wfn.org | LWF Member Churches Now Total 133

["Frank Imhoff" <franki@elca.org>]

Council Accepts Two More Churches, Indonesian and Sri Lankan

GENEVA, 22 June 2001 (LWI) - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has two
additional churches, pushing the total number of member churches in the
federation to 133 in 73 countries worldwide.

At its 2001 meeting here, June 12-19, the LWF Council extended full
membership to the 1,200-member Lanka Lutheran Church, Sri Lanka (LLC) and
the Nias Protestant Christian Church (Banua Niha Keriso Protestan) [BNKP],
Indonesia which has 327,466 members. It is the first time that the LWF has a
member church in Sri Lanka. With these two new churches from Asia, the LWF
now represents 60.5 million of the 64.3 million Lutherans worldwide.

The Lutheran church in Sri Lanka was started in 1927 through outreach from
the Indian Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELC), with relationship to the
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. At that time the IELC provided pastoral
care for Indian Tamils working on tea plantations in Nuwara Eliya district.
Today, all LLC members are Indian Tamil plantation workers. Generally
speaking their standard of living is very low.

Although freedom of religion is assured in Sri Lanka--70 percent Buddhist,
Hindus (15 percent), Christians (8 percent) and Muslims (7 percent)--there
has been some discrimination against minority religions in taxation,
employment and education. Christianity is perceived as a foreign religion.
Over 90 percent of the country's 19 million people (87 percent female, and
93 percent male) aged 15 and above can read and write.

With 13 congregations served by four ordained pastors and four evangelists
the LLC's activities include work among the youth and women. The church has
11 schools and 15 teachers.

The Nias Protestant Christian Church was started in 1865 through the work of
the Rhenish Mission Society, Wuppertal, Germany and by missionaries from the
Netherlands in 1889. Registered as an independent body in 1938, the BNKP has
92 districts with 819 congregations currently served by 122 pastors.

The BNKP is a member of the LWF National Committee in Indonesia, Indonesian
Council of Churches, United Evangelical Mission in Wuppertal, Germany and
World Council of Churches. The BNKP brings to 11 the number of LWF member
churches in Indonesia, with a total membership of over 4.5 million people.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now has 133 member
churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5 million of the 64.3 million
Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas
of common interest such as ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission
and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted, material presented does
not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units.
Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material
may be freely reproduced with acknowledgement.]

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