Confessional Lutheranism - Church Bodies Using The Title "confessional"

Church Bodies Using The Title "confessional"

Contemporary Lutheran church bodies that identify themselves as confessional tend to be either members of the International Lutheran Council, Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, as well as some independent Lutheran bodies. Among the members of the ILC are the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, the Lutheran Church–Canada and the Independent Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Germany. Among the CELC are the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Other confessional Lutherans include the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC), the American Association of Lutheran Churches (AALC), the Concordia Lutheran Conference, the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America (ELDoNA), member congregations of the Protes'tant Conference, member congregations of the Orthodox Lutheran Confessional Conference of Independent Congregations (OLCC), member congregations of the United Lutheran Mission Association (ULMA) and Evangelical Lutheran Conference & Ministerium of North America (ELCM) (all of North America).

Though there are some churches in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America which would call themselves "confessional," many of said churches have decided to leave the ELCA due to the liberal leanings of the denomination, most notably their stances expressed in the 2009 ELCA convention. The ELCA as a whole does not use the title "confessional" to describe itself, but it and the other member churches of the Lutheran World Federation do ascribe to the unaltered Augsburg Confession and the other confessional documents in the Book of Concord as true interpretations of the Christian faith.

In the Nordic countries, there are a few small churches that identify themselves as confessional Lutheran. These include the Concordia Lutheran Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sweden.