The American Lutheran Church (ALC) was a Christian Protestant denomination in the United States that existed from 1960 to 1987. Its headquarters were in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Upon its formation in 1960, the ALC designated Augsburg Publishing House (est. 1891), also located in Minneapolis, as the church publisher. The Lutheran Standard was the official magazine of the ALC. Theologically, the church was influenced by pietism, and was slightly more conservative than the Lutheran Church in America (LCA), with which it would eventually merge. The ALC cooperated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in many ventures, but ties would end when talks concerning a merger with the Lutheran Church in America began. In 1966, Canadian congregations of the ALC formed the autonomous Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada (ELCC), which in 1986 joined with the Lutheran Church in America - Canada Section (LCA-CS) to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC). The ALC began ordaining women as ministers in December 1970, when the Rev. Barbara Andrews became the second woman ordained as a Lutheran minister in the United States. The first Native American woman to become a Lutheran minister in the United States, the Rev. Marlene Whiterabbit Helgemo, was ordained by the ALC in July 1987.
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Formation
The American Lutheran Church was formed in 1960 out of the following Lutheran church bodies:
American Lutheran Church (1930)
American Lutheran Church, which was formed in 1930 from a merger of the German Iowa Synod (est. 1854), Buffalo Synod(est. 1845) and the Joint Synod of Ohio (est. 1818). Note: After 1960, this body was informally referred to as the "old American Lutheran Church," to distinguish it from the body of the same name into which it had been absorbed.
- Presidents of ALC
- Carl C. Hein 1930–1937
- Emmanuel F. Poppen 1937–1950
- Henry F. Schuh 1951–1960
- Colleges of ALC
- Capital University
- Wartburg College
- Texas Lutheran University
- Luther College (Saskatchewan)
- Seminaries of ALC
- Capital (Columbus, Ohio)
- Wartburg (Dubuque, Iowa)
United Evangelical Lutheran Church
United Evangelical Lutheran Church, founded in 1896 and known until 1946 as the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Evangelical Lutheran Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church, established in 1917 and known from its founding until 1946 as the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (NLCA). The NLCA had itself been formed from a merger of the Hauge Synod (est. 1876), the Norwegian Synod (est. 1853) and the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (est. 1890).
Lutheran Free Church
The Lutheran Free Church, which had broken away from the United Norwegian Lutheran Church in 1897, joined the ALC in 1963. (Forty Lutheran Free Church congregations chose not to participate in the merger, and instead formed the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, today the fourth-largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S. with over 250 congregations.)
Merger
On 1 January 1988, the American Lutheran Church ceased to exist when it, along with the Lutheran Church in America and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, joined together to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. At the time of the merger, the ALC was the third-largest Lutheran church body in the United States, behind the Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. The ALC brought approximately 2.25 million members into the ELCA. Twelve ALC congregations that did not want to participate in the merger formed the American Association of Lutheran Churches, which has since grown to 87 congregations.
Presidents/Presiding Bishops of The ALC
- 1960 - 1970 Fredrik A. Schiotz
- 1971 - 1973 Kent S. Knutson
- 1973 - 1987 David W. Preus
Use of the term Presiding Bishop approved in 1980.
Colleges and seminaries of TALC
Colleges
- Augsburg College
- Augustana College (South Dakota)
- California Lutheran University
- Capital University
- Concordia College, Moorhead
- Dana College
- Luther College (Iowa)
- Pacific Lutheran University
- St. Olaf College
- Texas Lutheran University
- Wartburg College
- Waldorf Jr. College now a 4 year college
- Oak Grove Lutheran High School, Fargo, North Dakota
Seminaries
- The Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary , Columbus, Ohio (shared with LCA)
- Luther Theological Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota (shared with LCA)
- Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa
- Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, California (shared with LCA)
References
Todd W. Nichol All These Lutherans (Minneapolis: Augburg Publishing House, 1986)
External links
- The American Lutheran Church (1960-87)
- American Lutheran Church (1930-60)
- ELCA predecessor church bodies
- Wolf, Edmund Jacob. The Lutherans in America; a story of struggle, progress, influence and marvelous growth. New York: J.A. Hill. 1889.
NOTE: The below papers reflect the viewpoints of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), a conservative body opposed to ecumenism.
- The Doctrinal Situation of Three Merging Churches by John Baumgart
- A Brief Factual Presentation Of The Historical Development Of Efforts Toward Lutheran Unity In The U. S. A. by Max Lehninger
- A Basic Doctrinal Difference Among Lutherans by Elmer J. C. Prenzlow, Jr.
- The American Lutheran Church Today by Martin O. Westerhaus
