On Jan. 12, Guadalupe Cortés was installed as church president and bishop of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church (Iglesia Luterana Salvadoreña or ILS) for a four-year term. The installation service was held at Iglesia Luterana la Resurrección in San Salvador.
She is the second bishop since the church’s founding, succeeding Medardo Ernesto Gómez Soto, and the first woman to hold the position. She was elected Dec. 5, 2024.
Cortés began working as a trainee in the church’s social services and subsequently as an evangelistic catechist in the 1980s. From 2003 to 2007, she studied theology at the Universidad Luterana Salvadoreña. Since 2010, she has served as diaconal pastoral coordinator of the ILS.
She has previously served as pastor of New Esperanza Church in Nueva Concepción, Chalatenango, as well as vice president of the ILS.
“I pray that our merciful God will accompany and guide Bishop Guadalupe Cortés in her ministry,” said Sonia Skupch, Lutheran World Federation regional secretary for Latin America, the Caribbean and North America. “May God give her strength, joy and hope in leading the church and being a herald of the good news of the gospel in the Salvadorian context.”
