Who We Are

A Long History

St. Matthew's is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.  The first Lutheran church in our area was established by the United Empire Loyalists in 1784.  The site of that first congregation was in the town of Riverside, near Morrisburg, Ontario.

The Lutheran Church has over 70 million members worldwide.  Historically, this 470 year old denomination was rooted in the Scandinavian Countries and Northern Europe and to this day that is where the majority of Lutherans still live.

Yet there are also growing numbers of Lutherans in other lands.  Today our church has congregations on all continents and nearly every country.  Each year new congregations are being born and like St. Matthew's they are looking for new and creative ways to serve God

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Lutherans in Canada

  Lutherans share a common faith with other Christians and yet maintain a distinctiveness in their expression of God's message for his world.  With other Christians, they stand in direct succession to followers of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago.  Their common history is further identified in the acceptance of the Ecumenical Creeds - the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed.

  The distinctiveness of the Lutheran Church is a heritage of the Protestant Reformation.  It is embodied in the particular Confessions which Lutherans prepared as statements of their understanding of the Christian faith.  Primary among these documents are the Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism.  These and other Confessional documents are collected together in the Book of Concord.  It is loyalty to the emphases of these Confessions which makes the Lutheran Church Lutheran.

  Lutherans confess Jesus Christ as Lord of all - Lord of life and death, Lord of the Church and of the world to which the Church is sent.

  Lutherans believe that the Gospel is God's message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  As the Gospel is shared by word and deed, the Holy Spirit gathers people into fellowship with their Lord and with one another.  This Good News, and the victorious Christ to which it points, is the power of the Church.

  Lutherans acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God and the basis for all church doctrine and practice.  Lutherans acknowledge two sacraments, Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, which are the Gospel in visible action bringing forgiveness, new life and the hope of the resurrection.  The Word and the Sacraments are the Means of Grace whereby we become and remain the people of God in Jesus Christ.