Lutheran World Federation (LWF)

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is a global communion of national and regional Lutheran churches headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish city of Lund in the aftermath of the Second World War in 1947 to coordinate the activities of the many differing Lutheran churches. Since 1984, the member churches are in pulpit and altar fellowship, with common doctrine as the basis of membership and mission activity.

The LWF now has 140 member church bodies in 78 countries representing 66.7 million of the world's 70.2 million Lutherans. However, some Lutherans disagree with the way the Lutheran World Federation arrives at these numbers, because millions of them are actually non-Lutherans inside bodies that are mostly Reformed, but include some Lutherans as part of an absorption of a smaller Lutheran church body into a larger Protestant body.

These larger Protestant bodies belong the LWF on the basis of a Lutheran component rather than on the basis of being a Lutheran church body. The state churches of Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, and the former state church of Sweden, are among its members. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work.

The Department for World Service (DWS) is the LWF's humanitarian agency. It has programs in 37 countries. On October 31, 1999 in Augsburg, Germany, the Lutheran World Federation signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification with the Roman Catholic Church. The statement is an attempt to narrow the theological divide between the two faiths.

The Declaration also states that the mutual condemnations between 16th century Lutherans and the Roman Catholic Church no longer apply. The largest member churches are (with number of members in millions; 2006 statistics):

Church of Sweden (6.9)

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (4.9)

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (4.6)

Church of Denmark (4.5)

Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (4.5)

Church of Norway (3.9)

Protestant Christian Batak Church, Indonesia (3.8)

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (4.6)

Protestant Lutheran Church of Hanover, Germany (3.0)

Malagasy Lutheran Church (3.0)

The Lutheran World Federation offers scholarships of all levels to qualified candidates of affiliated member churches worldwide. Talk to your local church pastor/priest to find out more on how you can apply for a scholarship. I was fortunate to be the recipient of such lucrative scholarships from the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).