Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Classification
Protestant
Orientation
Mainline Lutheran
Polity
Interdependent local, regional, and national
expressions with
modified episcopal polity
Associations
Lutheran World Federation, Christian
Churches Together, Churches Uniting in
Christ, National Council of Churches, World
Council of Churches
Geographical
Area
United States & Caribbean
Origin
1988
Merge of
Lutheran Church in America, American
Lutheran Church, & Association of Evangelical
Lutheran Churches
Separations
Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ,
Augustana Orthodox and Evangelical Lutheran
Synod
Congregations
10,448
Members
4,709,956
Presiding Bishop - The Rev. Mark Hanson
Vice President - Carlos Peña
Secretary - David Swartling
Treasurer - Christina Jackson-Skelton
Lutheranism
Luther’s Seal
Lutheranism portal
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a
mainline Protestant denomination headquartered in Ch-
icago, Illinois. Formed in 1988 by the merging of three
churches and currently having about 4.70 million bap-
tized members, it is the largest of all the Lutheran de-
nominations in the United States[1] and the fourth-
largest Protestant denomination.[2] The next two largest
Lutheran denominations are the Lutheran Church - Mis-
souri Synod (with approximately 2.41 million mem-
bers[3]) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
(with approximately 390,000 members). There are also
many smaller Lutheran church bodies in the United
States.
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denomina-
tions in the United States. The ELCA also has congrega-
tions in the Caribbean region (Bahamas, Bermuda,
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and one con-
gregation in the border town of Windsor, Ontario, a
member of the Slovak Zion Synod. Before 1986, some of
the congregations that form the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Canada were part of the ELCA’s predecessor
churches. As of the acceptance of the document Called to
Common Mission (CCM) in the year 2000, i