By Cheryl Magness
Since 2012, leaders from The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) have met annually for informal talks, periodically releasing joint statements about those talks.
The three church bodies were once in fellowship as members of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America (also known as the Synodical Conference), but that fellowship was suspended between the ELS and the LCMS in 1955 and between the WELS and the LCMS in 1961. The WELS and the ELS remain in fellowship with one another.
The current discussions are not formal meetings aimed at re-establishing fellowship among the church bodies but instead are opportunities to engage in theological dialogue, collegial conversation and mutual encouragement about some of the contemporary challenges all three synods face.
Periodically over the years, the meetings have been followed by statements and/or articles, released either jointly or individually by the three church bodies, summarizing the state of the talks. Recently, emeritus WELS pastor Rev. Thomas Nass, who has been attending the meetings since they began, wrote an article that provides an overview of the talks and where they stand now.
After outlining some of the blessings and challenges that all three synods face, Nass writes, “Most important, among the leaders of the three synods at the present time, there is a common commitment to the Bible as the inerrant Word of God and to the Lutheran Confessions as a correct presentation of the doctrines of the Bible. Though doctrinal challenges remain, a common foundation has been apparent in the meetings.”
Posted July 25, 2025/Updated July 28, 2025
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