Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America

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The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, often known as the Synodical Conference, was an association of Lutheran synods that professed a complete adherence to the Lutheran Confessions and doctrinal unity with each other. Founded in 1872, its membership fluctuated as various synods joined and left it. It was dissolved in 1967 after the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) left it due to doctrinal disagreements with one of the other two remaining members, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS).

History

Background

The 1860s and early 1870s was a period of realignment within American Lutheranism. In 1860 the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod of the United States of North America was the only federation of Lutheran synods in the country. During the previous 20 years a number of new synods had emerged, the result of immigration from the Lutheran regions of Europe. The General Synod had, under Samuel Simon Schmucker, espoused an "American Lutheranism" which downplayed the role and authority of the Lutheran Confessions. In 1864 the General Synod admitted the Frankean Synod, a synod that was notably indifferent to the Lutheran Confessions or to any Lutheran identity. In protest, the Pennsylvania Ministerium and four other synods left the General Synod and issued a call to the various independent synods to form a new and confessionally-based federation. Meetings in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1866 and Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1867 led to the formation of the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America.^[1]

Despite it professed confessional stance, the General Council allowed divergent teaching regarding millennialism, altar fellowship, sharing of pulpits with non-Lutheran pastors, and lodge membership in an attempt to include the largest number of synods as possible. The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa and Other States (Iowa Synod) and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio and Adjacent States (Ohio Synod) requested satisfactory responses to those "Four Points"; failing to receive acceptable answers, the Ohio Synod declined to join and the Iowa Synod joined as only a non-voting associate member. The failure of the General Council to adequately address those issues also caused the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin and Other (Adjacent) States (Wisconsin Synod), the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Minnesota and Other States (Minnesota Synod), and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Illinois and Other (Adjacent) States (Illinois Synod), all charter members, to withdraw from membership by 1872.^[2]

Meanwhile, the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States (Missouri Synod) had been in doctrinal discussions with various Midwestern synods and had reached fellowship agreements with several of them: the Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (Norwegian Synod) in 1857, the Wisconsin Synod in 1869, the Ohio Synod in 1868-1872, and the Illinois Synod and the Minnesota Synod in 1872.^[3]

Organization

The Synodical Conference was founded at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a member at that time of the Wisconsin Synod.

In October 1870 the Ohio Synod contacted the Illinois, Missouri, Norwegian, and Wisconsin synods to see if they would be interested in a union of Midwestern confessional synods. The synods (except for the Illinois Synod, whose president attended unofficially because that synod was still a member of the General Council) met on January 11–13, 1871, in Chicago to explore the formation of a federation that would be confessional in both profession and practice. A second meeting was held on November 14–16, 1871, in Fort Wayne, Indiana with the Illinois and Minnesota synods, who had by this time both left the General Council, also in attendance.^[3]

The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America was formally organized on July 10–16, 1872 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by the Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Norwegian, Ohio, and Wisconsin synods as an expression of their unity of faith. The member synods agreed to work together in matters relating to Christian evangelism. Included in this was a sharing of clergy, sharing of educational facilities, and co-operation on evangelism and mission work.^[3]

In 1876 the Synodical Conference recommended that all congregations using a particular language (e.g., German or Norwegian) be organized into state-specific synods.^[3] Therefore, the Evangelical Lutheran Concordia Synod of Virginia, which had joined the Synodical Conference that same year, merged in 1877 into the Ohio Synod.^[4] Likewise, the Illinois Synod merged into the Illinois District of the Missouri Synod in 1880.^[3]

Predestinarian Controversy

Shortly thereafter a dispute known as the Predestinarian Controversy or Election Controversy arose among member synods regarding the cause of election to eternal life. The Ohio and Norwegian synods contended that God elects people in view of the faith (intuitu fidei) he foresaw they would have, while the Missouri and Wisconsin synods held that the cause is wholly due to God's grace.^[5] As a result of the controversy, the Ohio Synod withdrew from membership in 1881, and the Norwegian Synod in 1883.^[3]

Some of the pastors and congregations in in the Ohio Synod disagreed with the stance of that synod and broke away to form the Evangelical Lutheran Concordia Synod of Pennsylvania and Other States. It joined the Synodical Conference in 1882 and merged with the Missouri Synod in 1886.^[3]

Growth and consolidation

In 1890 the English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States (English Synod) joined the Synodical Conference. About 20 years later, in 1911, it merged into the Missouri Synod as its non-geographical English District.^[3]

The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Michigan and Other States joined the Conference in 1892. That same year it joined with the Wisconsin and Minnesota synods to form the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Other States, which eventually became the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod of the present time.^[3]

The German Evangelical Lutheran District Synod of Nebraska and Other States (Nebraska Synod) and the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Augsburg Confession in the United States of America (Slovak Synod) both joined in 1906, but with final acceptance of their membership delayed until 1910. The Nebraska Synod merged into the Joint Synod of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan as that body's Nebraska District in 1917.^[6]

Meanwhile, the various Norwegian-language synods were undergoing a series of mergers which led, in 1917, to the Norwegian Synod joining with the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America and the Hauge Synod to form the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America. A group of pastors and congregations in the Norwegian Synod declined to join the merger due to doctrinal disagreements; instead, they formed the Norwegian Synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church (known as the Little Norwegian Synod) in 1918 and joined the Synodical Conference in 1920.^[7]

After 1920 there were no changes in the membership of the Synodical Conference until its breakup and dissolution in the 1960s. Each of the four synods did, however, take on new names. The Missouri Synod became the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) in 1947,^[8] the Little Norwegian Synod became the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) in 1958,^[7] the Wisconsin Synod became the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) in 1959,^[9] and the Slovak Synod became the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (SELC), also in 1959.^[10]

Breakup and dissolution

Doctrinal differences among the synods of the Synodical Conference, especially concerning the doctrine and practice of fellowship, surfaced during the 1940s and 1950s. Disagreements began when the LCMS began exploratory talks with leaders of the American Lutheran Church (ALC). The ALC, which was formed by the merger of the Ohio Synod and two other synods, differed with the Synodical Conference on the doctrine of predestination. Since there had been no recent change on the ALC's doctrinal position, the LCMS was charged by some within the Synodical Conference of changing its position on church fellowship.

After years of continued talks, the ELS severed its fellowship relations with the LCMS in 1955 and withdrew from the Synodical Conference. Two years later the WELS publicly recognized the same doctrinal disagreements with the LCMS, but did not officially break fellowship with the LCMS until 1961. During that time period, the WELS officially "admonished" the LCMS to return to its former doctrine and practice.

Dissatisfaction over this decision led about 70 pastors and a similar number of congregations to leave the WELS and form the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC). The CLC maintained that that both the WELS and ELS had misapplied the principles of Christian Fellowship themselves by not breaking away from the Synodical Conference and the LCMS when doctrinal differences had first been perceived. This issue remains a matter of contention between the CLC and the WELS and ELS.

The Synodical Conference, now comprising only the LCMS and the much smaller SELC, became inactive in 1966 and was officially dissolved in 1967.^[3]

African-American mission work

In its convention in 1877, only a few years after its founding, the Synodical Conference created a Mission Board to oversee its "Colored Missions".^[11] On October 16 of that same year, John Frederick Doescher was commissioned as a missionary to African-Americans.^[12] The first congregation resulting from these efforts was organized in 1878 in Little Rock, Arkansas as St. Paul's Colored Lutheran Church.^[13] Several churches and schools were opened in New Orleans and other towns in Louisiana in the 1880s.^[14] By 1890 there were a total of seven mission stations in place—four in New Orleans, one in Little Rock, one in Meherrin, Virginia, and one in Springfield, Illinois.^[15]

In North Carolina a group of five African-American Lutheran congregations had been associated with the Synod of North Carolina. On May 8, 1889, with the consent and promised support of that synod, the congregations organized the Alpha Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Freedmen in America (Alpha Synod).^[16] However, the financial support from the North Carolina Synod did not materialize, so the Alpha Synod appealed to the Synodical Conference for help. After an investigation, the Mission Board agreed to work with the Alpha Synod, and by 1927 there were 23 congregations and preaching stations in North and South Caroline, with 1,328 baptized members.^[17]

Meanwhile, in Rosebud, Alabama, Rosa J. Young, an African-American and the daughter of a Methodist minister, had started a school in 1912 to give African-American children in the area a good Christian education. The Rosebud Literary and Industrial School soon had over 200 students, but in 1914 the cotton boll weevil infested Wilcox County, and the resulting economic hardship meant that students' families were unable to afford the tuition. Desperate to keep the school open, she requested aid from the Methodist Church, but to no avail. She wrote to Booker T. Washington at the Tuskegee Institute, and he suggested she contact the Synodical Conference. Upon receiving her letter dated October 27, 1915, the Mission Board sent a missionary to Rosebud in January 1916 and agreed to support the school and pay Young $20 per month to teach.^[18][19]

Word of the school and resulting Lutheran church in Rosebud spread among the African-American communities in Alabama and neighboring states, with requests being made to the Synodical Conference to start additional schools and churches. By 1927 there were 27 congregations with their associated schools.^[20]

In the 1960s, as the Synodical Conference was breaking up, the African-American congregations and schools were asbsorbed by the respective geographical districts of the LCMS.

Higher education

The Synodical Conference opened Immanuel Lutheran College in Concord, North Carolina in 1903 to train African-American teachers and pastors for the schools and churches that had been established. In 1905 the college was relocated to a 14.5-acre (5.9 ha) campus in Greensboro that cost $28,394 to construct. Initially the college consisted of three departments, namely, a four-year high school, a one-year normal school for teachers, and a three-year theological seminary for pastors.^[21] By 1951 it had a faculty of ten and a student body of about 100, with about 30 graduates each year from the three departments.^[22] Nevertheless, Immanuel struggled to maintain its enrollment, and multiple resolutions to close it were made at Synodical Conference conventions in the 1940s and 1950s. Those resolutions failed to pass, and attempts to increase enrollment were made. Eventually the integration of the colleges and seminaries of the member synods of the Synodical Conference led to the passage of a resolution at the 1960 convention to close Immanuel as of June 30, 1961. The campus was sold to the state of North Carolina, and the library was transferred to the Alabama Lutheran Academy in Selma.^[23]

In 1919 the African-American congregations in Alabama petitioned the Synodical Conference for funds to open a high school and college to train church workers. The school opened in 1922 in a rented cottage, and the Mission Board soon purchased 13 acres (5.3 ha) in northeast Selma, Alabama as the site of the Alabama Luther College.^[19] A recitation hall and a dormitory were erected at a cost of $36,000 and opened in 1925.^[24] The college was forced to close during the Great Depression and the remaining high school was renamed the Alabama Lutheran Academy. Eventually the college was reopened, resulting in the name Alabama Lutheran Academy and College; the institution is known today as Concordia College Alabama and is part of the Concordia University System of the LCMS.^[19]

Successor organizations

The WELS and ELS remained in fellowship with each other after leaving the Synodical Conference. Those two church bodies formed the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC) in 1993 with 13 Lutheran church bodies in other countries.

The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (SELC) joined with the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) and the American Lutheran Church (ALC) in 1967 to form the Lutheran Council in the United States of America (LCUSA).^[25] In 1971 the SELC merged into the LCMS as the SELC District.^[10] LCUSA itself ceased operations in 1988 upon the merger of the LCA and ALC that created the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

The LCMS and its partner churches worldwide formed the International Lutheran Conference (ILC) in 1993 after holding informal conferences periodically since the 1950s.^[26] Two other Lutheran denominations in the U.S. have joined the ILC since 2000: the American Association of Lutheran Churches and the Lutheran Ministerium and Synod – USA.

Notes

References

Further reading

• Braun, Mark. 2003. A Tale of Two Synods. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House.
• Schuetze, Armin W. The Synodical Conference: Ecumenical Endeavor, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House.
• Wolf, Edmund Jacob. The Lutherans in America; a story of struggle, progress, influence and marvelous growth. New York: J.A. Hill. 1889.
• Synodical Conference Breakup; A collection of synodical documents from the 1950s to the 1960s.
• Proceedings of the General Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, 1912-1930, mostly German, some English.