Ecuador

• less duplication of effort and costs
• more access to operational, on-the-ground expertise
• access to places where there are few or no Lutherans
• stronger, more effective ministry.
  

In Ecuador, the ELCA works specifically through the Latin America Council of Churches or Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias (CLAI).  CLAI intends to bring together the churches that emerged from the Latin Americana and Caribbean contexts and also the churches from the US to embody the visible of the church, to reflect and accompany each other in their mission efforts and to provide assistance in new emerging efforts. CLAI offers its member churches a variety of services in areas such as evangelism, worship and liturgy, gender and family, indigenenous and Afro-LatinAmerican  issues, human rights, theological education, and environmental issues. 

The main priorities of CLAI are to:

• Encourage and support the member churches in their evangelism task.
• Promote dialog, theological and pastoral reflection on mission and Christian witness in the region.
• Develop work that will impact all the Latin America churches members of CLAI such as accompaning indigenous peoples of the region, work in gender justice issues, and develop networks with African descendants in Latin America.
• Work in advocacy in the areas of culture of peace, environmental issues, health and reproductive rights and violence against women.
• Renew ecumenical leadership in the region

Churchwide funding through the ELCA Global Mission unit supports key priorities identified by CLAI with a grant that provides assistance for administration,  communication, publications, and general administration.