It is a member of the
Lutheran World Federation, which it joined in 1947. It is also a member of the
World Council of Churches and the
Conference of European Churches and part of the
Porvoo Communion. The church was originally established in 1922. During the
Second World War, when
Latvia was occupied and incorporated into the
Soviet Union, the archbishop and 131 (being 55%) of the clergy went to exile. In 2020 the church changed its name to the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Worldwide (LELCW; Latvijas Evaņģēliski luterisko Baznīcu pasaulē).
In 2014 it was announced that
Lauma Lagzdiņš Zuševics, an American, was the first woman elected Archbishop of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad.[1][2]
In 2016, the church established itself within Latvia, and Archbishop Zuševics stated that it would have to change its name accordingly.[3] Later that year the Evangelical Cross Congregation of
Liepāja left the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (LELB/ELCL) and joined the LELBA/LELCA instead due to its support for the ordination of women which the LELB/ELCL had banned the previous week.[4] The split between the two churches thus became less geographic and more theological.
