Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Formed in 1988 by the merger of three Lutheran bodies, and profiled here alongside The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. This is the fourth same-tradition pair on the site, and it does not behave like the other three. The Presbyterians, the Methodists and the Anglicans each split on the property question. The two Lutheran bodies agree on it — and differ almost everywhere else.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, chapter 9

Chicago, Illinois. The church is organised into synods, each led by a bishop, with a Churchwide Assembly above them — a three-expression structure the church describes as congregations, synods and churchwide organisation, none of which is simply subordinate to the next.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, chapter 9

Calls itself a church expressed in three ways — congregations, synods, and the churchwide organisation — and uses the language of bishops and synods throughout. On the site's questions the bishops are real: a synod bishop consults on departures, has voice at congregational meetings considering them, and stands in the placement process. What the bishops do not have is a claim on the building.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 9.62 and 9.71

Title resides in the congregation, and the constitution is emphatic that it never moves to the synod — which is the opposite of what a reader would predict from a mainline body with bishops, and the reason this pair breaks the site's emerging pattern. Provision 9.71.a is plain: "Title to property shall reside in the congregation. The congregation may dispose of its property as it determines, subject to any self-accepted indebtedness or other self-accepted restrictions." The qualifier "self-accepted" is doing deliberate work — the only restrictions that bind are ones the congregation took on itself. What follows is not a trust clause but a set of successor rules, and they repay close reading. Property of a congregation that simply ceases to exist passes to the synod (9.71.b). Property of a congregation no longer recognised as a result of discipline "shall continue to reside in the congregation" (9.71.c) — a body that can expel a congregation and still not touch its building. Property of a congregation that terminates properly and joins another Lutheran church body continues to reside in the congregation (9.71.d). The single conditional case is 9.71.e: a congregation that leaves to become independent or to join a non-Lutheran body keeps its property "only with the consent of the Synod Council." If consent is given, title remains with the majority. If consent is refused, title remains "with those members who desire to continue as a congregation of this church" — the loyal remnant. And then the sentence that distinguishes this from every trust clause on the site: "In neither case does title to the congregation's property transfer to the synod." So the church never takes the building. What it can do, in one defined circumstance, is decide which group of people counts as the congregation that owns it.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 9.71.a–e

None. Nothing in chapter 9 asserts a beneficial interest in congregational property for the synod or the churchwide organisation, and 9.71.e forecloses transfer to the synod even in the contested case. Set beside the United Methodist ¶2501, the PC(USA) G-4.0203 and the Episcopal Dennis Canon, this is a mainline body with bishops that declined the device all three of those adopted.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 9.71

"Title to the undisposed property of a congregation that ceases to exist shall pass to the synod of this church to which the congregation is related." Note the limit: it reaches only what the congregation has not disposed of, and only where the congregation has ceased to exist rather than departed.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 9.71.b

It depends on where the congregation is going, which is an unusual and rather elegant distinction. Leave for another Lutheran church body, having followed the procedure, and title simply continues with the congregation. Leave to become independent or to join a non-Lutheran body, and title continues with the congregation only if the Synod Council consents; without consent, title stays with those members who wish to remain in the ELCA. The church thus makes departure costless in the direction of Lutheran unity and conditional in the direction away from it — a property rule doing confessional work rather than financial work.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 9.71.d–e

Congregations share income with their synods, which in turn share with the churchwide organisation. The provisions governing it were not read for this profile and no rates were established; the basis is recorded as voluntary rather than assessed because no assessment mechanism was located, and that should be verified rather than relied on. This is the weakest entry in the profile.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, chapter 9

The congregation pays its rostered minister from its own income.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, chapter 9

Ministers are rostered by the church and related to a synod under its bishop, rather than credentialed by the congregation they serve. The detailed provisions were not read for this profile.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, chapter 9

A Churchwide Assembly, with synod assemblies beneath it and congregation meetings beneath those. The constitution's chapter 9 governs congregations specifically; the assembly's composition and cadence were not read for this profile.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, chapter 9

A synod bishop, elected by the synod assembly for a fixed term rather than serving until retirement — which places this body with the Global Methodist Church rather than with the United Methodist, Episcopal or Roman Catholic arrangements, and makes the Lutheran pair a study in how far "has bishops" fails to settle anything. The bishop's role is visible in the departure procedure quoted below: a congregation cannot even hold its first vote until thirty days after written notice reaches the bishop, the bishop determines the times and manner of consultation, and the bishop or the bishop's designees have voice — though not vote — at the congregational meetings themselves. That is real oversight exercised through consultation and presence rather than through appointment or property. The specific constitutional provisions on the election and term of synod bishops were not read for this profile, and the term length should be verified before it is relied on.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 9.62.a — notice to the bishop, consultation, voice without vote

A synod bishop is disciplined as a minister of Word and Sacrament, under the same chapter and the same grounds as any other rostered minister: preaching or teaching in conflict with the faith this church confesses; conduct incompatible with the character of the ministerial office; wilfully disregarding the functions and standards established for the office; wilfully disregarding the church's constitutions, bylaws and continuing resolutions; or wilfully failing to comply with what a discipline hearing committee has ordered. The available sanctions are graduated: private censure and admonition by the bishop of the synod, suspension from office and functions for a set period or until there is satisfactory evidence of repentance and amendment, or removal from the roster. Standing is broad and does not run through the bishop. Charges must be specific, in writing, and subscribed by the accusers, and may be brought by two-thirds of a congregation council, one-third of the voting members of a congregation served, two-thirds of the governing body to which the minister is accountable, at least ten rostered ministers of the synod, or the synod bishop. One provision is bishop-specific and worth setting out, because it is the only route that reaches a bishop from above: charges may also be brought by "the presiding bishop of this church, but only with respect to an accused who is a synod bishop (or who was a synod bishop at any time during the 12 months preceding the filing of written charges)," and those are submitted to the secretary of this church rather than to a synod. The twelve-month tail closes the obvious escape of resigning first. Before charges, the constitution requires an attempt at resolution by consultation, for which a panel of three rostered ministers and two lay persons may be appointed.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 20.22.01-.03, grounds, sanctions and who may bring charges
• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 20.22.04-.05, consultation before charges

Discipline can reach a congregation to the point of ending its recognition, and the property consequence is expressly nil: title to the property of a congregation no longer recognised as a result of discipline "shall continue to reside in the congregation." A church that can disown a congregation without taking anything from it is a rare combination on this site, and the closest parallels are the Southern Baptist and Acts 29 cases — bodies with no property lever at all, which reach the same result for the opposite reason.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 9.71.c

The most elaborate departure procedure on the site, set out at 9.62 and worth following step by step because each stage does something. A congregation must adopt a resolution of intent at two special meetings, each by a two-thirds vote of voting members present. The first may be held no sooner than thirty days after written notice reaches the synod bishop, and during that time the congregation consults with the bishop, on terms the bishop sets in consultation with the Congregation Council. Within ten days of the vote the secretary certifies the result to the bishop and to the congregation's own voting members. Consultation then continues for at least ninety further days. Only then may the second vote be held, on ten days' notice, again requiring two-thirds. The bishop and designees have voice but not vote at both meetings unless they happen to be members. So the whole procedure is deliberative rather than punitive: two supermajorities, roughly four months minimum, mandatory consultation, and no financial condition whatever. Compare the United Methodist provision that expired in 2023, which required a two-thirds vote plus two years of apportionments plus a pension share plus conference approval. Here the church asks for time and conversation, and asks for no money at all — and only in the one case of departure to a non-Lutheran body does the Synod Council's consent bear on who keeps the property.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 9.62.a–f
• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 9.71.d–e

The property, in every case except an unconsented departure to a non-Lutheran body — and even then it does not go to the synod, but stays with whichever members remain in the ELCA. Rostered ministers' standing is held by the church rather than the congregation and would not travel.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 9.71.d–e

A congregation may cease to be recognised through discipline, and keeps its property when that happens under 9.71.c. The disciplinary procedure itself was not read for this profile.

• governing document Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA, 9.71.c