The Laestadian Lutheran Church (LLC) has called a virtual meeting of congregation delegates to vote on expelling the Coastal California Laestadian Lutheran Church (CCLLC). It is the third congregation the LLC has tried to remove since it expelled Minneapolis and Wolf Lake in 2022. In all that time not one contrary doctrine has been named, not one passage of Scripture cited, not one specific act identified. The only ground ever given is that a majority feels a “different spirit,” a standard the LLC’s own Constitution forbids and one no congregation can answer, because nothing has been put into words to answer. The whole record is published here: the letters, the LLC’s notice and CCLLC’s response, and the recording of the meeting itself. Every member congregation may read it and judge for itself, from the Word, from the Constitution, and from the record, before any delegate is asked to vote.
Laestadian Lutheran Church (LLC) on kutsunut koolle seurakuntien edustajien virtuaalisen kokouksen äänestääkseen Coastal Californian laestadiolais-luterilaisen seurakunnan (CCLLC) erottamisesta. Se on kolmas seurakunta, jonka LLC on pyrkinyt poistamaan sen jälkeen, kun se erotti Minneapolisin ja Wolf Laken vuonna 2022. Koko tänä aikana ei ole nimetty yhtäkään vastakkaista oppia, ei siteerattu yhtäkään Raamatun kohtaa eikä osoitettu yhtäkään tiettyä tekoa. Ainoa esitetty peruste on se, että enemmistö kokee ”toisen hengen”; tämä on mittapuu, jonka LLC:n oma perussääntö (Constitution) kieltää ja johon yksikään seurakunta ei voi vastata, koska mitään ei ole puettu sanoiksi, mihin vastata. Koko aineisto julkaistaan tässä: kirjeet, LLC:n ilmoitus ja CCLLC:n vastaus sekä itse kokouksen äänitallenne. Jokainen jäsenseurakunta voi lukea sen ja arvioida itse Sanan, perussäännön ja aineiston pohjalta, ennen kuin yhtäkään edustajaa pyydetään äänestämään.
Why this site exists
This site exists to state a clear position on the excommunications taking place in the Laestadian Lutheran Church, the 2022 removals of the Minneapolis and Wolf Lake congregations and the expulsion of the Coastal California congregation now set for a delegates' vote, and to document that position so thoroughly that no reader has to take anyone's word for anything.
The position is this: no doctrine from the Holy Word of God has ever been stated against any of these congregations. The removals rest on a claim the LLC's own Constitution forbids, that the spirit of a majority cannot err, and were carried out without the notice, the reasons, and the hearing that both the law and the Bylaws require. If this position is wrong, it can be answered the same way it is made here: from the Word, from the Constitution, and from the record. That is the whole request.
Miksi tämä sivusto on olemassa
Tämä sivusto on olemassa esittääkseen selkeän kannan Laestadian Lutheran Churchissa tapahtuviin erottamisiin, Minneapolisin ja Wolf Laken seurakuntien poistamiseen vuonna 2022 ja Coastal Californian seurakunnan erottamiseen, josta edustajien on määrä äänestää, sekä dokumentoidakseen tuon kannan niin perusteellisesti, ettei kenenkään lukijan tarvitse luottaa kenenkään sanaan.
Kanta on tämä: yhtäkään Jumalan pyhän sanan oppia ei ole koskaan esitetty näitä seurakuntia vastaan. Erottamiset perustuvat väitteeseen, jonka LLC:n oma perussääntö (Constitution) kieltää, että enemmistön henki ei voi erehtyä, ja ne toteutettiin ilman sitä ilmoitusta, niitä perusteita ja sitä kuulemista, joita sekä laki että säännöt (Bylaws) edellyttävät. Jos tämä kanta on väärä, siihen voidaan vastata samalla tavalla kuin se tässä esitetään: Sanasta, perussäännöstä ja aineistosta käsin. Se on koko pyyntö.
Timeline of the division
- 2015 – 2021
Discord surfaces; the LLC acknowledges “two groups”
After the 2015 Summer Services, years of meetings follow on justification, the office of the Holy Spirit, the Word and the congregation, forgiveness, and confession. A continent-wide meeting in May 2021 acknowledges “two groups” in North America. To this day the LLC has never clearly stated its own position on the doctrines discussed in those meetings, how that position differs from what the other congregations confess, or what explanation those congregations actually gave. (LLC board, Voice of Zion, Jan. 2023 · confession of faith, Apr. 2, 2019, PDF · Menahga & Wolf Lake boards, Mar. 26, 2021, transcript PDF.)
- April 13, 2019
LLC Board Members’ Workshop, Monticello
With Wolf Lake’s board in the room, Olli Vänskä, then living and preaching in Toronto, framed dissent in the language of Korah, “the earth opened its mouth and they were swallowed,” and of wolves that must be “chase[d] away.” In the evening session Don Lahti, an LLC speaker and former Board member, put it plainly: “When they criticize the LLC, they are criticizing God himself.” The vocabulary of the later removals is set here, three years in advance. (Recounted in the open letter · recording & transcript.)
- December 7, 2019
Mediation between the LLC board and Wolf Lake
Asked in advance to state its doctrinal concerns in writing and to take one topic at a time, the LLC board declines both. The LLC’s pastor from Finland, Harri Vähäjylkkä, says he can call nothing he heard doctrinally wrong. The one minister who claims error, Keith Waaraniemi, will not say what it is. The day ends with no doctrine named. (Open letter · recording & transcript · the request to state the concerns in writing, Dec. 1, 2019, PDF.)
- July 2, 2022
Minneapolis and Wolf Lake are removed
The removal of Minneapolis and Wolf Lake was not on the meeting agenda. It was raised from the floor, and delegates voted by show of hands to remove both congregations together, with no prior written notice, no statement of reasons, and no citation of the Constitution. Minnesota law (Minn. Stat. § 317A.411) and the LLC’s own Bylaws (Art. II § 9) required all of these; none was honored. (LLC board & Wolf Lake, May 13, 2022, transcript PDF.)
- August 3, 2022
First letter to the LLC and its congregations
The first letter to the LLC board and its member congregations lays out the violations of Scripture, the Constitution, and Minnesota law. It received no response, ever. (the letter, PDF.)
- September 19–20, 2022 SRK
SRK, LLC, and SFC leadership meet in Oulu
The meetings are attended in part by the entire SRK board. The LLC reports they were “of one mind” and that the division “has led to a heresy”; SRK’s Päivämies reports the same. (Päivämies · the LLC’s circular of Sept. 30, 2022, PDF.)
- January 2023 SRK
“Heresy” article, and Palola’s teaching
The LLC defends the removals by quoting the Bylaws’ membership-admission clause, Article II, Section 1, rather than the expulsion clause, Section 9, and omitting the Constitution’s actual standard. Briar had already told the board, in his August 2022 letter, that Section 9 is the only provision governing expulsion; Section 1 concerns the admission of new congregations, not their removal. The same month, SRK chairman Valde Palola endorses the removals and teaches that “the congregation cannot err on any point of doctrine either.” (Voice of Zion, Mar. 2023.)
- June 1, 2023 SRK
Second letter, now to the SRK as well
The second letter goes to the LLC board, every member congregation, and the SRK Board of Directors (Attn: Valde Palola), documenting the misquotation of the Bylaws and asking directly whether they still believe their own Constitution. It received no response, ever. (the letter, PDF.)
- November 2023
Minneapolis seeks court review
Minneapolis seeks court review of an illegal expulsion proceeding that violates Minnesota law. The LLC tells its congregations about the lawsuit but not what precipitated it: its refusal to meet, its lawyer-only responses, and its refusal to pause the one-year statutory review period. (letter to the congregations, PDF.)
- April 22, 2026
A decision to keep it off the agenda
The Southwest Area Mission Committee chairman, an LLC board member, and the executive director agree to keep the move against Coastal California off the Annual Meeting agenda, because advance notice “could raise a number of question[s] in congregations,” and to raise it from the floor instead. (the email, PDF · quoted in CCLLC’s September 3 response, § V.B · the Southwest Area board meeting of Mar. 14, 2026.)
- June 19, 2026
CCLLC asks; the board declines
CCLLC asks the LLC to place three items on the Annual Meeting agenda: state the doctrine before any expulsion, follow the law’s notice-and-hearing procedure, and rescind the 2022 removals. The board declines the request. (the request, PDF · the board’s reply of June 26, PDF · CCLLC’s answer of July 2, PDF.)
- July 3, 2026 SRK
The Annual Meeting, Rockford, Minnesota
CCLLC’s three motions are read; not one delegate seconds any of them, including the motion to affirm that the LLC will follow the law. Delegates call CCLLC’s chairman and delegate “not a believer” from the floor, cite no doctrine, and carry a motion to take “whatever steps are necessary for the expulsion.” An SRK representative says the 2022 removals were “not of legalities or laws, but the Spirit of God.” (transcript · clips.)
- July 22 / August 31, 2026
The LLC issues its Notice
A special virtual meeting of delegates is called for October 1, 2026 to vote CCLLC’s expulsion, effective October 10, with a response requested by September 4. The LLC sent the notice by email only, and to an address other than the one it had been using to correspond with CCLLC, where it was quarantined as suspected phishing and not found until August 31, four days before its own deadline. Its four stated “reasons” name no doctrine, cite no Scripture, and identify no specific decision. (the notice, PDF.)
- July 2 – August 5, 2026
Records requested, records withheld
On July 2 CCLLC requested inspection of the LLC’s books and records under Minn. Stat. § 317A.461, records bearing directly on the noticed expulsion. The LLC did not respond until July 17, and then, through counsel, declined to produce anything until after the expulsion vote. The records a member needs in order to answer its own expulsion were withheld until the expulsion is decided.
- September 8, 2026 SRK
The open letter to the board of the SRK
The open letter puts openly the question the silence has left unanswered for four years: do you believe this way? It is copied to the Archbishop of Turku and Finland and the Bishop of Oulu. (read the letter · PDF.)
- September 3, 2026
CCLLC delivers its response, with exhibits
Within the LLC’s own September 4 request, and under protest, CCLLC delivers its written response: no lawful notice of the meeting has been given, it cannot be held as noticed, and the stated grounds are still conclusions. Exhibits A–I contain the full correspondence. (response with exhibits, 47 pp..)
- October 1, 2026 Cancelled
The delegates’ vote — called off
The special virtual meeting to vote on expelling Coastal California was cancelled on September 11, 2026, “upon advice from legal counsel.” The LLC says it will arrange a future meeting after addressing “meeting procedures and protocol.” The defects CCLLC identified in its September 3 response — no lawful notice, conclusions instead of reasons, records and member contacts withheld — remain unaddressed.
Background: the full story
The same history in prose, with what the LLC says it believes, why the pattern matters, and every claim linked to its source.
Latest: CCLLC's Response to the LLC Notice (September 3, 2026)
The LLC has noticed a virtual delegates' meeting to vote on expelling the Coastal California congregation. CCLLC's written response, delivered September 3 with Exhibits A–I, shows the notice is not lawful, the meeting cannot be held as noticed, and the “reasons” given are still conclusions, with no doctrine, no Scripture, and no specific decision identified.
Read the response with exhibits (PDF) → The LLC's notice (PDF)
The Open Letter (September 8, 2026)
To the Board of the SRK, copied to the Archbishop of Turku and Finland and the Bishop of Oulu: after two unanswered letters and four years of silence, do you believe what was spoken at the 2026 LLC Annual Meeting?
The Recording & Exhibits
Every quotation in the letter, cut from the meeting recording with the matching transcript, including “he is not a believer,” the motions no delegate would second, the vote, and the statements of the SRK’s representative. The complete recording is here as well.
The Full Transcript
The complete machine transcript of the July 3, 2026 Annual Meeting, timestamped throughout.
The Recordings
Four meetings published in full, each with a transcript that highlights and scrolls as the recording plays: the 2026 Annual Meeting, the LLC board’s December 7, 2019 meeting with the Wolf Lake congregation, the April 13, 2019 board members’ workshop at Monticello, and the March 14, 2026 Southwest Area board meeting concerning Coastal California.
All four recordings → Dec. 7, 2019 Apr. 13, 2019 Mar. 14, 2026
Continual Forgiveness: the doctrine that was never identified
The term made an issue in 2022, set against the LLC’s own meetings: what its chairman and staff said about the difference, and what they could never name.
The Prior Letters, Unanswered
August 3, 2022, to the LLC board and member congregations. June 1, 2023, delivered also to the SRK Board of Directors (Attn: Valde Palola). Neither received a reply.
Sources and documents → Aug. 3, 2022 (PDF) June 1, 2023 (PDF) Nov. 18, 2023 (PDF)
Writing to us privately
A question, a correction, a document, or a recording that bears on anything published here. Nothing sent is published, quoted, or forwarded without permission, and you may write anonymously.