Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in the context of "Catholic–Lutheran dialogue"

The Divine Service (German: Gottesdienst) is a title given to the Eucharistic liturgy as used in Confessional Lutheran churches of North America. It has its roots in the Pre-Tridentine Mass as revised by Martin Luther in his Formula missae ("Form of the Mass") of 1523 and his Deutsche Messe ("German Mass") of 1526. It was further developed through the Kirchenordnungen ("church orders") of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that followed in the Lutheran tradition.

In the Nordic countries, where Lutheranism predominates, the usual term for the Eucharistic liturgy is Mass, even among Confessional Lutheran Churches. In denominations heavily influenced by the twentieth century ecumenical and liturgical movements, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the terms "Holy Communion" or "the Eucharist" are more frequently used.

The Lutheran liturgical calendar is a listing which details the primary annual festivals and events that are celebrated liturgically by various Lutheran churches. The calendars of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) are from the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship and the calendar of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) use the Lutheran Book of Worship and the 1982 Lutheran Worship. Elements unique to the ELCA have been updated from the Lutheran Book of Worship to reflect changes resulting from the publication of Evangelical Lutheran Worship in 2006. The elements of the calendar unique to the LCMS have also been updated from Lutheran Worship and the Lutheran Book of Worship to reflect the 2006 publication of the Lutheran Service Book.

The basic element to the calendar is the Lord's Day (Sunday), which is a festival of Jesus' resurrection. However, Christian denominations have historically observed other festivals which commemorate events in the life of Jesus or of significant individuals in the history of the Church.

The German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Charleston, South Carolina, was incorporated on December 3, 1840. Through usage and custom the Church is now known as St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church or St. Matthew's Lutheran Church and is a member of the South Carolina Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 82,865 members. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed Church. In 2024, Pew Research estimated that approximately 0.1% of the US adult population, or about 260,000 people, self-identifies with the Reformed Church in America.

The RCA is a founding member of the National Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches (WCC), Christian Churches Together, and the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). Some parts of the denomination belong to the National Association of Evangelicals, the Canadian Council of Churches, and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. The denomination is in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), and United Church of Christ and is a denominational partner of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

H. George Anderson (born March 10, 1932) was the second Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America from October 1995 to October 2001. Prior to his term as Presiding Bishop, he was the president of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa and on the faculty of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, serving as president from 1970 to 1982.

The Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) is a worship book and hymnal published in 1978 and was authorized for use by several Lutheran denominations in North America, including predecessors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod was initially involved in the hymnal's development but officially withdrew.

Additional hymns and service music are contained in the companions Hymnal Supplement 1991 and With One Voice (WOV). A successor was published in 2006 titled Evangelical Lutheran Worship, although Lutheran Book of Worship remains in use by some congregations.

The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is an orthodox, traditional confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.7 million members as of 2023 it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States, behind the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). In 2025, Pew Research Center estimated that 1.1 percent of US adults, approximately 2.9 million people, identified with the LCMS and evangelical Lutheranism in contrast with 2 percent, or approximately 5.2 million people, who identified with the ELCA and mainline Lutheranism. The LCMS was organized in 1847 at a meeting in Chicago as the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States (German: Die Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische Synode von Missouri, Ohio und andern Staaten), a name which partially reflected the geographic locations of the founding congregations.

The LCMS has congregations in all 50 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, but over half of its members are located in the Midwest. It is a member of the International Lutheran Council and is in altar and pulpit fellowship with most of that group's members. The LCMS is headquartered in Kirkwood, Missouri, a suburb west of St. Louis and is divided into 35 districts—33 of which are geographic and two (the English and the SELC) non-geographic. The current president is Matthew C. Harrison, who took office on September 1, 2010.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) is the current primary liturgical and worship guidebook and hymnal for use in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC). It was first published in October 2006 by the ELCA's publishing house, Augsburg Fortress (now known as 1517 Media). The new worship resource replaced its predecessor of 28 years before, the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) of 1978, and that hymnal's supplements: Hymnal Supplement 1991, published by GIA Publications, a Roman Catholic publishing house, and With One Voice (WOV), published by Augsburg Fortress in 1995.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship has a cranberry cover and graphic cross logo. Though not all ELCA and ELCIC congregations immediately adopted the book, demand for it was so great that it sold out its first and second printings and some congregations had to delay its adoption until more were available.