New Australian Lutheran church body established

On Monday 22 July, the General Church Board (GCB) and the College of Bishops (CoB) notified LCANZ pastors and congregational leaders that a new Lutheran church body called Lutheran Mission – Australia (LM-A) has been established.

Pastor Matt Anker, who has been serving the LCANZ as Assistant to the Bishop – International Mission, has accepted a call from LM-A to be its inaugural pastor-president.

At their 19 July meeting, CoB and GCB received Pastor Anker’s resignation from the LCANZ and granted him a peaceful dismissal from the Roll of Pastors, effective from 24 July 2024.

LM-A President-elect Anker’s call was not issued under the oversight of the LCANZ or by any of its bishops. This means that LM-A expresses itself as a new Lutheran church, and Pastor Anker has acknowledged that this is correct.

The GCB-CoB letter states: ‘The LCANZ receives LM-A as sisters and brothers in Christ who are faithful to the Scriptures with us, and who preach, teach and confess the doctrine of the Lutheran Confessions with us, but who are now a separate Lutheran church body.’

LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith and LM-A President-elect Anker met together on 15 July with respectful engagement for the establishment of a proper relationship between the LCANZ and LM-A.

Since late April, representatives of the LCANZ have been in discussions with LM-A President-elect Anker and other representatives of LM-A, formerly known as Lutherans Confessing Christ. These conversations are continuing and will need to address the steps for recognising a relationship between church bodies, as prescribed in our LCANZ statements.

‘As in any separation, we work through the pastoral and respectful processes for peaceful dismissal and pathways for any who might seek to depart from the LCANZ to join LM-A’, the GCB-CoB letter says.

LM-A President-elect Anker said, ‘I am grateful for the way in which Bishop Smith and other LCA leaders have assisted me during this time of transition and for their commitment to peaceful and godly engagement with LM-A into the future’.

A key matter for LM-A President-elect Anker and those who have formed LM-A is the Way Forward resolution of the 2021-23 General Synod, which has been the focus of work across the LCANZ since the Convention. LM-A has stated in its confession as a new church that the pastoral office is for ‘men who fulfil the biblical requirements for the office’.

In its letter, GCB-CoB said it was praying for ‘all our sisters and brothers in Christ of the LCANZ and for those who have formed the LM-A’, and was asking ‘the Lord of the church to join our voices as one, that together we might glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the witness of the gospel to the ends of the earth’.

Read the full announcement here.