wfn.org | More than 63 million Lutherans worldwide

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Churches in Asia have 6.5 million LWF members

GENEVA, 20 January 2000 (lwi) - With an additional 1.6 million members
registered in the past year, the number of Lutherans worldwide rose from
61.5 million in 1998 to 63.1 million in 1999 .

Membership in the worldwide Lutheran World Federation (LWF) also indicated
a significant increase with 59.4 million Lutherans in 1999 compared to 57.8
million the previous year. During the same period, the LWF member churches
rose from 124 to 128, out of which 125 are full members while three are
associate members.

The year just ended also brought a shift in the regional trend of growth.
During the period 1997-1998, the highest increase in LWF membership was
recorded in Africa, this time round it is churches in Asia that have the
highest entry of new members. In 1999, there were more than 6.5 million
Lutherans in the LWF member churches in Asia compared to 4.8 million the
previous year. Last year, LWF member churches in Africa had more than 9.6
million Lutherans, still a notable increase from the previous year's 9.3
million.

Europe, where more than half of the world's Lutherans are still to be
found, registered a slight downward trend in 1999 compared to 1998. LWF
member churches in Europe had more than 37.01 million Lutherans in 1999, a
decrease of more than 79,000 people below the previous year's 37.09
million. However, the present decline compared favorably to the 1997-1998
drop of 138,000 people.

On average, churches in Latin America recorded lower membership figures in
1999 compared to the previous year. While LWF member churches in this
region had 1.13 million members in 1998, this figure went down to about
834,000 in 1999. Out of the total 8.57 million Lutherans in North America
in 1999, 5.39 million were in LWF member churches, compared to the previous
year's overall of 8.58 million and 5.4 million for the latter category.

Membership in the world's largest Lutheran church - the Church of Sweden -
remained steady in 1999 as compared to 1998 at 7.5 million members.  The
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the second largest in the
LWF constituency had 5.17 million members in 1999, showing a slight
decrease of about 6,800 from the previous year's 5.18 million.

It is worth noting that in Europe, a continent reflecting a general decline
in membership, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF), the third
largest in the LWF constituency, had nearly 4.6 million members in 1999, an
increase of 4,700 over the previous year's figures. A new LWF member
church, the Malagasy Protestant Church in France, with a membership of
8,000 pushed the number of Lutherans in France from 250,000 in 1998 to
258,000 in 1999. Germany, which has the highest number of Lutherans in any
single country registered a decrease of 83,500 in 1999, putting the total
number of Lutherans there at 13.9 million compared to the previous year's
14.01 million.

Asia recorded a significant increase in Lutheran membership with one church
registering more than one million new members in 1999. The Protestant
Christian Batak Church (Indonesia), the largest out of the eight Lutheran
churches in the islands, had over 2.9 million members in 1999, compared to
about 1.5 million in 1998. The number of Lutherans in India also went up by
more than 300,000 in 1999 compared to 1998.  Membership in the Andhra
Evangelical Lutheran Church, the largest Lutheran church in the
sub-continent, rose from 400,000 in 1998 to 700,000 last year.

A notable decrease in membership in Latin America was the Evangelical
Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (ECLCB), which recorded one
million members in 1998 compared to 700,000 in 1999.

Churches that recorded additional members in Africa included the Ethiopian
Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) which had an increase of more than
318,000 new members in 1999 compared to the previous year.  With the new
total of over 2.59 million, this church becomes the largest LWF member
church in Africa, pushing last year's Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Tanzania (ELCT), with a steady 2.5 million members in the last three years,
to second position on the continent. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Namibia (ELCIN) had 11,000 additional members in 1999 compared to 1998,
pushing the total membership last year to 533,000.

As in past years, the membership summary provided in this analysis is based
on information provided by the LWF member churches, LWF recognized
congregations and other Lutheran churches or bodies in infrequent contact
with the federation. The figures of the previous year are indicated for
those churches that had not provided any change of statistical data by 15
December 1999.

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 59 million of the world's 63.1 million Lutherans. Its highest
decision-making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven years.
Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council which meets
annually, and by its Executive Committee. The LWF secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

*       *       *
Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/