The Iglesia Christiana Luterana de Honduras (ICLH) grew out of the mission work
of North American missionaries from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. In the 1950s they
established small Lutheran congregations in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and three other
rural settlements.
This Lutheran venture changed and grew when Salvadorans migrated to Honduras in search
of "soil to sow." As there were Lutherans among them, their missionary pastor in
El Salvador, Gerhard Kempff, began visiting them in 1960. In 1964 Pastor Kempff moved to
Tegucigalpa himself and served the scattered enclaves from this central location for the
next seven years.
The largest congregation of the ICLH is located where the majority of Salvadoran
refugees settled -- near Juticalpa, the capital of the Department of Olancho, which lies
some distance northeast of Tegucigalpa in the foothills of the Cordillera de Galta. There
is a second congregation in San Nicolas, 25 km from Juticalpa in the foothills of Cerro
Brujo. Their pastor, a graduate of the Augsburg Seminary in Mexico City, found the people
eager for the Gospel. In 1980, a third congregation was established in the second largest
city in Honduras, San Pedro.
Known formerly as the Lutheran Mission of Juticalpa, this small body was granted legal
status in 1984 as the Christian Lutheran Church of Honduras. The political situation
changed and many of the Salvadorans left Honduras. As the Salvadoran refugees were
returning to their country, the congregational life dwindled, and in 1990 the church set
up new national working structures. The Iglesia Christiana Luterana de Honduras
(ILCH) was accepted into the Lutheran World Federation in 1994. It is also a member of The
Communion of Central American Lutheran Churches (CILCA). Theologically, it follows the
orientation of the Lutheran Church in El Salvador and its links with the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod are diminishing gradually.
The ICLH has 2,000 members in twelve congregations and several preaching points, and is
served by three national pastors and a group of lay leaders. They serve as "agentes
pastorales," evangelists and catechists in the rural communities and shanty-towns of
Tegucigalpa.
The ICLH has a group of
lay pastors that are currently serving in the mission outreach ministry of the
church, mostly located in the rural area of Honduras. These teams receive regular training
through workshops sponsored by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Chile and conducted by
professors from the Lutheran University in El Salvador.
Honduras was hit hard by Hurricane Mitch in late 1998, leaving tens of
thousands dead and homeless. The intense and sustained
precipitation caused widespread flooding and landslides, damaging roads, bridges and
essential infrastructure. As much as seventy percent of crops, including ninety percent of
the banana crop, were destroyed. It was a catastrophe of incredible magnitude, a disaster
of "biblical proportions," as several observers noted. The ELCA responded
through Lutheran World Relief with both immediate and long-term aid.
