North Western Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church

North Western Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church
North Western Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church in India and Nepal.
Classification	Protestant
Orientation	Mainline Evangelical Lutheran
Structure	The five levels of structure are Synod, Diocesan, Deanery, Parish and congregations
Leader	Bishop Rt.Rev. Dular Lakra
Associations	Bengal Christian Council, Bihar Council of Churches, Chhattisgarh Christian Council, Jharkhand Council of Churches, Madhya Pradesh Christian Council, Utkal Christian Council
Region	India and Nepal
Headquarters	Main Road Ranchi Jharkhand, India 834001
Origin	9 June 1850
Congregations	735
Members	120,000 + Baptized members

North Western Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church (NWGEL Church) is the fourth largest Lutheran church in India. The NWGEL Church has a presence in Nepal. Most NWGEL church members are from indigenous and tribal communities. NWGEL Church became an autonomous church on 10 July 1919. On 28 April 1989 United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India gave provisional membership to NWGEL Church. NWGEL Church is a member of the National Council of Churches in India and local bodies such as Bengal Christian Council, Jharkhand Christian Council, Bihar Christian Council and Chattishgarh Christian Council.
NWGEL Church undertook partnership with the World Mission Prayer League in February 2005. WMPL is helping in developing the Multi-purpose Training Center, near Ranchi.

The NWGEL Church has congregations in the state of Orissa, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. NWGEL Church has presence in various state capitals such as New Delhi, Kolkatta, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Raipur, Ranchi and Patna. NWGEL Church has 5 deanery and 68 parishes and about 730 congregations.
NWGEL Church has international presence in Nepal.

In the year 1845 the Gossner Church was established at Ranchi in the land of Chottanagpur. Now it is in Jharkhand state separated from Bihar. It was the first church in the land of Chotanagpur at that time. The major part of the population was tribal people - Oraon, Munda, Kharia and others. Basically these people were very poor and innocent. They were exploited in several ways by the Jamindars (landlords) in many forms of cruel activity which made them flee to other cities of the country.