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The Norwegian Lutheran Church in the United States is a general term to describe the Lutheran church tradition developed within the United States by immigrants from Norway.
Most Norwegian immigrants to the United States, particularly in the migration wave between the 1860s and early 20th century, were members of the Church of Norway, an evangelical Lutheran church established by the Constitution of Norway. As they settled in their new homeland and forged their own communities, however, Norwegian-American Lutherans diverged from the state church in many ways, forming synods and conferences that ultimately contributed to the present Lutheran establishment in the United States.
The first organized emigrants from Norway to the United States were religious dissenters on the Restauration during 1825. It is widely considered that many of them had Quaker sympathies, but it is also clear that many were Haugeans, adherents of the lay preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge, who was a devout Lutheran but at odds with the established Norwegian State Church. Many of these emigrants subsequently relocated to the Fox River Settlement in LaSalle County, Illinois. By most accounts, the first minister at Fox River was a layman by the name of Ole Olsen Hetletvedt (1797–1854), a Haugean in leaning. He was one of the early Norwegian settlers who had crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1825 onboard the Restauration. [1]
In 1839, Elling Eielsen, a lay preacher, was a leader in the Haugean pietistic state church reform movement which encouraged evangelism and vigorous lay leadership. He made it his mission to return the growing Fox River Norwegian colony to the Lutheran fold. He organized a house of assembly and was ordained a Lutheran pastor in 1843 in the German-Lutheran tradition. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, known as the Eielsen Synod, founded in 1846 at the Jefferson Prairie Settlement, was named in his honor. Eislsen was resident pastor at Jefferson Prairie from 1846 to 1872. [2]
The Jefferson Prairie Settlement Lutheran Church was organized in 1844. Claus Lauritz Clausen accepted a call during 1846 from Norwegian-settlers at Jefferson Prairie. Clausen relocated from the Muskego Settlement and made this the center for his activities among the settlements in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, remaining until 1853. Johannes Wilhelm Christian Dietrichson organized Koshkonong, Luther Valley, and eight other congregations in the state of Wisconsin and served as pastor at Koshkonong from 1846 until 1850. [3]
In February 1853, several Lutheran ministers including Claus Lauritz Clausen, Hans Andreas Stub, A. C. Preus, Herman Amberg Preus, G. F. Dietrichson, Jacob Aall Ottesen, and R. D. Brandt organized the Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, commonly known as the Norwegian Synod. It Jacob Aall Ottesen was organized at Koshkonong and Luther Valley near the Jefferson Prairie Settlement. Among the first denominational leaders was Ulrik Vilhelm Koren. The Synod adopted the rituals of the Church of Norway. [4] [5] The Eielsen Synod struck an uncompromising doctrinal line for many Norwegian immigrants. In 1848, Paul Andersen and Ole Andrewson broke out of Eielsen's Synod and started the first Norwegian and Scandinavian Church in Chicago, joining the Franckean Synod. The Frankean Synod was noted for its socially progressive views. They stayed in this synod for only three years before joining the Northern Illinois Synod. In 1860, the same group started yet another synod, the Scandinavian Augustana Synod, over theological differences with English speaking Lutherans, who they believed were not faithful to the Augsburg Confession.
In 1870, the Norwegian and Danish churches left the Scandinavian Augustana Synod and formed two new church bodies: the Conference of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and Norwegian Augustana Synod.
The Hauge Synod was formed in 1876 following a split with the Eielsen Synod. The Hauge Synod was named after Norwegian revivalist lay preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge. Red Wing Seminary, located in Red Wing, Minnesota, was the Hauge Synod educational center. [6] The United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America was the result of the union formed in 1890 between the Norwegian Augustana Synod, the Conference of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and the Anti-Missourian Brotherhood which had dated from 1887.
Although many churches in America have their roots with Norwegian settlers, most have abandoned the Norwegian language in the primary service. Two churches in the United States still use Norwegian as a primary liturgical language. They are Den Norske Lutherske Minnekirke, built in 1912 in Chicago, Illinois, and Den Norske Lutherske Mindekirke in Minneapolis, Minnesota, formed in 1922. [7] [8]
Jacob Aall Ottesen Preus was an American politician. He served as the 8th state auditor of Minnesota from January 5, 1915, to January 5, 1921, and as the 20th Governor of Minnesota from January 5, 1921, to January 6, 1925. He was a Republican.
The Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, commonly called the Norwegian Synod, was founded in 1853. It included churches in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
The Lutheran Free Church (LFC) was a Lutheran denomination that existed in the United States, mainly in Minnesota and North Dakota, from 1897 until its merger into the American Lutheran Church (ALC) in 1963. The history of the church body predates its official organization, and a group of congregations that did not join the ALC formed the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations.
The American Lutheran Church (ALC) was a Christian Protestant denomination in the United States and Canada that existed from 1960 to 1987. Its headquarters were in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Upon its formation in 1960, The ALC designated Augsburg Publishing House, also located in Minneapolis, as the church publisher. The Lutheran Standard was the official magazine of The ALC.
Hans Nielsen Hauge was a 19th-century Norwegian Lutheran lay minister, spiritual leader, business entrepreneur, social reformer and author. He led a noted Pietism revival known as the Haugean movement. Hauge is also considered to have been influential in the early industrialization of Norway.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) was a Lutheran denomination that existed from 1917, when it was founded as the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (NLCA), until 1960, when it joined two other church bodies to form the second American Lutheran Church.
Jacob Aall Ottesen Preus II was an American Lutheran pastor, professor, author, seminary president and church denominational president. He served as the eighth president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) from 1969 to 1981. He was a major figure in the "Seminex" theological/political controversy, which resulted in a schism in the LCMS during the early 1970s.
Elling Eielsen was a Norwegian-American minister and Lutheran Church leader. He was the first Norwegian Lutheran minister in the United States.
Conference of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America usually called the Conference was a Lutheran church body that existed in the United States from 1870 to 1890, when it merged into the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America.
The Hauge Synod was the name of a Norwegian Lutheran church body in the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
The Eielsen Synod was a Lutheran church body. It was founded in 1846 at Jefferson Prairie Settlement, Wisconsin, by a group of Haugean Lutherans led by Elling Eielsen, the first Norwegian Lutheran minister in the United States.
The Muskego Settlement was one of the first Norwegian-American settlements in the United States. Situated near today's Muskego, Wisconsin, the Muskego Settlement covered areas within what is now the town of Norway in Racine County, Wisconsin.
Realf Ottesen Brandt was an American Lutheran minister.
Claus Lauritz Clausen was an American pioneer Lutheran minister, church leader, military chaplain and politician.
Jefferson Prairie Settlement was a pioneer colony of Norwegian-Americans located in the Town of Clinton, in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. This site and the nearby Rock Prairie settlement outside Orfordville served as centers for both Norwegian immigration and developments within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The unincorporated community of Bergen is in the vicinity of Jefferson Prairie Settlement.
The Haugean movement or Haugeanism was a Pietistic state church reform movement intended to bring new life and vitality into the Church of Norway, which had been often characterized by formalism and lethargy. The movement emphasized personal diligence, enterprise and frugality.
Johannes Wilhelm Christian Dietrichson was a Norwegian Lutheran minister who played an important role in the initial establishment of the Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which eventually became the Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
Herman Amberg Preus was an American Lutheran clergyman and church leader. Ordained in 1848, he became a key figure in organizing the Norwegian Synod.
Thorbjorn Nelson Mohn, born Torbjørn Nilsen Moen was an American Lutheran church leader and the first president of St. Olaf College.