Conference of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America usually called the Conference was a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

church body that existed in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

from 1870 to 1890, when it merged into the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America. The church had split from the

Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America A Scandinavian is a resident of Scandinavia or something associated with the region, including: Culture * Scandinavianism, political and cultural movement * Scandinavian design, a design movement of the 1950s * Scandinavian folklore * Scand ...

(SAS) in 1870. Prior to the split the SAS had placed a Norwegian seminary in Marshall, Wisconsin, which today is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and known as

Augsburg University Augsburg University is a private university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was founded in 1869 as a Norwegian-American Lutheran seminary known as Augsburg Seminarium. Today, the ...

. When the Conference separated from the SAS in 1870, another church body also split from the SAS, the Norwegian-Danish Augustana Synod in America (NAS). The difference between the NAS and the Conference was the inclusion of the

Book of Concord ''The Book of Concord'' (1580) or ''Concordia'' (often referred to as the ''Lutheran Confessions'') is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since ...

. The NAS wanted to include the entire

as the confessional base. The Conference wanted to use only the three ecumenical creeds, Luther's Small Catechism, and the Unaltered Augsburg Confession. The two groups along with the Anti-Missourian Brotherhood group from the Norwegian Synod united in 1890 to form the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America. In 1884, a group of Danish members left the Conference and formed the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church Association in America also known as the Danish Association and "the Blair Church".

Presidents of the Conference

*1870-1872 Claus Lauritz Clausen *1872-1881

Johan Olsen Johan Peder Olsen (born August 14, 1939) is a Norwegian political scientist, and professor emeritus in political science at the University of Bergen, known for his work on new institutionalism. Life and work Olsen obtained his MA in political s ...

*1881-1886 Theodor H. Dahl *1886-1890 Gjermund Hoyme

References

*Fevold, Eugene L. ''The Lutheran Free Church: A Fellowship of American Lutheran Congregations 1897-1963'' (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1969) *Nelson, E. Clifford, and Fevold, Eugene L. ''The Lutheran Church among Norwegian-Americans: a history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church'' (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1960) Lutheran denominations in North America Danish-American history Evangelical Lutheran Church in America predecessor churches History of Christianity in the United States Religious organizations established in 1870 Lutheran denominations established in the 19th century Norwegian-American history {{Lutheran-stub