Since 2012, leaders from the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, WELS, and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod have been meeting informally once a year, with the latest meeting taking place in December 2024.

At that meeting, it was decided that it would be helpful to share more information about these gatherings with the members of each of the synods. I asked Prof. em. Thomas Nass, who has been attending these meetings since the beginning, to put an article together that summarizes these ongoing conversations. His article will be included in the August issue of Forward in Christ magazine.

This article also helps fulfill a resolution passed at the 2023 synod convention stating “that the Conference of Presidents and the CICR [Commission on Inter-Church Relations] continue to update the members of the synod as to developments in these conversations” (2023 Proceedings, pp. 30,31).

Rev. Glenn Obenberger, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and Rev. Matthew Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, will be observing the synod convention in New Ulm this July as guests. They will both briefly address the convention, bringing greetings from their respective synods.

We thank God for these opportunities to learn about each other through face-to-face interaction and to discuss topics of mutual interest. These discussions do not imply that doctrinal agreement and a restoration of fellowship is imminent. Yet we pray that God will continue to bless these conversations.

Serving with you in Christ,
WELS President Mark Schroeder