Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference


The Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference is an international conference of Confessional Lutheran national churches. The CELC is headquartered in Mankato, Minnesota.
Founded in 1993 with thirteen church bodies as members, the Conference has grown to twenty members today. Plenary sessions are held every three years. To date there have been nine plenary meetings, with regional meetings held in the intervening years.
The organization rejects the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification signed between the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church.

Membership

Member church bodies confess "the canonical books of the Old and New Testament as the verbally inspired and inerrant Word of God and submit to this Word of God as the only infallible rule and authority in all matters of doctrine, faith, and life." They also accept "the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church contained in the Book of Concord of 1580, not in so far as, but because they are a correct exposition of the pure doctrine of the Word of God."
Members cannot be in fellowship with church bodies whose doctrine or practice deviate from the confessional standard of the CELC.
Member church bodies sorted by country in alphabetical order: