ORGAN IZATti rvs. in the United states are divided among a number of distinct bodies. The ral srifunl. aiming at a union of all Lutherans. was fumle] in Is20. It failed to unite all bearing the 11:1/11e. but from it orremization a new •a opened for the whole Church. It gave the impulse and support for ecclesiastical, educational, and missionary activi ties. Its constituency increased steadily, and in ISO it embraced 26 synods. During the Civil War the synods south of the Potomac withdrew. From these has been evolved the United Synod of the South.
A more serious rupture occurred in l866, growing out of the friction of two parties, the (Inc seeking stricter adhesion to distinctively Lutheran doctrine and aiming at the formation of a union that should comprehend the large Lutheran synods which German and Scandina vian immigrants had organized here, the other party allowing wider latitude and being more intent on fraternal relations with other denomi nations than on union with Lutherans of exclu sive principles. Several of the older and larger synods, withdrawing from the General Synod,. effected the organization of the General Connell in 1867, with which body all of the Swedish churches and a number of Germans connected themselves.
The confessional basis of the General Council is stated to be "the doctrines of the unaltered Augsburg Confession in its original sense as throughout in conformity with the pure truth of which God's word is the only rule." To this is attached the declaration that "the other Con fession.: of the Evangelical Lutheran Church [The Apology, the two Catechisms of Luther, the Schinalkald Articles, and the Form of Con cord], inasmuch as they set forth none other than its [the Augaistana's] system of doctrine and articles of faith. are of necessity pure and Scriptural." The doctrinal basis of the United Synod of the South is essentially identical with this. That of the General Synod reads: "We receive and hold, with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of our fathers, the word of God as con tained in the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and the Augsburg Confession as a correct exhibition of the fundamental doc trines of the divine word, and of the faith of our Church as founded upon that word." By
unanimous resolutions the body has designated the Unaltered Angustana as its basis, declared it to be "throughout in perfect consistence" with the word of I:0d, and repudiated "any distinction between fundamental and so-called non-funda mental doctrines in the Confession." Amicable relations obtain between these three general bodies.
The largest American body of Lutherans is the Synodical Conference, whose chief constituent, the Missouri Synod. has had remarkable growth. It was developed from several colonies of Sax ons who were driven into voluntary exile by the sway of Rationalism and who, in January, 1839, settled in Saint Louis and vicinity. In IS41 they chose as their leader the Rev. C. F. W. Walther, under whose guidance the ological seminaries, colleges, and charitable in stitutions sprang into existence, congregations rapidly multiplied, and periodicals and other lit erature were published. The organization of a synod was effected in 1847. Its constitution makes "the acceptance of all the symbols of the Lutheran Church, absence of every kind of syn cretism, mixed congregations, mixed worship and communions. etc.• etc.. conditions of membership in this body." Each congregation maintains a parochial school. The extension of its work over almost the entire country soon called for a division of the body into districts, which now number thirteen. In 1872 the Joint Synod of Ohio, with several smaller German synods and a Norwegian synod, united with 'Missouri' in the formation of the Synodical Conference. The most important practical' work carried on con jointly by this general body is an extensive mis sion among the uegroes of the South.