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  The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia and Other States - “ELCROS” - no longer exists. Its legal structure was dissolved a number of years ago. Unlike a church split, though, the reasons for this dissolution had nothing to do with enmity in the church. In this case the issue that made it impossible for ELCROS to exist were grounded in the legal and political reality of live in the former Soviet States. Instead of one church, then, we now have the Union of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, made up of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia (with two synods – the Evangelical Lutheran Church in European Russia (ELCER) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Urals, Siberia and Far East (ELCUSFE)), the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine (GELCU), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Georgia (ELCG), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan (ELCRK), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kyrgyzstan (ELCK), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Uzbekistan (ELCU). These churches share a significant history, even if the paths of development for each of their (now independent) countries differ.
  We've kept the name, “ELCROS News,” then, out of respect for our history and in order to help English-speaking friends of Lutherans in this part of the world recognize the continuity and continuing fellowship among our church bodies. We've assembled here a selection of news from around the church from 2014 and the first half of 2015; it has been quite some time since we've brought together something like this and, even if some of the information is a bit dated already, we hope that it will help readers gain a sense of the ways the Spirit continues to accompany and guide us as we strive to spread Christ's love and peace to our neighbors. If all goes as planned, this site will be updated regularly so that you can read updates in a timely manner.