On April 24, 2024, Archbishop Vladimir Provorov of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia and Bishop Ivan Laptev of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria in Russia met at the ELCIR headquarters in St. Petersburg. The ecclesiastics signed a Joint Declaration on Family and Marriage.
The Declaration is a joint vision of our Churches on the matter. Our mutual premise is that marriage is a social institution which is God’s design for the human being and is formalized in a socially established manner.During the discussion, Pastor Anton Tikhomirov, rector of the ELCR Theological Seminary, outlined a number of pressing issues that can only be resolved through joined efforts in Christian unity and wisdom.
All participants agreed on the need for open dialog to overcome the differences that often hinder our spiritual unity.
The very fact that we worked on the Declaration together for a long time, shows that opportunities for dialog between our church bodies are real. As we realize how important it is to continue theological dialog, we will make efforts to resolve relevant organizational issues between our Churches.
