RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Lutherans
of unionism and syncretism with those of another faith. Continued doctrinal discussions at synods, conferences, and congregational meetings, regular visitations of the churches, and the faithful training of the children in their parochial schools were the means of not only holding the synod itself firmly together in one spirit, but also of enlarging it rapidly in every direction. Special emphasis was laid on the rights of the congregation, and all "High-church" ideas concerning the ministry were repudiated. The authority of the synod in its relation to the congregations is advisory in character. The right of vote at synodical meetings is confined to the delegates of congregations and to those pastors who actually serve congregations in full connection with the synod. All other pastors, teachers, and professors are only advisory members. The wisdom and consistency of Walther's management proved a powerful attraction, which succeeded in overcoming and assimilating even antagonistic elements. At its_ .second— £onventionthe__§yaed-- numbered _ fifty-five ministers, among them many who had enjoyed a thorough theological training at German universities, who knew how to adapt themselves admirably to their new American environments, and who worked together .with the greatest personal devotion and self-denial. In 1909 the synod of Missouri ■, extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil. Including the English Synod (1888) and the Slovak Synod (1902) it numbered 2,086 ministers, 2,584 congregations, 498,409 communicants. It had two theological seminaries with 12 professors and 396 students.
The Missouri Synod in Brazil. — In the year 1899 Pastor Brutschin of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, applied to the synod of Missouri with the request that pastors be sent to that territory. The General Committee for Home Missions of the Missouri Synod sent C. J. Broders to examine the field in 1900. He was followed by other pastors in 1901 who took up the work in the interest of the Missouri Synod in the district of San Lorenzo. In the year 1902 W Mahler, henceforth the leader of the Missouri pastors in Brazil, established himself in Porto Allegre. In 1903 the publication of a periodical in the interest of the Missouri Synod was undertaken and an institution founded for the training of pastors and teachers, which, after a temporary interruption, was reopened at Porto Allegre in 1907. In 1904 the synod of Brazil was organized as a separate district of the Missouri Synod. It numbers at present 20 pastors, ministering to 8,251souls, including 3,943 communicants, and 1,234 voting members. In Europe (Germany and Denmark) the Missouri Synod numbers 29 pastors, in Australia, in two districts, 36 pastors, in New Zealand 3 pastors.
Following the Saxon emigrants, in 1839 another band of German Lutherans left their home on account of their faith and started for America. Their leader was Johann Andreas August
2. The Grabau, born 1804 near Magdeburg,
Buffalo pastor of St. Andrew's Church at Erfurt.
Synod. He had been repeatedly imprisoned on account of his opposition to the Prussian Union and to the introduction of the king's Agenda. About 1,000 adherents followed him, the
most of them from Erfurt, Magdeburg, and the surrounding country. The greater number settled in Buffalo, N. Y., but some went as far west as Wisconiin. In the year 1845 Grabau with his friends, P. v. Rohr, L. Krause, and Kindermann, founded the " Synod of Lutherans immigrated from Prussia," afterward called the Buffalo Synod. Its theological seminary was connected with the Martin- Luther-Collegium in Buffalo. In distinction from the Saxon Lutherans Grabau entertained highchurchly ideals of the office of the ministry and ordination, making the reality and efficacy of the means of grace dependent on the office, and depriving the congregation of its right to discipline and excommunicate its members. Even in the management of the temporal affairs of the congregation the members were bound to strict obedience toward their pastors. Walther and his friends were convinced that in these views the hierarchical tendencies of Stephan were revived, from whose bondage they had just escaped. A violent controversy ensued between the " Prussians " and the " Saxons." After a colloquy held in 1866 eleven pastors of the Buffalo Synod joined the Missouri Synod. The small remnant again broke into two sections, one of which ceased to exist in 1877 At the present time the Buffalo Synod numbers 30 pastors, 41 congregations, and 5,556 communicants. It has a theological seminary in Buffalo with five teachers and eleven students. In recent times there has been brought about an amicable understanding between the Buffalo Synod and the Ministerium of New York. Several conferences have been held with satisfactory results, both synods recognizing each other and admitting their members to pulpit and altar fellowship.
In the year 1841 the Rev. Frederik Wyneken, pastor of the Lutheran congregations in and near Fort Wayne, Ind., sent forth a touching appeal to the mother church in Germany, appealing in behalf of the Lutherans in the western States of North America for help in supplying them with the
means of grace. The venerable W.
3. The Loehe, pastor in Neuendettelsau, Ba-
Iowa varia, and founder of the deaconess
Synod, institution in that village, was deeply
moved with sympathy for his brethren in the faith in America. He established a missionary institute and began the publication of a paper (Kirchliche Mitteilungen aus und uber Nord Amerika) through which he awakened and nourished an active interest in the condition of the Lutherans in America. The first two missionaries sent by him attached themselves to the synod of Ohio and to the Michigan Synod. But in 1845 they and their sympathizers left the synod of Ohio and established the theological seminary at Fort Wayne under the presidency of Wilhelm Sihler. This step was taken because they were not satisfied with the confessional position of their synod in respect to the unionistic tendencies of the time. The institution at Fort Wayne was opened in 1846 with sixteen pupils, most of whom had received their preparatory training at Neuendettelsau. The ground and the buildings were acquired chiefly through contributions coming from Loehe and his friends.
Lutherans