| The General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States of America
(General Synod) was founded in 1820. The General Synod brought together most existing
Lutheran synods (with one notable exception, the New York Ministerium) into the first
North American "church body." This was not without controversy; even the
Pennsylvania ministerium withdrew temporarily from the movement, because of ... hostility
to the Synod from congregations in its rural districts. Unscrupulous people outside of the
church had played on people's prejeudices "until they were convinced that the new
organization would be nothing less than ... a union of church and state that would rob
them of their dearly-bought liberties and impose on them the horrors of an ecclesiastical
despotism. Theological seminaries were represented as useless and costly evils that would
simply impose more taxes on the farmers. Moreover, it was felt that the Synod would
interfere with the cherished plans for union with the Reformed. ... The men of New York
felt that the whole project had failed (when the mother synod' withdrew) and refused to
consider it seriously. The Ohio Synod, which had ... decided to join the movement,
reconsidered and never came in." (Abdel Ross Wentz, The Lutheran Church in American
History, 1933.) The synod signified the coming of age of the Lutheran church in North
America, and as time went by it drew to itself most of the new synods, particularly
English-speaking ones. In 1825, the West Pennsylvania Synod was founded by
"friends" of the General Synod within the Pennsylvania Ministerium, and the
General Synod did not survive the controversies.
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