The growing interest in liturgical renewal and the Christian year in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod is reflected in the recent publication of a new hymnal and companion volume. These publications follow, with some adaptations, the lectionary, and calendar proposed by the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship in 1973.
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church has remained quite traditional in its approach to music and the arts. Recent changes include the recovery of psalm-singing and, in some churches on particular occasions, the use of choruses. Little use is made of the arts.
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), numbering some 400,000 members, has congregations in every state of the U.S. and several provinces of Canada. The church body conducts foreign mission work and supports its own worker-training system.