Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches
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The Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) was a U.S. church body that existed from 1976 through the end of 1987. The AELC formed when approximately 250 dissident congregations withdrew from the
Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The LC ...
(LCMS) in 1976, and ended as an independent body when it became part of the new
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approxim ...
(ELCA) on January 1, 1988. In 1986, just before its merger into the ELCA, the AELC had 672 pastors, 250 congregations, and 103,263 members.


Formation

The AELC's forerunner was
Evangelical Lutherans in Mission Evangelical Lutherans in Mission (ELIM) was a liberal caucus within the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). It was formed in 1973 as an oppositional group of clergy following sweeping victories by Jacob Aall Ottesen Preus II (J. A. O. Preus ...
(ELIM), a liberal caucus within the LCMS that opposed that body's more
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
turn in the early and mid-1970s. ELIM was formed when, in the wake of conservative victories at the 1973 convention of the LCMS, more liberal opponents had convened a conference in Chicago to chart out strategies. The conference's 800 delegates promised moral and financial support for church members who faced pressure due to their opposition to LCMS convention actions, and established ELIM as a network and rallying point for the moderate wing of the LCMS. In 1974, the LCMS was rent by the
Seminex Seminex is the widely used abbreviation for Concordia Seminary in Exile (later Christ Seminary-Seminex), which existed from 1974 to 1987 after a schism in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). The seminary in exile was formed due to the ong ...
controversy, a walk-out by most of the students and faculty of
Concordia Seminary Concordia Seminary is a Lutheran seminary in Clayton, Missouri. The institution's primary mission is to train pastors, deaconesses, missionaries, chaplains, and church leaders for the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). Founded in 1839, t ...
in St. Louis, Missouri, that led to the establishment of a rival "Seminary in Exile". In 1975, presidents of eight LCMS districts were threatened with removal from office for allowing their congregations to ordain Seminex graduates who had not been certified by Concordia Seminary, and four were removed in April 1976. In the wake of the Seminex controversy and those removals, a movement to leave the LCMS took shape among dissident congregations and church officials, most of them members of ELIM. The largest number of departures came from the LCMS's non-geographical English District, which had been formed when English Synod had joined the LCMS in 1911. The departing English District leadership and congregations immediately reconstituted the pre-1911 English Synod, and a number of officials and congregations from other districts followed their lead by exiting the LCMS. In the end, approximately 250 congregations left the LCMS. In December 1976, these congregations established the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC). The AELC was a disappointment in some respects, since it garnered far fewer dissident LCMS congregations than its leaders had initially expected. With congregations totaling about 100,000 members, the AELC included less than 4% of the 2.7 million members of LCMS. In October 1977, the AELC ordained its first female minister, Janith Otte Murphy of
Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
. Murphy subsequently took an associate pastor's position at the University Lutheran Chapel in
Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
. The AELC was the third U.S. Lutheran church body to ordain a woman as a minister, following similar moves by the
American Lutheran Church The American Lutheran Church (TALC) 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 ...
(ALC) and the
Lutheran Church in America The Lutheran Church in America (LCA) was an American and Canadian Lutheran church body that existed from 1962 to 1987. It was headquartered in New York City and its publishing house was Fortress Press. The LCA's immigrant heritage came mostly fr ...
(LCA) in 1970.James Robison ''Evangelical Lutherans Name First Woman Cleric'' (Chicago Tribune. September 17, 1977. p. 8) The Rev. Will L. Herzfeld, an associate of
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
and former president of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civi ...
's Alabama chapter, served as the AELC's second and last presiding bishop. He was the first
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
to lead a U.S. Lutheran church body.


Merger

The AELC played an important role in efforts toward
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
unity in the United States. The AELC's leaders, Seminex president
John Tietjen John H. Tietjen (June 18, 1928 – February 15, 2004) was a Lutheran clergyman, theologian, and national church leader in the United States. He is best known both for his role in the Seminex controversy which roiled the Lutheran Church–Misso ...
among them, served as the catalyst for merger talks with the American Lutheran Church (formed in 1960, with approximately 2.25 million members), and the Lutheran Church in America (formed in 1962, with approximately 2.85 million members). The effort drew on the expertise of C. Thomas ("Tom") Spitz, the executive director of the
Lutheran Council in the United States of America The Lutheran Council in the United States of America was an ecumenical organization of American Lutherans that existed from 1967 to 1988. Succeeding the National Lutheran Council, it was founded by four Lutheran church bodies: the Lutheran Churc ...
, a coordinating advisory organization for the LCMS, ALC, and LCA, who had authored "A Call for Lutheran Union" in 1978. These two churches, both also more moderate than the LCMS, with the LCA more historically liberal, finally agreed with the AELC in 1982 to unite as one church. The three bodies officially completed their merger on January 1, 1988, thereby creating the current
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approxim ...
(ELCA), which at that time encompassed two-thirds of American Lutherans.


Presidents/Presiding Bishops

* William Kohn (1976–1984) * Will L. Herzfeld (1984–1987) The designation used for the AELC leader was initially "president" and the title was later changed to "presiding bishop".


References


External links


The Doctrinal Situation of Three Merging Churches by John Baumgart
{{Authority control Lutheran denominations in North America Evangelical Lutheran Church in America predecessor churches Christian organizations established in 1976 1976 establishments in the United States Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod