It is a confessional Lutheran synod founded in Milwaukee in 1850 that practices closed fellowship, declining altar and pulpit fellowship with churches not in complete doctrinal agreement with it.
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod was organized in 1850 by German Lutheran pastors in Wisconsin. It broke fellowship with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in 1961 over doctrinal and fellowship disagreements, ending the old Synodical Conference alignment. Its doctrinal statement This We Believe summarizes its confessional position drawn from Scripture and the Book of Concord.
Sources
Primary
- This We Believe: A Statement of Belief of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
Secondary
- Günter Gassmann and Mark W. Oldenburg, Historical Dictionary of Lutheranism