Res. 5-03 — To Give Thanks for the Mission Province in Sweden

Preamble The Mission Province in Sweden (MPS) was formed in 2003 to support confessional Lutheran pastors and congregations and to restore the possibility of ordination for future pastors who either could not be ordained or would not be properly supervised in the increasingly liberalized and radicalized Nordic national churches. In 2006, the Mission Province was expanded and renamed the Mission Province in Sweden and Finland (MPSF). In May 2009, The Lutheran Church —1 Missouri Synod (LCMS) Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) and the Director of Church Relations—2 Assistant to the President met in St. Louis with representatives of the Mission Province, including Dr. Bengt Birgersson (general secretary of the MPSF at the time), for the purpose of encouraging the cause of biblical, confessional Lutheranism in the Nordic world. In subsequent years, informal discussions took place on various occasions between LCMS and MPSF leaders in the U.S. and in Sweden. In 2012, Bishop Roland Gustafsson represented the MPSF at the International Conference on Confessional Leadership hosted by the LCMS in Atlanta, where he delivered a paper on the efforts of confessional Lutherans in Sweden and Finland. In 2013, the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland (ELMDF) was formed as an independent church body. Formal discussions regarding church fellowship between the ELMDF and the LCMS began in 2017, and (following a recommendation by the CTCR) President Harrison declared recognition of fellowship between the LCMS and the ELMDF in October 2020. The LCMS endorsed recognition of fellowship at its 2023 convention (Res. 5- 02, “To Recognize Altar and Pulpit Fellowship with the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland”). Following the formation of the ELMDF, the MPS once again concentrated its activities on Sweden, while also cooperating closely with the ELMDF and the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of Norway (DELSiN, formed in 2013). In 2018, the MPS became a member of the International Lutheran Council (ILC). In recent years, the MPS has continued to engage the LCMS in formal and informal conversations, in the hopes of ultimately declaring altar and pulpit fellowship with one another.

WHEREAS, The MPS is a confessional Lutheran church consisting of 20 congregations in Sweden served by 45 pastors; and

WHEREAS, The MPS was formed to bear witness to the truth of the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions and to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in an increasingly liberalized and radicalized cultural and ecclesial context in the Nordic region; and

WHEREAS, Many MPS confessors of the faith were either defrocked or refused ordination because of their faithful witness to Christ and His Word; and

WHEREAS, The MPS bears witness to the Gospel of Christ in a country where only about 2 percent of the population attends church on a weekly basis; and

WHEREAS, The MPS remains in ongoing theological discussion with representatives of the LCMS; t herefore be it

Resolved, That we give thanks to God for the faithful and courageous Lutheran witness given by the MPS within its own country, to the entire Nordic world, and beyond; and be it further

Resolved, That we encourage and support MPS in appropriate ways as it proclaims the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world; and be it finally

Resolved, That Synod in convention urge the President of Synod, his church relations staff, and the CTCR to continue conversations with the MPS in the 2026–2029 Triennium in the hopes of mutual recognition of altar and pulpit fellowship.