The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (commonly known as the Suomi Synod, ) was a Lutheran church body which existed in the United States from 1890 until 1962.

History

The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (FELC) was organized at

Calumet, Michigan Calumet ( or ) is a village in Calumet Township, Houghton County, in the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, that was once at the center of the mining industry of the Upper Peninsula. Also known as Red Jacket, the village includes the ...

in 1890. FELC was defined more by its

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

ethnic origin than by any specific theological strain. In 1896, the church established Suomi College and Theological Seminary (now called

Finlandia University Finlandia University is a private Lutheran university in Hancock, Michigan. It is the only private university in the Upper Peninsula. Founded in 1896 as The Suomi College and Theological Seminary, it is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Ch ...

) in

Hancock, Michigan Hancock is a city in Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is across the Keweenaw Waterway from the city of Houghton on the Keweenaw Peninsula. The population was 4,634 at the 2010 census. The Weather Channel has consistently ra ...

. It is the only private institution of higher learning in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the only remaining university in North America founded by Finnish immigrants. FELC was one of the

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 ...

church bodies that merged into 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 1962. At that time, FELC had 36,274 members and 105 ministers in 153 congregations, and was the smallest of LCA's founding church bodies. The LCA was subsequently party to the merger that created the

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 ...

in 1988.

Presidents

*Juho K. Nikander (1890–1898) *Kaarle Leonard Tolonen (1898–1902) *Juho K. Nikander (1902–1919) *John Wargelin (1919–1919) *Alvar Albert Rautalahti (1919–1922) *Alfred Haapanen (1922–1950) *John Wargelin (1950–1955) *Raymond Waldemar Wargelin (1955–1962)

References

Other sources

* Wolf, Edmund Jacob (1889) ''The Lutherans in America; a story of struggle, progress, influence and marvelous growth'' (New York: J.A. Hill) * Bente, F. (1919) ''American Lutheranism Volume II'' (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House) * Nichol, Todd W. (1986) All ''These Lutherans'' (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishers)

External links

*Haapanen, Alfred (1949
''Our Church. Suomi Synod. The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America''
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205072643/http://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/article369e.htm , date=2012-02-05 (Hancock, Michigan: Finnish Lutheran Book Concern) Evangelical Lutheran Church in America predecessor churches Lutheran denominations established in the 19th century Religious organizations established in 1890 Lutheran denominations in North America Finnish-American history Finnish-American culture in Michigan