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Lutheran Churches
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Church of the Lutheran Confession
The Church of the Lutheran Confession was organized in 1960 at Watertown, South Dakota, by congregations and clergy who had formerly belonged to the various Lutheran denominations that had comprised the Synodical Conference, a Lutheran ecumenical body. With the loss of doctrinal unity within the conference, they felt compelled to leave. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2006 - Clergy: 90
- Congregations: 87
- Members: 8,390
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
The Wisconsin Synod began with the organization of German Lutheran immigrants in Wisconsin in the 1850s. It spread as similar synods from other states associated with it. It is among the most conservative of Lutheran bodies. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2006 - Clergy: 1,857
- Congregations: 1,276
- Members: 395,947
Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America
The Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America was founded in 1900 by a group of Norwegian-American Lutherans under the leadership of the Rev. Kurt O. Lundeberg. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2006 - Clergy: 222
- Congregations: 110
- Members: 14,427
Association of Free Lutheran Congregations
The Association of Free Lutheran Congregations was founded in 1962 by Rev. John P. Strand and others who rejected the merger of the Lutheran Free Church into the American Lutheran Church. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2006 - Clergy: 234
- Congregations: 267
- Members: 43,360
Lutheran Free Church
Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1961 - Clergy: 252
- Congregations: 334
- Members: 90,253
Iowa Synod
Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1929 - Clergy: 637
- Congregations: 932
- Members: 150,683
American Association of Lutheran Churches
The American Association of Lutheran Churches was formed by conservative Lutheran ministers and lay people who did not wish to participate in the merger that created the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1988. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2006 - Clergy: 187
- Congregations: 73
- Members: 26,537
American Lutheran Church (1930-1960)
Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1959 - Clergy: 2,156
- Congregations: 1,961
- Members: 1,002,015
Buffalo Synod
Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1929 - Clergy: 45
- Congregations: 54
- Members: 7,981
Ohio Synod
Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1929 - Clergy: 768
- Congregations: 876
- Members: 166,521
American Lutheran Church (1960-1987)
Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1986 - Clergy: 7,671
- Congregations: 4,959
- Members: 2,319,443
United Evangelical Lutheran Church
Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1959 - Clergy: 197
- Congregations: 164
- Members: 66,623
Evangelical Lutheran Church
Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1959 - Clergy: 2,242
- Congregations: 2,482
- Members: 1,125,867
Norwegian Lutheran Church
Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1943 - Clergy: -
- Congregations: 2,522
- Members: 595,034
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (1988) continues several varied streams of Lutheran church life introduced to America during the Colonial era. The ELCA was formally constituted in 1988 as a merger of the Lutheran Church in America, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the American Lutheran Church. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2006 - Clergy: 17,655
- Congregations: 10,470
- Members: 4,774,203
Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches
The Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, the newest and the smallest body to enter into the 1988 merger to form the ELCA, was formed in 1976 by ministers and churches that withdrew from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1986 - Clergy: 672
- Congregations: 250
- Members: 103,263
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS)
The second-largest Lutheran denomination in the United States was founded in Missouri by German immigrants in 1847. Many of these immigrants had rejected the planned merger of the Lutheran and Reformed churches in Prussia. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2006 - Clergy: 8,601
- Congregations: 6,155
- Members: 2,417,997
Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church (Suomi Synod)
The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church was formed in 1890 in Calumet, Michigan. It used the liturgy of the Church of Finland. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1961 - Clergy: 105
- Congregations: 153
- Members: 36,274
Lutheran Church in America
Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1986 - Clergy: 8,586
- Congregations: 5,832
- Members: 2,896,138
American Evangelical Lutheran Church
Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1961 - Clergy: 84
- Congregations: 76
- Members: 23,808
United Lutheran Church in America
The 1918 merger of the General Synod, the General Council, and the General Synod of the South formed the United Lutheran Church in America, the largest Lutheran body through much of the twentieth century. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1961 - Clergy: 4,893
- Congregations: 4,363
- Members: 2,390,075
Evangelical Lutheran Synod
The Evangelical Lutheran Synod was formed at Lake Mills, Iowa, in 1918 by a group of forty pastors and laymen who declined to enter the merger of other Norwegian Lutherans, deciding instead to establish an independent synod. The name Norwegian Synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church was adopted. The present name was assumed in 1957. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 2006 - Clergy: 168
- Congregations: 138
- Members: 20,559
Augustana Synod
The Augustana Synod originated in 1851 when the Synod of Illinois was established by Lutheran immigrants in the Midwest. Around 1860 the Swedish and Norwegian elements in the Illinois Synod withdrew and formed the Scandinavian Augustana Synod. Most Recent Membership Data:
Year 1961 - Clergy: 1,353
- Congregations: 1,219
- Members: 619,040
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