"). at the St. Nicholas church in
Luckau, Germany
Liturgy Many Lutherans follow a
liturgical approach to worship services; although there are substantial non-liturgical minorities, for example, the
Haugean Lutherans from Norway. Martin Luther was a great proponent of music, and this is why music forms a central part of Lutheran services to this day. In particular, Luther admired the composers
Josquin des Prez and
Ludwig Senfl, and wanted singing in the church to move away from the
ars perfecta (Catholic Sacred Music of the late Renaissance) and towards singing as a
Gemeinschaft (community). Lutheran
hymns are sometimes known as
chorales. Lutheran hymnody is well known for its doctrinal,
didactic, and musical richness. Most Lutheran churches are active musically with choirs, handbell choirs, children's choirs, and occasionally
change ringing groups that ring bells in a
bell tower.
Johann Sebastian Bach, a devout Lutheran, composed a huge body of sacred music for the Lutheran church. Many Lutherans also preserve a liturgical approach to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist/Communion, emphasizing the Sacrament as the central act of Christian worship. Lutherans believe that the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ are present in, with and under the bread and the wine. This belief is called
Real Presence or
sacramental union and is different from
consubstantiation and
transubstantiation. Additionally Lutherans reject the idea that communion is a mere symbol or
memorial. They confess in the
Apology of the Augsburg Confession: [W]e do not abolish the Mass but religiously keep and defend it. Among us the Mass is celebrated every Lord's Day and on other
festivals, when the Sacrament is made available to those who wish to partake of it, after they have been examined and absolved. We also keep traditional liturgical forms, such as the order of readings, prayers, vestments, and other similar things.In addition to the Holy Communion (Divine Service), congregations frequently also hold offices, which are worship services without communion. They may include
Matins,
Vespers,
Compline, or other observances of the
Daily Office. Private or family offices include the
Morning and Evening Prayers from Luther's
Small Catechism. Meals are blessed with the
Common table prayer, , or other prayers, and after eating the Lord is thanked, for example, with . Luther himself encouraged the use of Psalm verses, such as those already mentioned, along with the Lord's Prayer and another short prayer before and after each meal:
Blessing and Thanks at Meals from Luther's
Small Catechism. Although Luther's
Deutsche Messe was completely chanted except for the sermon, this is less common today. In the 1970s, many Lutheran churches began holding
contemporary worship services for the purpose of evangelistic outreach. These services were in a variety of styles, depending on the preferences of the congregation. Often they were held alongside a traditional service in order to cater to those who preferred
contemporary worship music. Today, a few Lutheran congregations have contemporary worship as their sole form of worship. Outreach is no longer given as the primary motivation; rather this form of worship is seen as more in keeping with the desires of individual congregations. In Finland, Lutherans have experimented with the and
Metal Mass in which traditional hymns are adapted to heavy metal, with the
Order of Mass preserved. Some Laestadians enter a heavily emotional and
ecstatic state during worship. The
Lutheran World Federation, in its Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture, recommended every effort be made to bring church services into a more sensitive position with regard to cultural context. In 2006, both the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the
Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), in cooperation with certain international English speaking church bodies within their respective fellowships, released new hymnals:
Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELCA) and
Lutheran Service Book (LCMS). Along with these, the most widely used among English speaking congregations include:
Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996,
Evangelical Lutheran Synod),
The Lutheran Book of Worship (1978,
Lutheran Council in the United States of America),
Lutheran Worship (1982, LCMS),
Christian Worship (1993,
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod), and
The Lutheran Hymnal (1941,
Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America). In the
Lutheran Church of Australia, the official hymnal is the
Lutheran Hymnal with Supplement of 1986, which includes a supplement to the
Lutheran Hymnal of 1973, itself a replacement for the
Australian Lutheran Hymn Book of 1921. Prior to this time, the two Lutheran church bodies in Australia (
which merged in 1966) used a variety of hymnals, mostly in the German language. Spanish-speaking ELCA churches frequently use
Libro de Liturgia y Cántico (1998, Augsburg Fortress) for services and hymns. For a more complete list, see
List of English language Lutheran hymnals.
Kalendar Lutherans observe the
liturgical kalendar, which consists of the cycle of liturgical days and seasons that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of scripture are to be read. The kalendar features greater festivals, lesser festivals, and commemorations. The Lutheran churches use a
lectionary that enjoins appointed scripture readings for each day, which include an Old Testament reading, Psalm, Epistle reading, and Gospel reading.
Missions in
India Sizable Lutheran
missions arose for the first time during the 19th century. Early missionary attempts during the century after the Reformation did not succeed. However, European traders brought Lutheranism to
Africa beginning in the 17th century as they settled along the coasts. During the first half of the 19th century, missionary activity in Africa expanded, including preaching by missionaries, translation of the Bible, and education. Lutheranism came to
India beginning with the work of
Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, where a community totaling several thousand developed, complete with their own translation of the Bible, catechism, their own hymnal, and system of Lutheran schools. In the 1840s, this church experienced a revival through the work of the Leipzig Mission, including
Karl Graul. After German missionaries were expelled in 1914, Lutherans in India became entirely autonomous, yet preserved their Lutheran character. In recent years India has relaxed its anti-religious conversion laws, allowing a resurgence in missionary work. In
Latin America, missions began to serve European immigrants of Lutheran background, both those who spoke German and those who no longer did. These churches in turn began to evangelize those in their areas who were not of European background, including indigenous peoples. In 1892, the first Lutheran missionaries reached
Japan. Although work began slowly and a major setback occurred during the hardships of
WWII. Lutheranism there has survived and become self-sustaining. After missionaries to China, including those of the
Lutheran Church of China, were expelled, they began ministry in
Taiwan and
Hong Kong, the latter which became a center of Lutheranism in Asia.
Catechism instruction is considered foundational in most Lutheran churches. Almost all maintain
Sunday Schools, and some host or maintain
Lutheran schools, at the preschool, elementary, middle, high school,
folk high school, or university level. Lifelong study of the catechism is intended for all ages so that the abuses of the pre-Reformation church will not recur. Lutheran schools have always been a core aspect of Lutheran mission work, starting with Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Putschasu, who began work in India in year 1706. During the
Counter-Reformation era in German speaking areas, backstreet Lutheran schools were the main Lutheran institution among
crypto-Lutherans. Pastors almost always have substantial theological educations, including
Koine Greek and
Biblical Hebrew so that they can refer to the Christian scriptures in the original language. Pastors usually teach in the common language of the local congregation. In the U.S., some congregations and synods historically taught in
German,
Danish,
Finnish,
Norwegian, or
Swedish, but retention of immigrant languages has been in significant decline since the early and middle 20th century.
Church fellowship taught at the
University of Helmstedt during the
Syncretistic controversy. in Jerusalem in the
Holy Land houses Lutheran congregations that worship in Arabic, German, Danish, and English during communion 's Lunder Church in
Ringerike, Norway in 2012 lay preacher in
Finnmark, Norway in 1898 Lutherans were divided about the issue of church fellowship for the first 30 years after Luther's death.
Philipp Melanchthon and his
Philippist party felt that Christians of different beliefs should join in union with each other without completely agreeing on doctrine. Against them stood the
Gnesio-Lutherans, led by
Matthias Flacius and the faculty at the
University of Jena. They condemned the Philippist position for
indifferentism, describing it as a "unionistic compromise" of precious Reformation theology. Instead, they held that genuine unity between Christians and real theological peace was only possible with an honest agreement about every subject of doctrinal controversy. Complete agreement finally came about in 1577, after the death of both Melanchthon and Flacius, when a new generation of theologians resolved the doctrinal controversies on the basis of Scripture in the
Formula of Concord of 1577. Although they decried the visible division of Christians on earth, orthodox Lutherans avoided
ecumenical fellowship with other churches, believing that Christians should not, for example, join for the
Lord's Supper or exchange pastors if they do not completely agree about what the Bible teaches. In the 17th century,
Georgius Calixtus began a rebellion against this practice, sparking the
Syncretistic Controversy with
Abraham Calovius as his main opponent. In the 18th century, there was some ecumenical interest between the
Church of Sweden and the
Church of England.
John Robinson, Bishop of London, planned for a union of the English and Swedish churches in 1718. The plan failed because most Swedish bishops rejected the Calvinism of the Church of England, although
Jesper Swedberg and
Johannes Gezelius the younger, bishops of Skara, Sweden and Turku, Finland, were in favor. With the encouragement of Swedberg, church fellowship was established between Swedish Lutherans and Anglicans in the
Middle Colonies. Over the course of the 1700s and the early 1800s, Swedish Lutherans were absorbed into Anglican churches, with the last original Swedish congregation completing merger into the Episcopal Church in 1846. In the 19th century,
Samuel Simon Schmucker attempted to lead the
Evangelical Lutheran General Synod of the United States toward unification with other American Protestants. His attempt to get the synod to reject the
Augsburg Confession in favor of his compromising
Definite Platform failed. Instead, it sparked a Neo-Lutheran revival, prompting many to form the
General Council, including
Charles Porterfield Krauth. Their alternative approach was "Lutheran pulpits for Lutheran ministers only and Lutheran altars...for Lutheran communicants only." Beginning in 1867, confessional and liberal minded Lutherans in Germany joined to form the
Common Evangelical Lutheran Conference against the ever looming prospect of a state-mandated union with the Reformed. However, they failed to reach consensus on the degree of shared doctrine necessary for church union. before pastors can share each other's pulpits, and before communicants commune at each other's altars, a practice termed
closed (or close) communion. On the other hand, other Lutherans practice varying degrees of
open communion and allow preachers from other Christian denominations in their pulpits. While not an issue in the majority of Lutheran church bodies, some of them forbid membership in
Freemasonry. Partly, this is because the lodge is viewed as spreading
Unitarianism, as the Brief Statement of the
LCMS reads, "Hence we warn against Unitarianism, which in our country has to a great extent impenetrated the sects and is being spread particularly also through the influence of the lodges." A 1958 report from the publishing house of the
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod states that, "Masonry is guilty of idolatry. Its worship and prayers are idol worship. The Masons may not with their hands have made an idol out of gold, silver, wood or stone, but they created one with their own mind and reason out of purely human thoughts and ideas. The latter is an idol no less than the former." The largest organization of Lutheran churches around the world are the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the
Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum, the
International Lutheran Council (ILC), and the
Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC). These organizations together account for the great majority of Lutheran denominations. The
LCMS and the
Lutheran Church–Canada are members of the ILC. The
WELS and
ELS are members of the CELC. Many Lutheran churches, such as the
Lutheran Church - International (a Confessional Lutheran denomination of
Evangelical Catholic churchmanship), are not affiliated with the LWF, the ILC or the CELC: The congregations of the
Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC) are affiliated with their mission organizations in Canada, India, Nepal, Myanmar, and many African nations; and those affiliated with the
Church of the Lutheran Brethren are especially active doing mission work in Africa and East Asia. The Lutheran World Federation-aligned churches do not believe that one church is singularly true in its teachings. According to this belief, Lutheranism is a reform movement rather than a movement into doctrinal correctness. As part of this, in 1999 the LWF and the Roman Catholic Church jointly issued a statement, the
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, that stated that the LWF and the Catholics both agreed about certain basics of Justification and lifted certain Catholic
anathemas formerly applying to the LWF member churches. Besides their intra-Lutheran arrangements, some member churches of the LWF have also declared full communion with non-Lutheran Protestant churches. The
Porvoo Communion is a communion of episcopally led Lutheran and Anglican churches in Europe. Beside its membership in the Porvoo Communion, The state Protestant churches in Germany many other European countries have signed the
Leuenberg Agreement to form the
Community of Protestant Churches in Europe. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has been involved in ecumenical dialogues with several denominations. The ELCA has declared
full communion with multiple American Protestant churches. Although on paper the LWF churches have all declared have full communion with each other, in practice some churches within the LWF have renounced ties with specific other churches. One development in this ongoing schism is the
Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum, which consists of churches and church related organizations tracing their heritage back to mainline American Lutheranism in North America, European state churches, as well as certain African churches. As of 2019, the Forum is not a full communion organization. Similar in this structure is the
International Lutheran Council, where issues of communion are left to the individual denominations. Not all ILC churches have declared church-fellowship with each other. In contrast, mutual church-fellowship is part of the CELC member churches, and unlike in the LWF, this is not contradicted by individual statements from any particular member church body.
Laestadians within certain European state churches maintain close ties to other Laestadians, often called Apostolic Lutherans. Altogether, Laestadians are found in 23 countries across five continents, but there is no single organization which represents them. Laestadians operate
Peace Associations to coordinate their churchly efforts. Nearly all are located in Europe, although they there are 15 combined in North America,
Ecuador,
Togo, and Kenya. By contrast, the
Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference and
International Lutheran Council as well as some unaffiliated denominations such as the Church of the Lutheran Confession and North American Laestadians maintain that the orthodox
Confessional Lutheran churches are the only churches with completely correct doctrine. They teach that while other Christian churches teach partially orthodox doctrine and have true Christians as members, the doctrines of those churches contain significant errors. More conservative Lutherans strive to maintain historical distinctiveness while emphasizing doctrinal purity alongside Gospel-motivated outreach. They claim that LWF Lutherans are practicing
"fake ecumenism" by desiring church fellowship outside of actual unity of teaching. Although not an "ecumenical" movement in the formal sense, in the 1990s influences from the
megachurches of American evangelicalism have become somewhat common. Many of the largest Lutheran congregations in the United States have been heavily influenced by these "progressive Evangelicals". These influences are sharply criticized by some Lutherans as being foreign to orthodox Lutheran beliefs.
Polity illustrates a Lutheran pastor preaching Christ crucified. During the Reformation and afterwards, many churches did not have pews, so people would stand or sit on the floor. The elderly might be given a chair or stool. Lutheran
polity varies depending on influences. Although
Article XIV of the
Augsburg Confession mandates that one must be "properly called" to preach or administer the Sacraments, some Lutherans have a broad view of on what constitutes this and thus allow lay preaching or students still studying to be pastors someday to consecrate the Lord's Supper. Despite considerable diversity, Lutheran polity trends in a geographically predictable manner in Europe, with episcopal governance to the north and east but blended and consistorial-presbyterian type synodical governance in Germany.
Scandinavia is ordained as archbishop of the Church of Sweden in 1914. Swedish Lutheranism teaches that it possesses an unbroken line of ordinations to the Apostles. To the north in Scandinavia, the population was more insulated from the influence and politics of the Reformation and thus the Church of Sweden (which at the time included Finland) retained the
Apostolic succession, although they did not consider it essential for valid sacraments as the
Donatists did in the fourth and fifth centuries and the Roman Catholics do today. Recently, the Swedish succession was introduced into all of the
Porvoo Communion churches, all of which have an episcopal polity. Although the Lutheran churches did not require this or change their doctrine, this was important in order for more strictly high church Anglican individuals to feel comfortable recognizing their sacraments as valid. The occasional ordination of a bishop by a priest was not necessarily considered an invalid ordination in the Middle Ages, so the alleged break in the line of succession in the other Nordic Churches would have been considered a violation of canon law rather than an invalid ordination at the time. Moreover, there are no consistent records detailing pre-Reformation ordinations prior to the 12th century. In the far north of the Scandinavian peninsula are the
Sámi people, some of which practice a form of Lutheranism called Apostolic Lutheranism, or
Laestadianism due to the efforts of
Lars Levi Laestadius. However, others are
Orthodox in religion. Some Apostolic Lutherans consider their movement as part of an
unbroken line down from the Apostles. In areas where Apostolic Lutherans have their own bishops apart from other Lutheran church organizations, the bishops wield more practical authority than Lutheran clergy typically do. In Russia, Laestadians of Lutheran background cooperate with the
Ingrian church, but since Laestadianism is an interdenominational movement, some are Eastern Orthodox. Eastern Orthodox Laestadians are known as
Ushkovayzet (article is in Russian).
Eastern Europe and Asian Russia in
Saint Petersburg Although historically Pietism had a significant influence on the understanding of the ministry among Lutherans in the
Russian Empire, today nearly all
Russian and
Ukrainian Lutherans are influenced by Eastern Orthodox polity. In their culture, giving a high degree of respect and authority to their bishops is necessary for their faith to be seen as legitimate and not sectarian. In
Russia, lines of succession between bishops and the canonical authority between their present-day hierarchy is also carefully maintained in order to legitimize the existing Lutheran churches as present day successors of the former Lutheran Church of the Russian Empire originally authorized by
Catherine the Great. This allows for the post-Soviet repatriation of Lutheran church buildings to local congregations on the basis of this historical connection.
Germany Church Order in 1543 In
Germany, several dynamics encouraged Lutherans to maintain a different form of polity. First, due to de facto practice during the
Nuremberg Religious Peace the subsequent legal principal of
Cuius regio, eius religio in the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, German states were officially either Catholic or "Evangelical" (that is, Lutheran under the
Augsburg Confession). In some areas both Catholic and Lutheran churches were permitted to co-exist. Because German-speaking Catholic areas were nearby, Catholic-leaning Christians were able to emigrate and there was less of an issue with Catholics choosing to live as "
crypto-papists" in Lutheran areas. Although Reformed-leaning Christians were not allowed to have churches, Melancthon wrote
Augsburg Confession Variata which some used to claim legal protection as "Evangelical" churches. Many chose to live as
crypto-Calvinists either with or without the protection offered by the
Variata, but this did not make their influence go away, and as a result the Protestant church in Germany as of 2017 was only about ≈40% Lutheran, with most of the rest being United Protestant, a combination of Lutheran and Reformed beliefs and practices. In terms of polity, over the 17th and 18th centuries the carefully negotiated and highly prescriptive
church orders of the Reformation era gave way to a joint cooperation between state control and a Reformed-style blend of consistorial and presbyterian type synodical governance. Just as negotiations over the details in the church orders involved the laity, so did the new synodical governance. Synodical governance had already been practiced in the Reformed Netherlands prior to its adoption by Lutherans. During the formation of the modern German state, ideas about the nature of authority and the best design for governments and organizations came from the philosophies of
Kant and
Hegel, further modifying the polity. When the monarchy and the sovereign governance of the church were ended in 1918, the synods took over the governance of the state churches.
Western Hemisphere and Australia in
Baltimore, which belongs to the
Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod During the period of the emigration, Lutherans took their existing ideas about polity with them across the ocean, though with the exception of the early Swedish Lutherans immigrants of the New Sweden colony who accepted the rule of the Anglican bishops and became part of the established church, they now had to fund churches on their own. This increased the congregationalist dynamic in the blended consistorial and presbyterian type synodical governance. The first organized church body of Lutherans in America was the
Pennsylvania Ministerium, which used Reformed style synodical governance over the 18th and 19th centuries. Their contribution to the development of polity was that smaller synods could in turn form a larger body, also with synodical governance, but without losing their lower level of governance. As a result, the smaller synods gained unprecedented flexibility to join, leave, merge, or stay separate, all without the hand of the state as had been the case in Europe. During their 19th-century persecution, Old Lutheran, defined as scholastic and orthodox believers, were left in a conundrum. Resistance to authority was traditionally considered disobedience, but, under the circumstances, upholding orthodox doctrine and historical practice was considered by the government disobedience. However, the doctrine of the
lesser magistrate allowed clergy to legitimately resist the state and even leave. Illegal free churches were set up in Germany and mass emigration occurred. For decades the new churches were mostly dependent on the free churches to send them new ministerial candidates for ordination. These new church bodies also employed synodical governance, but tended to exclude Hegelianism in their constitutions, due to its incompatibility with the doctrine of the lesser magistrates. In contrast to Hegelianism where authority flows in from all levels, Kantianism presents authority proceeding only from the top down, hence the need for a lesser magistrate to become the new top magistrate. Over the 20th and 21st centuries, some Lutheran bodies have adopted a more congregationalist approach, such as the
Protes'tant Conference and the
Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, or LCMC. The LCMC formed due to a church split after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America signed an
agreement with the Episcopal Church to start ordaining all of their new bishops into the apostolic succession, which was given to the ELCA by Lutheran Churches in the
historic episcopate, such as the
Church of Sweden. This was offensive to those in the ELCA who now constitute the LCMC because of the implications this practice would have on their understanding of the teachings of the
priesthood of all believers and the nature of ordination. Some Lutheran churches permit dual-rostering. Situations like this one where a church or church body belongs to multiple larger organizations that do not have ties are termed "triangular fellowship". Another variant is independent Lutheran churches, although for some independent churches the clergy are members of a larger denomination. In other cases, a congregation may belong to a synod, but the pastor may be unaffiliated. In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church of Australia, the Wisconsin Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Church of the Lutheran Confession, and the Missouri Synod, teachers at parochial schools are considered to be ministers of religion, with the latter defending this before the
Supreme Court in 2012. However, differences remain in the precise status of their teachers. ==Throughout the world==