Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church

The Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church is a Christian denomination in south India, which was established in 1919[1] and has approximately 500,000 members.

[1] It is one of the prominent mainline Lutheran churches in Tamil Nadu.

[3][4][5][6] On 14 January 1919, the Tamil congregation of different German, Danish, and Swedish Lutheran missions joined together to form the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC).

In March 1921, the constitution of the TELC was amended to include the structure of episcopacy.

In 1921, a Swedish missionary, Ernst Heuman, was ordained as the first bishop of the TELC.