Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) was established in 1967 as a Department under the Division of Welfare Services of the newly created Lutheran Council in the USA (LCUSA)(1967-1987), an inter-Lutheran agency of The American Lutheran Church, Lutheran Church in America, the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (SELC)(which became an LCMS nongeographic district in 1970), and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. (In 1978, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches joined the Council and in 1982 the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America became a member.) LIRS, known also as the Department of Immigration and Refugee Services (DIRS), continued the work of resettling and sponsoring refugees in the U.S. that its predecessor refugee resettlement agencies had initiated in the 1940s under the.

National Lutheran Council (1918-1966). In 1973, the DIRS became a unit under the DWS's successor division, the Division of Mission and Ministry. In 1987, the LCUSA was terminated with the establishment of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). At this time, LIRS became a cooperative agency of the ELCA, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.