Small churches need to feel part of a worldwide communion in order to grow, says the President of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELU) in Argentina and Uruguay.

"If the worldwide Lutheran communion is doing well the local congregations flourish," stated Rev Alan Eldred in an interview with Lutheran World Information.

He said that belonging to a global communion like the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) was particularly important for small churches like his IELU.

The LWF expanded its name during its Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada, in 2003, to "The Lutheran World Federation - A Communion of Churches". Eldrid said that the new name made it clearer that all Lutherans are walking the same road together.

"We should understand ourselves as a church, as a community at one table," noted Eldrid. "The table of sacraments, sharing, discussions - the table at which we sit together with room for everyone."

He added that the concept of diakonia could be transformed through a more holistic understanding of the Lutheran communion.

Lutherans should regard themselves as "supporters and no longer coordinators", Eldrid argued. "People in need should receive assistance but as a process of helping them to help themselves, so that they can use their knowledge first for themselves and then assist others."

The 11,000-member IELU are making preparations to mark the centenary of Lutheran mission in the Spanish language in Argentina. Their celebrations will include public displays of the diaries and letters of US missionary Silas David Daugherty on the launching of Argentine mission in 1908.

Eldrid said that in the future he hoped "the feeling of being together [and] belonging to a network will be further strengthened, so that all Lutheran Christians will feel at home in the local churches and in the worldwide communion."