By Rachel Bomberger
PHOENIX — The Rev. Joseph Ochola Omolo, archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK), addressed The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) in convention on Tuesday afternoon, July 21, expressing solidarity and offering words of encouragement and appreciation to the assembled delegates.
Omolo recalled and celebrated more than 20 years of altar and pulpit fellowship, which was first established between the two church bodies in 2004. “From then, we’ve been walking together, having our meetings together, fellowshipping together, studying together the Word of God, and struggling together in this walk as a militant church.”
This fruitful partnership, Omolo said, “means a lot” to the ELCK. “Especially in this world today,” he said, “when many churches would bend to the winds of the culture, you, LCMS, you’ve stood very faithfully on the Word of God and the Confessions. … The witness that we have seen from LCMS has strengthened us in our context as we know that we are not alone in this journey.”
Omolo was interrupted by a standing ovation from the delegates as he related the ELCK’s recent decision to break fellowship with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), a global network of churches that has swung toward increasingly liberal theological positions in recent decades.
“In April of this year,” Omolo said, “as we gathered in our church council and also general assembly … the church unanimously voted to withdraw from LWF. We had been there from 1970, but the pains we have undergone especially when LWF drifted from the authority of the Scripture and started to accept practices which are unbiblical, ELCK would not entertain that any longer.”
“It was a painful decision to leave,” he added, citing scholarships and other material benefits formerly provided by LWF to the ELCK. “But we made a decision: Better the Word of God than all worldly things.”
Omolo praised especially the LCMS Church Relations team, which brought him and dozens of other Lutheran church leaders from around the world together for the 2026 International Church Relations Conference (ICRC), held in Phoenix concurrently with the LCMS convention.
“Through [the] LCMS International Church Relations office, we have actually drawn deeper to the understanding of the Word of God and also the study of the Confessions. … It is a great privilege to know that, in the world where there are so many winds flowing here and there, there are other brothers who stick to the Gospel, who stick to the power and the authority of the Scripture, and who walk together with us.”
Omolo ended his remarks with a call to rejoice in the bond of fellowship made possible only by Christ’s resurrection.
“In closing, brothers and sisters in Christ, when I say fellowship with LCMS means much to us in ELCK, I do not speak in abstractions. I speak of real lives touched, real pastors trained, real congregations strengthened and real courage given. Together, we proclaim the same Gospel. As one church, we say, ‘Christ is risen! Alleluia!’ And together, we look for the day when every tribe and nation will bow down to Him Christ and confess Him as Lord.”
2026 LCMS Convention
Under the theme “Christ Is Risen Indeed,” the 69th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod met July 18–23, 2026, at the Phoenix Convention Center in downtown Phoenix.
There are several ways to get convention news, including:
Web
• lcms.org/convention/national
Video
• lcms.org/convention/national/livestream
Audio
• kfuo.org
Social media
Posted July 22, 2026
