Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) (French: Eglise Evangelique Lutherienne au Canada) is Canada's largest Lutheran denomination, with 182,077 baptized members in 624 congregations. It is a member of the Lutheran World Federation, the Canadian Council of Churches, and the World Council of Churches.
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[edit] History
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada came into being in 1986 through the merger of two predecessor bodies the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada (started in 1966 by Canadian congregations of the American Lutheran Church) and three synods of the Lutheran Church in America, called the Canada Section. In 1988 these two US church bodies ceased to exist as they merged into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the ELCIC's sister denomination in the United States.
[edit] Doctrine
The Church derives its teachings from the Bible and confess the three ecumenical creeds of the Christian Church--that is, the Apostle's Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is in full communion with the Anglican Church of Canada under the Waterloo Declaration. The Waterloo Lutheran Seminary and Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon are the seminaries owned by the church.
[edit] Organisation
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is composed of five synods (similar to a diocese in Anglican polity). The presiding officer and chief pastor of each synod is a bishop.
- The British Columbia Synod
- The Synod of Alberta and the Territories
- The Saskatchewan Synod
- The Manitoba/Northwestern Ontario Synod
- The Eastern Synod
This structure is identical to the synod structure of the ELCA, except that the Canadian synods cover one or more entire provinces, whereas some ELCA synods cover the whole or part of a metro area and some cover several states. Like the ELCA a presiding bishop serves as its head, but in the ELCIC, this bishop is known as the "National Bishop."
[edit] National Bishops
- Rev. Donald Sjoberg, 1986-1993
- Rev. Telmor Sartison, 1993-2001
- Rev. Raymond Schultz, 2001-
[edit] Same-sex unions
In 2006, the Eastern Synod voted to allow individual pastors and congregations to conduct blessing of same-sex unions, prompting a dispute between the synod and the national church over which body has the authority to make such a decision. The national church had previously voted against blessings, and the ELCIC's full communion partner, the Anglican Church of Canada, had voted to defer a decision. National Bishop Raymond Schultz said: "The Officers of this church will bring a recommendation to NCC [National Church Council] regarding the legality of the Eastern Synod resolution at the September 15-16, 2006 meeting to be held in Winnipeg...It would be advisable for congregations considering the blessing of same gender couples to wait until NCC has made a ruling on this matter before proceeding further." The Council agreed that Eastern Synod had exceeded its authority, but adopted a motion enabling the local option, which it announced it would bring to the 2007 National Convention [1]. Bishop Pryse of the Eastern Synod responded to the NCC ruling:
"After significant conversation, the Eastern Synod Council has determined that the Eastern Synod had both the right and obligation to pass this motion. We believe, however, that it would be prudent to refrain from acting on it at this present time. As such, we receive the ruling of National Church Council with deep regret." [2]
In November of 2006, Pastor Frank Haggarty, the pastor of the ELCIC's largest congregation, St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kitchener, Ontario, announced that, given the approval of two thirds of the congregation, he would begin solemnising same-sex marriages. Bishop Pryse responded that if this occurred, he would impose the lightest forms of discipline [3].
