Denominational Profile

History

Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Synod of the United States of America

renamed toSynod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (1902)

merged intoLutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS)

Lutherans from Czechoslovakia began to migrate to the United States in the 1870s and early congregations were formed in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. Attempts to organize began in the 1890s, and the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Synod was finally established at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, in 1902. It merged into the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in 1971.

Membership Data

Year	Clergy	Churches	Members
1946	-	56	20,866
1949	-	64	21,211
1950	58	59	18,870
1951	54	59	20,244
1952	7	59	20,562
1955	49	58	16,474
1957	58	59	18,003
1958	56	59	19,931
1960	59	54	8,531
1961	57	50	19,802
1962	57	53	19,184
1964	63	65	21,656

Data were taken from the National Council of Churches' Historic Archive CD and recent editions of the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. Denomination descriptions provided by Dr. J. Gordon Melton, Director, Institute for the Study of American Religion (ISAR). [More information on data sources]