Lutheran World Federation

The Lutheran Council of Great Britain is a recognised council of the Lutheran World Federation – A Communion of Churches (LWF). Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF represents about 95% of all Lutherans. There are nearly 140 member churches in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America. Its secretariat is in Geneva.

The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, mission and development work. The LWF supports hundreds of projects in local churches and communities and employs more than 5,500 staff in relief, rehabilitation and development programmes.

All LWF churches are in communion with one another. Each member church is an autonomous entity, as the word ‘federation’ implies, and can embrace or stand aside from statements or agreements approved by the LWF. At the same time, each acknowledges that ‘communion’ implies interdependence and solidarity in proclamation and practice. There can be some tension between these two aspects. LWF churches have agreed to ‘continue exploring what it means to live in the communion that God gives, to receive one another’s differences as gifts and as necessary complements for building up the body, and to learn from each other how communion as Eucharist creates and nurtures communion in the rest of our shared life’

For more information about the LWF, visit www.lutheranworld.org