The Ukrainian Lutheran Church (ULC; Ukrainian: Українська Лютеранська Церква, romanized: Ukrainska Liuteranska Tserkva), formerly called the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession (Українська Євангельська Церква Аугсбурзького Віросповідання, Ukrainska Evangelska Tserkva Augsburhkogo Virospovidannya), is a Byzantine Rite Lutheran Church based in Ukraine.
It teaches that Jesus is the center of Scripture and the way to eternal salvation, and that the Holy Spirit uses the gospel in Word and Sacrament (Baptism, Holy Communion and Confession and Absolution) to bring people to faith in Jesus as Saviour and keep them in that faith, strengthening them in their daily life of sanctification.
The ULC traces its roots to early Lutheranism in the 16th century, and more recently, to the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession which was persecuted by the KGB and Soviet government, which held a policy of state atheism, in 1939.
[11] Theodor Yarchuk, a priest who was a major leader in the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession was tortured and killed in Stanislaviv by communist authorities.
[14] The ULC was reorganized in 1994 by several Lutheran congregations in Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union and the loosening of restrictions on religious expression.