The Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church is a Christian denomination in south India, which was established in 1919 and has approximately 500,000 members. Its headquarters is in Trichy, Tamil Nadu. It is one of the prominent mainline Lutheran churches in Tamil Nadu. <ref name="Constitution of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the Documents Regulating Its Relations to the Cooperating Missions, the Church of Sweden Mission and the Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission 1928 p. "> On 14 January 1919, the Tamil congregation of different German, Danish, and Swedish Lutheran missions joined together to form the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC). In March 1921, the constitution of the TELC was amended to include the structure of episcopacy. In 1921, a Swedish missionary, Ernst Heuman, was ordained as the first bishop of the TELC. The bishop of TELC holds the title Bishop of Tranquebar. In 1956, R B Manickam became the first Indian to be ordained as the bishop of TELC. The bishops have the title Bishop of Tranquebar. It belongs to the Lutheran World Federation. The Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission and Church of Sweden Mission were active in the area of Trichy in the 19th century and are still active there today. This Lutheran church comes under United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India.

Presidents of TELC and Bishops of Tranquebar

Congregations

Colleges and schools

TELC-related seminaries