Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia
| Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia | |
|---|---|
Emblem of the ELCM
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| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Lutheran |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Leader | Solomon Rajah |
| Associations | LWF, ALC, FELCMS, CCM, CFM, CCA, WCC |
| Region | Malaysia |
| Origin | 1962 |
| Branched from | Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church |
| Congregations | 21 |
| Members | 3,650 |
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia or ELCM is one of the four Lutheran bodies in Malaysia. It currently has 21 nationwide with a total of 3,650 members.
The current bishop of the ELCM is Solomon Rajah.
The history of the ELCM can be traced back to the large scale immigration of Indians from the Tamil speaking areas of India from the 19th to 20th century to British Malaya as cheap labourers in plantations. Among the many migrants were Tamil Lutheran Christians from churches started by the work of the Danish-Halle Mission and Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg.
By 1900, missionaries from the India-based Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission who visited Penang had found 315 Tamil Lutherans and by 1907, the first congregation was organised in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur through the effort of T. Joseph, a pastor from the church that was later organised as the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC).
1901–357 Lutherans who migrated to Malaya were found by T. Joseph of TELC who later came to reside in Kuala Lumpur in November 1906. 1902—Gerching of Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission came to Singapore in 1902 to take survey of the Tamil Lutherans in Malaya .
1903–1905—During these years as there had been no organised Lutheran congregations,many Tamil Lutherans attended worship in other churches and a considerable number joined other denominations. There were a number, however, remained strong in their loyalty to the Lutheran Church. The Lutherans were willing to support and attend the new church, but not to become full members. For a time, Lutherans in Kuala Lumpur attended the Anglican Church and later the Methodist Tamil Church on Malacca Street . Vedavanam (Anglican) and S.Abraham (Methodist) cared for their spiritual needs. As the years passed, they grew, and by the time they had reached 70 in number they thought of establishing a Church of their own. Reports of missionary visits and request from Malaya no doubt generated interest back in India.
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