ECAC Serbia

ECAC in Serbia-Montenegro, a member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), is the largest Lutheran church in former Yugoslavia, speaking the Slovak language. A local council governs each congregation, while the entire church is governed by a synod with the bishop as the spiritual head of the church. The largely rural membership of ECACSM is located in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, on the plains south of the Hungarian border. It was earlier a part of the Lutheran Church in Hungary, but upon the creation of Yugoslavia, it became an independent church body. Its pastors are educated at the Lutheran theological faculty in Bratislava.

Today, the ECACSM consists of 50,000 members in 27 congregations.

The main priorities of ECACSM include evangelism in congregations and on a national level, children and youth work, and media work, especially printed media.

A growing challenge for ECACSM is maintaining the Slovak identity in a majority Serbian environment. The widely-used Slovak translation of the Bible was completed in the 1970s. Close links continue with the much larger counterpart and namesake of the church in the Republic of Slovakia.

How do the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Augsburg Confession in Serbia-Montenegro and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America accompany one another in ministry?

Through the churchwide ELCA Global Mission unit, the ELCA relates to and is in bilateral relationship with over 80 companion churches and institutions. The ELCA Global Mission unit stewards a church-to-church relationship with the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Augsburg confession in Serbia-Montenegro.