Our Team & Our Focus
"One Body in Christ" ~ Romans 12:5
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is committed to fostering unity between the children of God for the sake of the world.
Check out pictures and bios of our team members.
The ELCA's office for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations (ER) is responsible for encouraging the activity of ecumenical and inter-religious life in the ELCA, and for enhancing the public commitments of this church in Lutheran, ecumenical, and interfaith discussions.
Our team works to promote understanding among Christians and greater unity among Christ’s people. Brokenness can be healed and division can be overcome. To this end, the activity of ecumenical life in the ELCA is one of cooperation, facilitation, and accompaniment within this church, and with our ecumenical and inter-religious companions. ER assists the ELCA as a public church, alive in Christ, and present for the sake of the world.
The unity of the church, as it is proclaimed in the Scriptures, is a gift and goal of God in Jesus Christ.
~ The Vision of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Our Focus
The ELCA Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations is defined by cooperation, facilitation, and accompaniment. What does this mean?
- We cooperate with partners from the Lutheran World Federation, the World Council of Churches, and the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
- We facilitate congregations, synods, and churchwide units in their expressions of Christian unity in the faith and life of the church by offering resources and guidance founded on our statement – The Vision of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
- We accompany others from Lutheran domestic grass-roots efforts to ecumenical international multilateral dialogues.
- We work in concert with the Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives Network (LERN), as well as other ecumenical bodies.