Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America
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The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America was a Lutheran joint fellowship (in this sense, a declaration of unity of belief) organization between the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS). It dissolved in 1963.
[edit] History
The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America was organized in 1872 by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), the LCMS and the Norwegian Synod as a joint expression of their unity of faith. The organization was an agreement to work together in matters relating to Christian evangelism. Included with this was a sharing of pulpits between clergy of all groups, sharing of educational facilities and co-operation on evangelism and mission work.
The Synodical Conference was later joined by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod shortly after it broke away from the Norwegian Synod in 1917.
In 1957 the ELS withdrew from the Synodical Conference over a disagreement on the doctrine of Christian fellowship with the LCMS. The WELS followed the ELS in 1963 after several years of discussions with the LCMS in an attempt to resolve the matter. With their withdrawal, the Synodical Conference was dissolved.
While the ELS and WELS had withdrawn fellowship from the Synodical Conference, they retained fellowship with one another. For both denominations, however, the withdrawal from the Synodical Conference and the heated debate over it resulted in the break away of a splinter group made up of congregations of both denominations.
The Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC) as it named itself, maintained that that both the WELS and ELS had violated the principles of Christian Fellowship themselves by not breaking away from the Synodical Conference and the LCMS when doctrinal differences had first been perceived. This issue remains a matter of contention between the CLC and the WELS and ELS.
[edit] Successor Organizations
While the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America was never directly replaced, several oranizations were later formed that claim to follow in the spirit of the original Synodical Conference.
Among these are the Church of the Lutheran Confession, mentioned above, and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference which was formed in 1993 by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod and twenty other international church bodies.
The Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference is probably closest in spirit to the original Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, in that it is comprised of two of the original members and has many of the same goals as the original organization.
[edit] Suggested Reading
Braun, Mark. 2003. A Tale of Two Synods. Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Publishing House.
