Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America (1860–1870) Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America (1870–1894) Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America (1894–1948)
The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (previously the Augustana Lutheran Synod and also Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America and Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America) was a Lutheran church body in the United States that was one of the churches that merged into the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) in 1962. It had its roots among the Swedish immigrants in the 19th century.[1]
In 1961, just before its merger into the LCA, the Augustana Synod had 1,353 pastors, 1,219 congregations, and 619,040 members.[2]
Augustana is a shortened version of Confessio Augustana, the Latin name of one of Lutheranism's defining documents, the Augsburg Confession, presented in 1530 in the German city of Augsburg. Along with the Swedish members of the church were Norwegian and Danish members who left the church in 1870 to form the Conference of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Norwegian Augustana Synod. Also in 1870, the synod was renamed the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America. In 1894 the name was changed to Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America. In 1948, the name Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church was adopted.[4]
In 1922, the synod was given equal standing in Sweden with the Swedish synods.[5]
While the Augustana Church had only 600,000 members when the Lutheran Church in America was formed, its influence on its successor bodies has been significant as they incorporated many of Augustana's emphases on mission, ecumenism, and social service. Herbert W. Chilstrom, the first presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was a graduate of the Augustana Theological Seminary and was ordained to Augustana's ministry in 1958. Included among the Augustana-founded congregations is Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the largest Lutheran congregation in the world with over 13,000 members.[8]
Anderson, Philip J., "From Compulsion to Persuasion: Voluntary Religion and the Swedish Immigrant Experience," Swedish-American Historical Quarterly, 66#1 (2015), 3–23.
Arden, G. Everett (1958) Half a Million Swedes (America's Lutherans. Omar Bonderud and Charles Lutz, editors. Columbus OH: Wartburg Press. pages 28–30).
Blanck, Dag, "Two Churches, One Community: The Augustana Synod and the Covenant Church, 1860–1920," Swedish-American Historical Quarterly 63 (April–July 2012), 158–73.
Blanck, Dag. The Creation of an Ethnic Identity: Being Swedish American in the Augustana Synod, 1860–1917, (2007) 256 pp ISBN978-0-8093-2715-7)
Cimino, Richard, ed. Lutherans Today: American Lutheran Identity in the Twenty-First Century (Eerdmans, 2003).
Erling, Maria Elizabeth, and Mark Granquist. The Augustana Story: Shaping Lutheran Identity in North America (Augsburg Books, 2008).
