From Finland to Achill, the Porvoo Communion, and General Synod





On Sunday 11 May, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, 'Good Shepherd Sunday', it was a pleasure to welcome to St Thomas's Dugort visitors from Finland (pictured) - from the Evangelical Lutheran Church - as well as from St Alban's and Huddersfield, England, and a party from 'Solid Rock' fellowship church in Drogheda.


The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Finland, like the Church of Ireland, is a member of the Porvoo Communion. 'Porvoo' is a fellowship of 15 Anglican and Lutheran churches throughout Europe. Among this year's speeches at this year’s Church of Ireland General Synod, reference was made to the importance of our Porvoo Communion relationships, and in light of this it was particularly good to make new Finnish friends and learn about their experience of church and faith in their own context.



At St Thomas's Dugort, Achill

Porvoo

You can learn more about the Porvoo Communion here:

https://porvoocommunion.org/

"The Porvoo Communion is a communion of 15 Anglican and Evangelical Lutheran churches in Europe. The communion was established in 1992 by a theological agreement entitled the Porvoo Common Statement which establishes full communion between and among these churches."



The list below shows the member churches of the Porvoo Communion (from https://porvoocommunion.org/what-is-the-porvoo-communion/members/ ). 


The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark

The Church of England

The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

The Church of Iceland

The Church of Ireland

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania

The Church of Norway

The Lusitanian Church of Portugal

The Scottish Episcopal Church

The Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain

The Church of Sweden

The Church in Wales

Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Worldwide

The Lutheran Church in Great Britain

One church have observer status:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia




General Synod

You can read the report from General Synod which refers to Porvoo here:

https://www.churchofireland.org/news/12870/inter-church-and-inter-faith


The website for the COI's General Synod can be found here:

https://www.churchofireland.org/synod/2025/welcome




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