LELB Archbishop Jānis Vanags (centre) during worship at the Latvian church’s 2021 synod. (Image: Screenshot).
LATVIA – The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (Latvijas evaņģēliski luteriskā Baznīca – LELB) held its 28th synod on August 6, 2021, during which time the church voted to seek membership in the International Lutheran Council (ILC).
“We are delighted to learn that the Latvian church has voted to seek membership in the International Lutheran Council,” said ILC General Secretary Timothy Quill. “The LELB has a long, fruitful, and harmonious relationship with many of the churches who are members of the ILC. We know each other well and are of like mind and heart in Lutheran doctrine and practice.”
“At a time when many church bodies worldwide have rejected historic Christian teaching, the ILC has become a welcoming and loving home to those faithful to Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions,” he continued. “Many of our dear Latvian friends have already experienced this firsthand. The peace, concord, and love shared among ILC churches is indeed a beautiful thing.”
Participants in the LELB’s 2021 synod. (Image: Screenshot.)
Delegates to the LELB’s synod met under the theme “We Will Serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15), gathering in an open-air facility in Roja. This was the first time a synod of the LELB has been held outside Riga. The synod had previously been scheduled to take place in June 2020 but was postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among other business during the synod, the LELB also voted to withdraw from membership in the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE), formerly known as the Leuenberg Church Fellowship. “When LELB joined the CPCE in 1975, we were behind the Iron Curtain,” noted Rev. Andris Kraulins (Riga), head of the LELB’s department for international affairs. “There was no discussion about it in the church; it was a decision of the archbishop at that time. The reason for joining was also not so much that we agreed with the content of the Leuenberg Agreement, but rather an attempt to protect the church from the arbitrariness of the Soviet state.” The first moves towards exiting the agreement began in the 1990s.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia is the largest church body in Latvia, with approximately 700,000 members. The International Lutheran Council is a global association of confessional Lutheran church bodies which proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the basis of an unconditional commitment to the Holy Scriptures and to the Lutheran Confessions. The ILC exists to encourage, strengthen, and promote confessional Lutheran theology and practice centered in Jesus Christ both among its members and throughout the world.
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