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Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (U.S.)

Last modified: 2025-01-18 by martin karner
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Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod

[LCMS] image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 January 2025
Image derived from the CDR image of the logo, available for free
download from the Logos Download website.

The flag of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod is emblazoned: The church's logo – a stylized cross – in burgundy on a white field with burgundy stripes in the fly. An image of the flag can be seen at Concordia Publishing House's Web site [retrieved, flag image not retrievable].
Peter Guerin, 25 July 2004

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is the second largest Lutheran denomination in the US. The largest is the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Ned Smith, 22 August 2004

The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) cross logo was introduced in 1984 [1, 2]. Its explanation is as follows [1]:

The logo cross of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod is comprised [sic] of three crosses in one. It declares that "we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity". The top and left arms of the crosses reach upward toward God in prayer, open to receive GodŐs grace. The bottom and right arms of the crosses reach downward, open to embrace the world with GodŐs love. The twelve individual sections of the LCMS logo cross remind us of the twelve tribes of Israel from the Old Testament, as well as the twelve apostles from the New Testament. The four arms of the cross appear to be in motion as we proclaim to the world what GodŐs love through Jesus Christ means to us, spreading the Gospel to the four corners of the world.
The official color of the logo is PMS 228 (burgundy) [2]. It is applied unchanged to the foremost cross, with a 70 percent screen to the cross in the middle and with a 50 percent screen to the hindmost cross [1, 2]. On the LCMS flag [3, 4], each of the three stripes at the fly also bears one of these three shades, the darkest being placed at the flag edge and the lightest as the innermost one. The stripes' widths seem to be the equal with those of the cross segments with the same color shade and those of the white stripes between them seem to be equal to the distance between two adjacent cross segments [3], but there might be some variation, although currently available source [4] does not reveal enough details to verify that. The cross is centered on the white field. Also, the photo which displays the complete cross logo [3] does not display the registered trademark symbol next to the cross; however, it displays the reverse side of the flag, from which the symbol might have been omitted, while the LCMS website [5] always displays it next to the cross, so it was included in the presented image. The logo is centered on the white field and the ratio is 3:5 or very close.

Variant Flag

[LCMS] image by Tomislav Todorovic, 14 January 2025

A newer version of the flag [6 | picture], introduced by January 2023, which is the earliest verified time of its existence [7], displays the logo and the stripes in a very dark blue shade, without varying the lightness. Also, the stripes' widths differ here – most notably, the two narrower stripes have the same width. The logo is placed in the very center of the whole flag and the ratio is 3:5. The only photo of the flag currently found online, taken in Mitchell, SD on 2023-10-19 [8], suggests that there might be some variation of the color shades in the flag, but the charges are not completely visible, so this remains for future explorations.

Sources:
[1] Lutherans Online website at the Internet Archive – Lutheran Symbols and Crosses: http://lutheransonline.com...
[2] Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church, Chicago, IL website – LCMS logo and its meaning: https://www.holycrosschicago.net...
[3] Reporter (LCMS official newspaper) website – Article published on 2012-06-21: https://reporter.lcms.org...
[4] Private School Review website – Christ Lutheran School, Columbus, NE: https://www.privateschoolreview.com...
[5] LCMS website: https://www.lcms.org
[6] Concordia Publishing House website – LCMS flag (accessed on 2025-01-18): https://www.cph.org/lcms-flag-3-x-5-outdoor
[7] Concordia Publishing House website at the Internet Archive – LCMS flag (saved on 2023-01-12): https://www.cph.org/lcms-flag-3-x-5-outdoor
[8] Mitchell Daily Republic newspaper website – Article published on 2023-10-20: https://www.mitchellrepublic.com...

Tomislav Todorovic, 14 January 2025

Seal

[LCMS seal] image located by Martin Karner, 14 January 2025
(source: [1])

From the website:

The official seal of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod is a unique blend of symbols and words.

In the center is:
– a blue shield, representing the Christian's faith;
– a prominent gold cross proclaiming that we preach Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead;
– Latin words under the cross reading "Jesus Christ is Lord";
– three equilateral gold crosses symbolizing the Holy Trinity;
– three gold stars on the shield standing for the three Christian creeds: the Apostolic, the Nicene, and the Athanasian.
– Beneath the shield is Luther's seal.
– Three gold stars on each side of the shield stand for the six Lutheran Confessions that were published in one book, titled "Concordia", in 1580.
– Grape vines fill the bottom white spaces, symbolizing Christ's words in John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
– Around the inner circle are the words on which Lutheranism is founded: Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide (by Scripture alone, by grace alone, by faith alone).
– The exterior circle contains the proper name of the church and the year it was founded 1847.

The seal was designed by the Reverend A.R. Kretzmann of Chicago; and the drawing is by Walter Geweke, also of Chicago.

Martin Karner (14 January 2025)