American Lutheran Church Merger Completed
The American Lutheran Church merger, completed in 1963, represents a significant unification of several Lutheran denominations in the United States. This merger brought together the American Lutheran Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church, along with the Lutheran Free Church, creating a new denomination that emphasized shared beliefs and heritage among its members. With over 2.3 million baptized members, the new American Lutheran Church highlighted the diverse backgrounds of its congregants, including Danish, German, and Norwegian traditions. The decision to merge was guided by a commitment to a united faith and mission, as articulated in a document known as "A United Testimony on Faith and Life." This testimony reflected years of cooperation and dialogue among the churches, emphasizing common roots in Scripture and Lutheran Confessions. The merger aimed to enhance fellowship, understanding, and cooperative efforts in serving the broader community and addressing global needs. As such, the American Lutheran Church emerged as a larger and more collaborative body, seeking to fulfill its mission in contemporary society while honoring its rich heritage.
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American Lutheran Church Merger Completed
American Lutheran Church Merger Completed
The merger of the American Lutheran Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church took place during a convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 22-24, 1960. The combined organizations took the name of the American Lutheran Church. The newly combined body became constitutionally operative on January 1, 1961.
Combining the 1,059,195 baptized members of the original American Lutheran Church with the 1,174,494 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the 73,091 members of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church, the new denomination brought together Lutherans of Danish, German, and Norwegian heritage. A fourth group, the 88,396-member Lutheran Free Church, joined on February 1, 1963. The merger of the Lutheran churches was thus completed on that date.
A United Testimony on Faith and Life, adopted by the uniting churches approximately nine years before the initial merger became effective, sets forth the thinking that led to the union. Having “walked and worked together for…more than twenty years,” the Testimony said, the concerned churches:
have learned to know one another both as to doctrine and as to manner of life.…Coming out of varying backgrounds…they have learned to cherish one another's contributions to the fullness of the Church's life in Christ. Through closer acquaintance and deepening fellowship they have found that the common roots of their faith, in the Holy Scriptures and in the Lutheran Confessions, have given them a common life in communion with the one Lord and Savior.
Their loyalty to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, their Lutheran heritage, and the desperate need of the world seem to call for further exploration of the possibilities of closer fellowship, greater understanding, and closer organizational cooperation or union.