to the Holy Scriptures as the inspired and infallible Word of God and to the Lutheran Confessions contained in the Book of Concord as the true and faithful exposition of the Word of God." The member church bodies are not required to be in church-fellowship with one another, though many of them are.
The Japan Lutheran Church or NRK is a confessional Lutheran denomination in Japan. It currently has approximately 766 baptized members in 35 congregations nationwide.
The Lutheran World Federation is a global communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish city of Lund in the aftermath of the Second World War in 1947 to coordinate the activities of the many differing Lutheran churches. Since 1984, the member churches are in pulpit and altar fellowship, with common doctrine as the basis of membership and mission activity.
The Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) is a US-based Protestant Christian denomination based in Mankato, Minnesota. It describes itself as a conservative, Confessional Lutheran body. The ELS has 130 congregations and has missions in Peru, Chile, India, South Korea, Ukraine, Czech Republic, and Latvia.
Confessional Lutheranism is a name used by Lutherans to designate those who believe in the doctrines taught in the Book of Concord of 1580 in their entirety. Confessional Lutherans maintain that faithfulness to the Book of Concord, which is a summary of the teachings found in Scripture, requires attention to how that faith is actually being preached, taught, and put into practice. Confessional Lutherans believe that this is a vital part of their identity as Lutherans.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil is a Lutheran church, which was founded in 1904 in Rio Grande do Sul, a southern state in Brazil.
The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, often known simply as the Synodical Conference, was an association of Lutheran synods that professed a complete adherence to the Lutheran Confessions and doctrinal unity with each other. Founded in 1872, its membership fluctuated as various synods joined and left it. Due to doctrinal disagreements with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS), the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) left the conference in 1963. It was dissolved in 1967 and the other remaining member, the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, merged into the LCMS in 1971.
Lutheranism is present on all inhabited continents with an estimated 80 million adherents, out of which 74.2 million are affiliated with the Lutheran World Federation. A major movement that first began the Reformation, it constitutes one of the largest Protestant branches claiming around 80 million out of 920 million Protestants. The Lutheran World Federation brings together the vast majority of Lutherans. Apart from it, there are also other organisations such as the International Lutheran Council and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, as well as multiple independent Lutheran denominations.
Mandume ya Ndemufayo was the last king of the Oukwanyama, a subset of the Ovambo people of southern Angola and northern Namibia. Ya Ndemufayo took over the kingdom in 1911 and his reign lasted until 1917 when he died of either suicide or machine gun fire while he was under attack from South African colonizers. Ya Ndemufayo is honoured as a national hero in both Angola and Namibia.
Oukwanyama is a traditional kingdom of the Ovambo people in what is today northern Namibia and southern Angola. Its capital is Oihole. They caused one of the biggest defeats in Portuguese colonial history at the Battle of the Cunene in 1904.
The India Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELC) is a confessional Lutheran Christian church body of India headquartered in Tamil Nadu. It belongs to the International Lutheran Council and the Lutheran World Federation. It has three synods, named Ambur Synod, Nagercoil Synod, and Trivandrum Synod. The IELC was founded through the missionary efforts of the US-based Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS), with whom it remains in altar and pulpit fellowship.
The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission is a Lutheran missionary society formed on January 19, 1859, in Helsinki, Finland. It is one of seven organisations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF) that conduct missionary work. Its first deployments outside Finland were made to Ovamboland, an area that today is cut by the Angola-Namibian border.
The Spanish Evangelical Lutheran Church is a Confessional Lutheran church. It is in communion with other confessional Lutheran churches in the European Lutheran Conference (ELC) and globally in the International Lutheran Council (ILC). It adheres unreservedly to the historical confessions of the Lutheran Church: the Book of Concord of 1580, which they see as agreeing with Holy Scripture.
The Portuguese Evangelical Lutheran Church is a Confessional Lutheran church. It is a member of the European Lutheran Conference and of the International Lutheran Council.
Lutheranism was first introduced to Mexico in the 1850s, when German-American Lutherans began serving German immigrants in Mexico, though mission work among the non-German population in Mexico did not begin until the 1940s. Today there are five Lutheran church bodies in Mexico—the Mexican Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Synod of Mexico, the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Church—Mexico, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mexico (unaffiliated), and the Lutheran Apostolic Alliance of Mexico (unaffiliated)—and several independent congregations.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina is a conservative, confessional Lutheran synod that holds to the Book of Concord. It has about 27.890 members. The IELA is a member of the International Lutheran Council.
Shekutaamba Väinö yaVäinö Nambala is a retired Bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia.