Global Increase in LWF Churches’ Membership Pushes Total to Over 68.3 Million
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An Additional Two Million Members
in Africa’s Lutheran Churches
Africa’s Lutheran churches saw their total membership increase over the past year by just under two million, boosting the total membership of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) member churches worldwide to over 68.3 million. Lutheran churches in Asia registered an increase overall, while slight decreases were again recorded in other world regions.
According to the latest LWF statistics, membership in the organization’s 140 churches, 10 recognized congregations, and one recognized council in 78 countries worldwide rose by a total of 1,640,700, to reach 68,322,299, an increase of 2.5 percent over the previous year. In 2006, LWF member churches had some 66.7 million members worldwide, up from 66.2 million in 2005.
Over the past year, the total membership of all Lutheran churches worldwide rose by 1,623,024 to approximately 71.8 million (71,823,423), an increase of 2.3 percent. In 2006, all Lutheran churches worldwide counted some 70.2 million members, up from 69.8 million in 2005. The number of Lutherans in non-LWF member churches fell by 17,676, or 0.5 percent, to reach 3,501,124.
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FEATURE: Picking Up the Pieces - Kenya’s Lutheran Bishops Say Injustices Must Be Addressed
 Children displaced from Mathare where the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church provided relief assistance. © CWS-KELC-ACT International/G. Arende |
At the height of the violence that gripped Kenya after the December 2007 elections, Christine Musyoki, a mother of six was displaced from her home and livelihood in Kibera, a sub-urban of the capital Nairobi. For several days, the small-scale vegetable trader joined thousands of other internally displaced Kenyans seeking refuge at the city’s Jamhuri Park, where humanitarian agencies provided emergency assistance through the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRSC).
Musyoki who has since returned to Kibera recalls: “They [angry mobs] stormed into our house and demanded that we leave immediately. I pleaded, but they threatened to kill me with my children, saying I had not voted for them. I left with nothing. They looted everything from my house.”
She ponders the connection between a voter’s right and the suffering she has been subjected to. “My children have little to eat now, and I am forced to move from place to place including churches, looking for food. I cannot leave Kibera. This is where I have lived all my life.”
 The burned ELCK’s Springs of Life Lutheran Church in Kibera on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. © LWF/F. Nzwili |
Burned Churches
The destruction is glaring in the expanse Kibera, regarded as the city’s largest slum area, with an estimated one million people. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya’s (ELCK) Springs of Life Lutheran Church was among several churches torched in the area. It was reduced to a shell, as was its adjoining medical clinic, refurbished just three months ago to offer free medical service to community members, and a pre-unit school.
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