Unfulfilled Hopes – the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church as It Could Have Been

Abstract

As a result of the Soviet occupation, the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church was split into two parts, which were purposefully separated from each other by the Soviet regime. The article “Unfulfilled Hopes – the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church as It Could Have Been” examines the processes of rapprochement between the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Latvia and the Church in Exile in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as the work of the Coordination Commission, which was established and operated from 1990 to 1993 in order to coordinate the work of both parts of the church, make joint decisions, create the structure of a united Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church and restore the unity of the church. However, there was also considerable resistance and caution on both parts of the church, a desire to postpone unification until a later date, and a hope that the issue of women’s ordination would be resolved soon. As a result, the work on unification stalled and the process of bringing the two churches closer together ended in failure.