India Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELC) is a Christian denomination in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Its headquarters is in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. It belongs to the

International Lutheran Council 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 Lu ...

and the

Lutheran World Federation The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; german: Lutherischer Weltbund) 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 ...

. It has four synods named Ambur Synod, Nagercoil Synod, Kerala Synod and Trivandrum Synod.The India Evangelical Lutheran Church was founded through the missionary efforts of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS), with whom it remains in

altar and pulpit fellowship Altar and pulpit fellowship describes an ecumenical collaboration between two Christian organizations, and is a Lutheran term for full communion, or ''communio in sacris.'' ''Altar'' refers to the altar in Christian churches, which holds the sacram ...

. The inception of IELC is rooted in the mission work of LCMS, beginning in 1894. Over the following decades, the LCMS sent more than 60 missionaries to serve in India. The work in India was known as the Missouri Evangelical Lutheran Mission (MELIM) and was carried out in areas of the

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

languages. In 1959, the IELC was established as an LCMS partner church and now does work in an additional seven languages. There are four Synods functioning within IELC.All Synods are Autonomous Bodies.The Kerala Synod was constituted by the bifurcation of Trivandrum Synod during 11th December 1988 and it was recognised by the civil courts and High Court of Kerala and High Court of Madras.The Kerala Synod has 290 local Churches (Congregations ) and 40 number of educational institutions (Schools) and Hospitals under it's administrative Control. The Trivandrum Synod has 31 Local Churches and 5 Schools( 3 Schools only in Kerala) The Kerala Synod has implemented Bishop System of Administration. There are six Arch Dioceses Constituted within the Kerala Synod and they are (1) Thiruvananthapuram (2)Alappuzha (3) Ernakulam(4) Malappuram/Wayanad (5) Chennai /Kanyakumari and (6)Mumbai/Gujarat Arch Diocese.Under the Arch Diocese, there are a number of Diocese functioning.The Delhi Diocese comes within the administrative control of Thiruvananthapuram Arch Diocese. The IELC has approximately 764 congregations, 115,000 baptized members, 70,000 communicant members, and 220 active pastors. It also has 59 elementary schools, 11 high schools, 7 schools for the handicapped, and three hospitals. There about 800 teachers serve those schools, many of them graduates of the IELC's teachers training institute. Concordia Theological Seminary in

Nagercoil Nagercoil, also spelt as Nagarkovil ("Temple of the Nāgas", or Nagaraja-Temple), is a city and the administrative headquarters of Kanyakumari District in Tamil Nadu state, India. Situated close to the tip of the Indian peninsula, it lies on an ...

was founded in 1924 to train pastors. On 30 November 2017,

Cyclone Ockhi Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Ockhi was a strong tropical cyclone that devastated parts of Sri Lanka and India in 2017, and was the most intense tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea since Cyclone Megh in 2015. The ninth depression, and the third a ...

damaged the seminary campus so severely that IELC leaders doubted that they would ever be able to reopen. Nevertheless, the seminary was able to rebuild. The new and renovated structures have retained the historic appearance of the campus. The rededication in June 2022 included representatives from the LCMS, which had helped with the reconstruction. The reopened seminary has almost 100 students, with plans to increase enrollment to 130 in two years. A new Seminary "Concordia Theological Seminary "was also constituted by the Kerala Synod at Thiruvananthapuram. The Major Arch Bishop & President of the Kerala Synod is Most Rev Adv.Dr.Robinson David Luther ( Founder Leader ). The IELC is a member of the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

, the

Christian Conference of Asia The Christian Conference of Asia is a regional ecumenical organisation representing 15 National Councils and over 100 denominations (churches) in New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, East Timor, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, ...

, the

National Council of Churches in India The National Council of Churches in India is an ecumenical forum for Protestant and Orthodox churches in India. History The Council was established in 1914 as the "National Missionary Council." In 1923, the Council constituted itself as the "Nat ...

, and the Lutheran World Federation Council of Churches in India. It is a member church in the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India (UELCI), a communion of Lutheran churches. The current president of the IELC is Rev. Suviseshamuthu, who was elected as president of the IELC in May 2017, succeeding President Gambeeram, who presided at the election; President Suviseshamuthu's election was also observed by two representative of the Office of International Mission of the LCMS. LCMS representatives likewise witnessed the election of Rev. Gambeeram on 27 May 2014, who succeeded President Samuel. President Harrison officially recognized Rev. Raja Gambeeram as the president of the IELC on behalf of the LCMS on Epiphany, 6 January 2015.

References

External links

Website of the India Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELC)Website of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in IndiaWebsite of the Trivandrum Synod of the India Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELC)

See also

References

External links

See also