Lutheranism in Canada dates back to Danish explorers in 1619 and German settlers in
Nova Scotia in 1749, the latter encouraged to populate the territory by
George II of Great Britain; a first church was raised in Halifax in 1752. As Canadian settlement spread west, Ontarian congregations followed in the late 1700s, Manitoban ones in the 1800s, and Albertan ones in the early 1900s. For two centuries Lutheran churches in Canada tended to be organized under shifting arrangements of sponsorship from various American synods and conferences until coalescing into LCMS in 1958 and ELCIC in 1967, and from 1958 to 1988 LCC existed as a federated group under the LCMS umbrella. Following its independent establishment in January 1988, LCC created three
districts: The Alberta-British Columbia (ABC) District, with offices in
Edmonton, Alberta; the Central District, in
Winnipeg, Manitoba; and the East District, in
Kitchener, Ontario. At present LCC has a congregational roster of 58 churches in British Columbia; 78 in Alberta; 62 in Saskatchewan; 20 in Manitoba; 124 in Ontario; 11 in Quebec; 1 in New Brunswick; and 2 in Nova Scotia; one in Prince Edward Island. Services are variously offered in English, German, Spanish, French, and Korean. Sixteen Canadian congregations – one in
Montreal, and the rest in
Ontario – remain affiliated with the LCMS in either of that body's non-geographic districts, namely the
SELC District or the
English District. ,
Alberta On July 5, 2015, the Alberta-British Columbia (ABC) District announced it had a "sufficient cash flow shortage". The district's Church Extension Fund (CEF), which was originally instituted in order to provide low-interest loans to congregations, was insolvent. The ABC District entered ''
Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act'' (CCAA) (bankruptcy protection) on January 23, 2015. Estimates are that the ABC District's church extension fund was underfunded by between C$60M and C$80M dollars. Because of poor administrative practices, many key records have not been found. Several lawsuits to determine the ownership of various congregation properties have been the result. On August 13, 2018, the Alberta Securities Commission convened a hearing and set 32 days of hearings in May 2019 to explore the merits of the allegations. The hearings are intended to clarify multiple securities allegations against The Alberta British - Columbia District and five former leaders including Rev. Donald Robert Schiemann (District President), Kurtis Francis Robinson (Financial Executive), James Theodore Kentel (chairman, Board of Directors), Rev. Mark David Ruf (First Vice-president), Harold Carl Schmidt (Board of Directors). The Alberta Securities Commission "Staff allege that each of the Respondents breached, or authorized, permitted, or acquiesced in the breach of section 92(4.1) of the Act", and that "they knew or ought to have known did not state all of the facts required to be stated to make the statements not misleading, and which would reasonably be expected to have a significant effect on the market price or value of the securities distributed by the District and DIL". On September 12, 2019, the
Calgary Herald reported that, "The Alberta Securities Commission has reached a settlement with the Lutheran Church-Canada, the Alberta-British Columbia District and others in connection with an investment program that collapsed into insolvency in 2015. In the settlement agreement, the parties admitted to breaching Alberta securities laws by making statements “they knew or ought to have known did not state all of the facts required,” as stated in a release from the ASC. A side-effect of the financial collapse of the Alberta-British Columbia District is that LCC decided to restructure the national church body. As a result, the ABC District, Central District, and East District were dissolved into one national synod effective January 2, 2019. == Doctrines ==