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ELC: Living in an ecumenical world

by | May 24, 2014

ELC President Jean Thiébaut Haessig takes part in group-discussions on "living in an ecumenical world." In the back, ELC Secretary George Samiec listens in.

ELC President Jean Thiébaut Haessig takes part in group-discussions on “living in an ecumenical world.” In the back, ELC Secretary George Samiec listens in.

GERMANY – The European Lutheran Conference (ELC) continued into its second day of meetings May 23 in Bleckmar, Germany.

Discussion of this year’s theme—“Living in an Ecumenical World”—continued Friday, with Chairman Jon Ehlers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in England (ELCE) giving the event’s third major presentation. Chairman Ehlers, who also serves the International Lutheran Council as its European world region representative, spoke on the practical challenges confessional Lutheran churches face today, using the experiences of the ELCE to illustrate. Among the topics he discussed were who can serve as baptismal sponsors, visitors attending worship services at which Holy Communion is being served, participation in local ecumenical events, and more.

Conference participants then broke into small groups where they discussed Chairman Ehler’s presentation, before reporting their thoughts back to the larger conference. A day earlier the same groups discussed two additional topics: the nature of the church, and how confessional Lutherans should relate to other denominations. The conclusions drawn by the ELC in these discussions will be used in the formation of a guidance document on “Living in an Ecumenical World”—a series of recommendations on the subject for confessional Lutheran congregations in Europe.

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European Lutheran Conference meets in Germany

by | May 22, 2014

Participants at the ELC's 2014 conference in Germany.

Participants at the ELC’s 2014 conference in Germany. (Photo: Rick Steenbock)

GERMANY – From May 22-25, the European Lutheran Conference (ELC) is meeting in Bleckmar, Germany for its 23rd conference. The conference follows on the heels of the International Lutheran Council’s (ILC) European world region conference, also held in Bleckmar, on May 21.

The ELC has six-full member churches, all of which are also members of the ILC. The ELC’s full-member churches include the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England, the Evangelical Lutheran Church – Synod of France, the Portuguese Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Belgium (ELKB), and Germany’s Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK). In addition to church leaders and lay representatives from these churches, this year’s conference includes guest participants from Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Kirghistan, Finland, and Sweden.

“Member churches need such meetings to realize that other churches know similar joys and problems,” ELC President Jean Thiébaut Haessig explains, “and to discover new ideas for their own church life, even if they live and work in different cultures, languages, and situations. Contacts are built between lay people of different churches which are necessary complements to the contacts between the church leaders.”

On the first day of the conference, presentations centered on two major topics. The first—what makes a Church a Church—was led by President Gisjbertus van Hattem of the ELKB. President van Hattem also serves as Secretary on the Executive Council of the ILC. The second focus of discussion—how confessional Lutheran churches ought to regard and relate to other denominations—was led by Rev. Roger Zieger, Director of SELK’s mission agency, the Lutheran Church Mission.

The origins of the ELC date back to just after the Second World War, when Confessional Lutheran churches from across Europe began meeting together in regular Mission Conferences. In 1986, these meetings transitioned to become the European Lutheran Conference. The purpose of the ELC according to its Guiding Principles is to “promote unity, fellowship, and cooperation between the member churches.”

The ELC’s conferences are currently held biannually, with the 2012 convention having taken place in Mulhouse, France.

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Latvian and German Lutherans hold meetings

by | Apr 14, 2014

Dean Andris Krauliņš, Romāns Ganiņš, and Bishop Hans-Jörg Voigt.

Dean Andris Krauliņš, Romāns Ganiņš, and Bishop Hans-Jörg Voigt.

GERMANY – From March 24-25, representatives of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCL) visited Hanover for meetings with Germany’s Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK). Dean Andris Krauliņš of Latvia’s Jūrmala circuit and Romāns Ganiņš, Head of Administration at the Consistory in Riga, represented the ELCL. SELK was represented by its Bishop, Rev. Hans-Jörg Voigt.

Discussions over the two days focused on church-congregational life in the two partner churches. Michael Schätzel of the German church’s council gave Romāns Ganiņš a detailed description of the financial systems of SELK, focusing on congregational budget-planning systems. Dean Andris Krauliņš and Bishop Voigt shared together the different structures of organization in the two church bodies, with the latter describing the meeting structure of the church’s council.

“Last year I visited the synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia,” Bishop Voigt noted. “Whenever I meet together with our brothers and sisters in Latvia, I appreciate our closeness in the liturgy of the Lutheran worship service and in our confessions. We need to support one another as we face our secularizing European culture.”

The Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany has 187 churches, 124 active pastors, and approximately 35,000 members. Its bishop, Rev. Hans-Jörg Voigt, also serves as Chairman for the International Lutheran Council.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, a member of the Lutheran World Federation, is one of the largest Christian church bodies in Latvia, with nearly 300 churches throughout the nation served by 140 pastors and ten evangelists. Of Latvia’s 2.3 million population, approximately 430,000 identify as Lutheran, with about a tenth of these active in the life of the church.

The German and Latvian churches signed an “Agreement of Partnership” in 2002 on the grounds of common subscription to the Lutheran Confessions. The two churches are in the process of seeking full altar and pulpit fellowship. In addition to SELK, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia has ties to other ILC churches, including The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod with which it achieved altar and pulpit fellowship in 2001.

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Edmonton seminary to honour German bishop

by | Apr 4, 2014

(From the Canadian Lutheran)

The Rev. Hans-Jörg Voigt, Bishop of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany.

EDMONTON – The Rev. Hans-Jörg Voigt, Bishop of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (SELK), will receive the honourary Doctor of Divinity degree at Concordia Lutheran Seminary’s Sacred Convocation in late May. News of the seminary faculty’s action in granting this honour was recently announced by Rev. Dr. James Gimbel, CLS president.

Bishop Voigt, a native of the former communist East Germany, served as a parish pastor for 13 years before his election as SELK leader in 2006. In 2010 he became chairman of the International Lutheran Council (ILC), an association of confessional churches around the world. Despite the modest size of his church body, he has become prominent – especially in the past year – for his very courageous witness in support of historic Christian teaching on marriage, and in opposition to abortion on demand. His 2013 Pastoral Letter “Discovering Marriage and Family as Gifts of God” and other public actions won him recognition as “2013 Bishop of the Year” by an interdenominational Christian news service in his country, and more recently a “Declaration of Respect” by the Association of Christian Publicists.

”Concordia Lutheran Seminary is grateful for the opportunity to publicly acknowledge the courageous leadership and ministry of Bishop Voigt,” noted President Gimbel, in announcing this recognition. “In our global age, partnerships are critically important for a faithful adherence to and proclamation of God’s Word for our world. The presence of the Missionary Study Centre at our seminary, and the extensive work done by our faculty in delivering theological education to Ukraine, southeast Asia, and elsewhere testifies to our love of Christ’s mission, not only in Canada, but throughout the world. We hope to form a new generation of pastors as courageous servants of Christ in season and out of season, wherever God has placed us. We thank God for partners and models like Bishop Voigt, and appreciate this chance to highlight his leadership and witness.”

The Sacred Convocation, at which Bishop Voigt is to be honoured, begins at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, May 30 at the Tegler Centre of Concordia University College of Alberta, directly next door to the seminary. This annual event marks the close of the academic year, and is highlighted by the conferral of academic degrees, as well as the distribution of vicarages and candidate calls. It is a public event, to which pastors, deacons and lay people from LCC congregations are invited.

Concordia Lutheran Seminary, one of the two theological schools maintained by Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC), was founded in 1984 and has taken a leading role in the academic and spiritual preparation of pastors, especially in the two western districts of LCC.

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Germany’s Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church welcomes Iranian converts

by | Feb 4, 2014

selk-webGERMANY – The Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK) continues to see remarkable numbers of Iranian Muslims converting to Christianity. According to a recent SELKinfo story, Rev. Dr. Gottfried Martens of St. Mary’s Lutheran Church (Steglitz, Berlin) reports that the number of congregational members and applicants for baptism of Persian background at his church has recently grown by 75%. The same report notes three groups of Iranians were preparing for baptism at the time, with the first group scheduled to have been baptized December 15, 2013.

“It is a kind of miracle which we experience in Berlin right now,” explained Rev. Dr. Jobst H.M. Schöne (Bishop Emeritus of SELK) during a 2013 visit to Canada. It all began when a few Iranians showed up for service at the church one Sunday, he said. As time went on, they expressed an interest in being baptized. “We thought at the beginning,” Dr. Schöne reflects, “that’s it: two people, maybe three people, maybe four people. I tell you, it’s now more than 300.”

While the number of Iranian converts is something to rejoice over, conversion often comes with a cost. “They are sometimes suffering very much from their fellow country-men, living in an asylum home [for refugees],” Dr. Schöne explains. “All day long they are together with Muslims, and if they find out that some of them are going to become Christians, then there is a big controversy.” Moreover, many of these converts are still in the middle of refugee claims. Converting to Christianity, and then being forced to return to Iran could see them face severe persecution, even capital punishment, as converting to Christianity from Islam is a crime which carries the death sentence in Iran. Such fears have “increased the pressure placed on them when they have to prove their commitment to being Christians before German courts,” notes the SELKinfo report, “in which process they have seen themselves subjected to very arbitrary standards as Lutheran Christians.” Dr. Martens and other members of St. Mary’s often appear as witnesses on their behalf during these refugee trials.

In addition to baptismal instruction for Iranians, St. Mary’s is reaching out in a number of other ways, including through home Bible studies, confirmation classes, and youth group. The congregation also hosts regular lunches following Sunday worship. “On account of many guests,” the SELKinfo story explains, “teams of cooks prepare the food ahead of time on Saturdays, with those who take part looking after a good portion of the cost of these meals by donation.” The fellowship meals have become an even stronger opportunity for spiritual growth since November, the report continues, when Sister Martha Brauner (a deaconess of the Bethel Diaconal Community) began attending. “Sister Martha worked for over 40 years in a hospital in Afghanistan, and thus speaks Farsi,” the report notes, “which makes it possible for the new congregational members to hear about faith in Christ in their mother tongue.”

Dr. Martens and his work among Iranians was featured in a 2012 Christianity Today article entitled “The other Iranian Revolution.” He was also named 2012’s “Pastor of the Year” by ideaSpektrum (a German Christian magazine) for his work caring for Iranian converts over the previous five years. “These refugees are taking unimaginable risks to live their Christian faith,” noted Dr. Martens in the Christianity Today article. “Imagine! Of all places, God chooses eastern Germany, one of the world’s most godless regions, as the stage for a spiritual awakening among Persians.”

For more information on German Lutheran outreach to Iranians, watch the following video. It features Dr. Schöne and was recorded at Lutheran Church–Canada’s 2013 National Pastors and Deacons Conference.

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(English translations of the SELKinfo report courtesy of Rev. Dr. John Stephenson.)

The SELK Headquarters

by | Nov 17, 2013


After spending time in Wittenberg, Germany, there was opportunity to visit the headquarters of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK) in Hannover. SELK is a partner church with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) and also a member of the International Lutheran Council (ILC).


Hans-Jörg Voigt serves as the SELK bishop. He also serves as the chairman of the International Lutheran Council (ILC).


Bishop Voigt presented me with Preußische Union, lutherisches Bekenntnis und Prägungen, (Prussian Union, Lutheran Confession and Mould), which is the history of the independent Lutheran Church in Germany. It also is a part of the Missouri Synod’s history, as it tells the story of Walther’s allies in Germany. This common history is part of the bond that connects the LCMS and SELK together as sisters.


Bishop Voigt also shared his book, Lutherisch Abendmahl feiern (Celebrating the Lord’s Supper as Lutheran). The book is framed around the theme: Prayers and reflections in preparation for the Holy Communion (Gebete und Betrachtungen zur Vorbereitung auf das heilige Abendmahl). Among the “reflections” provided by the book:

1. What I’ve always wanted to know about the Lord’s Supper. (Was ich schon immer mal vom Abendmahl wissen wollte). This section included questions such as “How long does the body and blood of Christ remain in the bread and wine?”, “Do Lutherans believe in the change [of the elements from bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ]?”, “Can a person adore / venerate the body and blood of Christ?” and so forth.

2. Christ in me — Reflections concerning Christ being with me (Christus in mir – Betrachtung über den mitgehenden Christus).

The booklet is very helpful and might be translated for use among ILC members.

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