On the eve of Pope Francis’ visit to Sweden and the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, a leading figure in the UK Lutheran community considers the state of Lutheranism worldwide

After four years in seminary in the mid-1970s, I was assigned to a small Lutheran congregation in the south of England for a year of pastoral experience before ordination. The Lutheran pastor there had asked the local Church of England rector if he knew anyone who could provide accommodation for my wife and I during the year, and a churchwarden of his parish obligingly offered some nice rooms.

Bags in hand, we arrived at his address and knocked on the door, introducing ourselves as the Lutherans he was expecting.  The churchwarden looked confused and said nothing for a few moments. Then he said that he had not expected to see white faces. He had assumed that Lutherans generally had black faces, like Martin Luther King.

Back then, Lutherans were almost entirely unknown in the UK, even among other Christians. Perhaps that is not surprising, as almost all Lutherans in the UK have worshipped mainly in languages other than English, and still do, so have been on the fringe of the Christian scene. But the words “Luther” and “Lutheran” will be heard more often as 2017 approaches.

Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar in Germany, came to believe that the Church was ignoring or acting contrary to essential Christian teachings.