The Evangelical Lutheran Church of

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...

is the oldest

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 ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

(1752) and one of the oldest in the United States. While the congregation began to meet in 1733, the first minister of the church was Rev. Bernard Michael Houseal (1752-1759). The building of the church was slowed because of the outbreak of the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the st ...

but was completed before the war was over (1762). Founded by German immigrants, church services were entirely in German until 1810. English was introduced in that year, with both German and English sermons until 1816. After 1816, all sermons were in English.

Gallery

File:RevBernard M. Houseal, Little Dutch Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia.jpg, Rev Bernard Michael Houseal,

Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church The Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church is the second-oldest building in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, after St. Paul's Church. It was built for the Foreign Protestants, and is the oldest site in Canada associated with Lutheranism. It is a National His ...

File:Evangelical Lutheran Church, Frederick, Maryland.png, Evangelical Lutheran Church, Frederick, Maryland (built 1752-1762)

References

{{Coord, 39, 24, 56, N, 77, 24, 34, W, type:landmark_region:US-MD, display=title Buildings and structures in Frederick, Maryland Churches in Frederick County, Maryland German-American culture in Maryland Lutheran churches in Maryland

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See also

References