Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya withdraws from Lutheran World Federation

Archbishop Rev. Dr. Joseph Ochola Omolo of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya speaks during the International Church Relations Conference organized by LCMS Church Relations in Wittenberg, Germany, on Oct. 23, 2024. (LCMS/Erik M. Lunsford)

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) rejoices with its sister church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK), following the ELCK’s unanimous decision to withdraw its membership from the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) with immediate effect.

By concurrent unanimous votes of the ELCK Church Council (April 9, 2026) and its General Assembly (April 10, 2026), the ELCK formally notified LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr. Anne Burghardt of its withdrawal. The General Assembly — consisting of a pastoral and lay delegate from every parish — is the supreme governing body of the ELCK, making this decision an authoritative and churchwide act of confessional conviction.

Omolo

In his report to the General Assembly, ELCK Archbishop Rev. Dr. Joseph Ochola Omolo cited three central grounds for the withdrawal: the LWF’s embrace of a historical-critical hermeneutic that undermines the authority of Holy Scripture, its affirmation of LGBTQ practices, and its support for the ordination of women. The ELCK’s letter to the LWF grounds its decision in Scripture and in the Lutheran Confessions, citing the clear biblical teaching on marriage as the union of one man and one woman, the biblical prohibition of homosexual behavior and the reservation of the pastoral office to qualified men.

This decision did not come hastily. The Rev. Michael Frese, deputy director of LCMS Church Relations, noted that it was preceded by “patient, pastoral teaching by Archbishop Omolo and his diocesan bishops.”

“Prior to the General Assembly,” Frese shared, “every diocese of the ELCK conducted its own assembly to deliberate on the matter with clergy and laity. Delegates arrived with full awareness of what was at stake, and the resulting vote was unanimous — a remarkable expression of confessional unity across the whole church.”

In a letter of withdrawal written on April 15 to the LWF, Archbishop Omolo wrote, “In obedience to God’s Word and in faithfulness to our confessional subscription as stated in Article III of the ELCK Constitution, we cannot remain in a communion that promotes or normalizes teachings and practices that we confess to be unscriptural and unconfessional.”

The LCMS has long shared the ELCK’s concerns regarding the theological trajectory of the LWF. The 2023 LWF Assembly in Krakow, Poland, brought these concerns to a head for Omolo and other confessional Lutherans. The archbishop departed before the conclusion of the assembly in protest of the proceedings.

“The LCMS commends Archbishop Omolo and the people of the ELCK for their faithfulness to Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions,” said LCMS Director of Church Relations Rev. Dr. Jonathan Shaw. “We stand with them in this confession, and we pray that their witness will be an encouragement to other churches in the Global South and beyond who are wrestling with the same questions. We also join the ELCK in praying for the LWF and its member churches, that the Lord would grant renewed obedience to His Word.”

Background

The ELCK has been a sister church of the LCMS since 2004. The LCMS-ELCK relationship is a longstanding partnership in the Gospel, encompassing theological education, mercy work and mutual encouragement in confessional mission.

In 2019, the LCMS in convention unanimously adopted Resolution 5-07, “To Clarify the Relationship between LCMS Partner Churches and the Lutheran World Federation,” directing the president of the Synod to engage in fraternal dialogue with LCMS partner churches that held LWF membership and to bring recommendations to the 2023 convention on how to address the matter. In response to that mandate, the LCMS Office of Church Relations, under the direction of the Synod president, has worked actively alongside LCMS sister churches — through theological dialogue, teaching and the provision of resources — to help set the conditions for confessionally-motivated departures from the LWF.

Central among those resources is the 2024 LCMS publication, The Lutheran World Federation Today: Missio Dei, Imago Dei and the Ongoing Reformation, authored by Shaw. In it, he provided a theological analysis of the LWF’s trajectory, concluding with a direct call to confessional Lutheran churches still within the LWF. Citing St. Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 6:17–18, Shaw wrote: “For confessional Lutheran church bodies still inside the LWF, the words of St. Paul apply: ‘Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.’” Shaw describes the ELCK’s recent action, conducted independently yet in confessional unanimity with the LCMS stance, as “a living answer to that call.”

The preface to the 2024 publication was contributed by LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison. Addressing the loss of the Gospel within the LWF, Harrison asked: “Where is Christ? Where is the Gospel in the LWF?” He encouraged the publication’s use as a resource for churches navigating the same questions the ELCK has now answered, writing, “We commend this document on the Lutheran World Federation to your careful attention.”

Said Shaw, “The ELCK’s unanimous withdrawal is precisely the fruit that the LCMS has sought to cultivate: confessional churches, standing on Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, bearing witness to the one Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Posted May 4, 2026