Dialogue partner | World Communion of Reformed Churches

In 1968, an ad hoc Lutheran-Reformed Evaluating Committee stated that Lutheran-Reformed dialogue should be encouraged and coordinated by LWF and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC).

This opinion was endorsed in 1970 by the Lutheran-Reformed Joint Committee that underscored the existence of a “special theological relationship between the Lutherans and the Reformed.”

The first round of international dialogue in 1988 suggested that all Lutheran and Reformed churches around the world should enter into church fellowship with one another. While this recommendation has not been received globally, many Reformed and Lutheran churches have declared themselves to be in full communion, e.g. the churches that have signed either the Leuenberg Agreement or the Formula of Agreement.

In 2010 WARC joined with the Reformed Ecumenical Council to form World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).

Key Themes

• Predestination
• Christology
• Lord’s Supper
• Understanding of the church

International Dialogue Milestones

• 1989 | Toward Church Fellowship (Lutheran-Reformed Joint Commission)
• 2002 | Common statement Called to Communion and Common Witness (Lutheran-Reformed Joint Working Group)
• 2010 | Common statement Communion: On being the Church, Svätý Jur, Slovakia
• 2014 | Communion: On Being the Church - Report of the Lutheran—Reformed Commission, 2006—2012

Regional Agreements

• 1973 | Leuenberg Agreement (Agreement between Reformation Churches in Europe)
• 1988 | Meissen Declaration (Church of England, the Federation of the Evangelical Churches in the German Democratic Republic and the Evangelical Church in Germany) 
• 1997 | Formula of Agreement (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ)
• 1999 | Reuilly Common Statement Called to Witness and Service (Conversations between the British and Irish Anglican Churches and the French Lutheran and Reformed Churches)
• 2006 | The Amman Declaration (Agreement of Full Mutual Recognition of Lutheran and Reformed Churches in the Middle East and North Africa)
• 2017 | The Wittenberg Witness (Common call to continued renewal and cooperation on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation)