The Evangelical Lutheran Church In America

There are about 75 million Lutherans in the world today making Lutheranism the largest protestant denomination in the Christian world communion. The ELCA is the largest Lutheran church body in the United States with almost 5 million members in nearly 11,000 congregations.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America resulted from a union of three North American Lutheran church bodies: The American Lutheran Church, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the Lutheran Church in America.

The three churches agreed to unite in 1982. They formed a 70-member Commission for a New Lutheran Church, which planned the merger. The plan was approved by church conventions in 1986, and the ELCA constituting convention was held April 30-May 3, 1987, with the church actually beginning operations on January 1, 1988.

The ELCA meets in assembly every two years; at its 2001 Churchwide Assembly it elected its third bishop, The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, who was re-elected at the 2007 Churchwide Assembly held August 6-12 in Chicago.

The ELCA is divided into nine geographical regions which are then divided into 65 synods. We are a member of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod which is composed of 250 congregations in Cook, Lake, DuPage and portions of Kane counties.

As a whole, the ELCA supports 28 Lutheran Colleges, 8 seminaries (one located in Chicago) and over 400 missionaries in 40 countries. Our Synod contributes support to Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, the largest private social service agency in the state. LSSI provides programs that include counseling for families, alcoholism and substance abuse and other counseling needs; programs include nursing homes, centers for the disabled, halfway houses, adoption , emergency assistance, day care, and many specialized ministries. We also support the camping programs of our synod at Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center near Oregon, Illinois, one of 135 Outdoor Ministry Programs of our church.