Mission History

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile (IELCH) can trace its beginnings to the 1860s, when the first German Lutherans immigrated to Chile and colonized the southern part of the country. Until 1925, the Chilean constitution did not allow the formation of non-Roman Catholic churches. With a new constitution that provided for a separation of church and state, Lutheran congregations formed an association that eventually became the IELCH. The IELCH joined the Lutheran World Federation in 1955.

During the 1960s the church began work in Spanish with the formation of new congregations. In the early 1970s, during the government of President Salvador Allende, the IELCH began to open mission communities among the society’s marginalized and socio-economically oppressed. In September 1973 a military coup overthrew the constitutional government and Chile entered an 18-year period of military dictatorship and civil oppression. Extensive solidarity work by the church's leadership among and on behalf of those persecuted and executed by the military government led to the withdrawal of a large segment of the church's membership, who formed a separate Lutheran Church in Chile. The two churches now have some cooperative work.