LUTHERANS. 



503 



gregations, and 146,871 members. There are 

 within its bounds 5 theological seminaries, 4 

 colleges, 3 academies, 2 ladies' seminaries, and 

 2 orphans' homes. The thirty-fourth biennial 

 convention of this body will be held at Alle- 

 gheny, Pa., June 12, 1889. For the report of 

 the last convention see "Annual Cyclopaedia'' 

 for 1887, p. 447. 



General Council. This body, organized in 1867, 

 is composed of ten district synods (English, 

 German, and Scandinavian), as follows: Min- 

 isterium of Pennsylvania, ministerium of New 

 York, synods of Pittsburg, Ohio, Swedish Au- 

 gustana, Canada, Texas, Indiana, Norwegian 

 Augustana, and Iowa (the two latter being 

 merely advisory members), embracing u mem- 

 bership of 1,120 clergymen, 1,949 congrega- 

 tions, and 292,964 members. The Michigan 

 synod severed its connection with the Council, 

 and the Danish synod, a body consisting of 38 

 ministers, 88 congregations, and 5.200 mem- 

 bers, made overtures for membership in the 

 near future. The educational and benevolent 

 institutions within the bounds of this general 

 body may be summarized as follows: Four 

 theological seminaries, 7 colleges, 6 classical 

 seminaries, 1 ladies' seminary, 2 conservato- 

 ries of music, 15 orphans' homes, 9 hospitals. 

 1 deaconess institution at Philadelphia, and 1 

 immigrant mission (Swedish, German, and 

 Danish) at New York. The General Council 

 held its twenty-first annual convention for 

 the first time west of the Mississippi river, 

 in St. John's English Lutheran Church, Min- 

 neapolis, Minn. The convention was opened 

 with the full communion service of the Lu- 

 theran Church. The opening sermon was de- 

 livered by the president, the Rev. A. Spaeth, 

 D. D., of the theological seminary at Philadel- 

 phia, based on Gal. Hi, 9. "The nations and the 

 Gospel." After the close of divine service the 

 council was organized for the transaction of 

 business. The district synods were repre- 

 sented by 64 clerical and 39 lay delegates, the 

 Texas synod not being represented bv dele- 

 gates. The Eev. Joseph A. Seiss, D. D., LL. D., 

 pastor of the Church of the Holy Communion, 

 Philadelphia, was elected president. The work 

 of the convention consisted of the considera- 

 tion and action on the reports of standing com- 

 mittees on missions, education, liturgies, etc. 



Home Missions. This work is intrusted to 

 three committees English, German, and Scan- 

 dinavian which have charge of mission sta- 

 tions and missionaries, independent of the dis- 

 trirt synods. The English committee reported 

 5 missionaries and 10 missions, as follows: 

 Illinois, 2; Ohio, 1: Minnesota, 6; Dakota, 1. 

 The receipts for the year were $4,763.64 ; the 

 expenditures, $3.892.50. The German com- 

 mittee reported 6 missionaries in their employ 

 in Texas, Nebraska, and Dakota. Seven young 

 men have been received from Kropp, Ger- 

 many, and 27 students in the same institution 

 have received aid from the committee. The 

 receipts were $4,364.30, of which $1,225 were 



spent for missionary work in America, the re- 

 mainder for the institution at Kropp. The 

 Council decided that it was impracticable to 

 enter into organic connection with the Rev. .!. 

 Paulsen's institution at Kropp. The following 

 action was taken : 



1. That it is not expedient for the General Council 

 to have a theological seminary in Germany to which 

 the entire theological education of our future German 

 pastors should be committed. 



2. That the chief source of supply of laborers in the 

 German, as in our other mission fields, should be 

 found in our own congregations ; and that such per- 

 sons should be trained, as far as possible, in our own 

 institutions. 



3. That, for this end, our pastors should be dele- 

 gated to find devout young men in their congregations 

 who are willing to enter the ministry ; and that Wan- 

 ner College, in Eochester, be strongly recommended 

 as a proper institution to prepare them for the semi- 

 nary in Philadelphia. 



4. Thatj nevertheless, under the present circum- 

 stances it is highly desirable and necessary that young 

 men should be secured from Germany, and that for 

 this end the committee shall be empowered to enter 

 into arrangements with one or more institutions in 

 Germany ; provided, first, that these arrangements re- 

 ceive the approval of the General Council; and, sec- 

 ond, that such institutions have only a preparatory 

 character. 



The Swedish committee's report was read by 

 the Rev. S. P. Lindahl. The work is chiefly 

 carried on by the conferences of the Swedish 

 synod, and this committee has charge of the 

 territory outside of these. The committee re- 

 ported missionaries and missions in nearly all 

 the States and Territories of the United States, 

 as well as in Canada. The receipts of the gen- 

 eral committee amounted to $5.977.79 ; those 

 of the entire synod for its numerous missions, 

 $14,538.22; and for the Utah mission, $2,- 

 914.70; an aggregate of $18, 822. The report 

 was so full of interesting and gratifying facts, 

 that it called forth the following action : 



Resolved, That we have heard with great gratifica- 

 tion the report of the Swedish Augustana synod's 

 mi>sionary work, and express our gratitude to God 

 for the marked blessing he has laid upon its faithful 

 eflbrts and the honor he has conferred upon it in call- 

 ing it to a task so great in its proportions and so nch 

 inlts promises. 



Efforts were made at this convention to cen- 

 tralize all the missionary operations of the Gen- 

 eral Council and appoint one or more mission- 

 ary secretaries, who shall devote their whole 

 time to this important and ever-increasing 

 work. The following is a summary of all the 

 home missionary operations in the Council 

 English, German, and Swedish not including, 

 however, a number of important missions car- 

 ried on and entirely supported by individual 

 congregations : 270 missionaries, 392 congre- 

 gations, for which were contributed $48,686.98. 



Foreign Missions. The report, read by the sec- 

 retary of the committee, gave the following as 

 to the affairs of the mission among the Telugus, 

 in India : The mission, which has Rajahmundry 

 for its principal station, has 5 foreign mission- 

 aries, 4 wives of missionaries, 2 native pastors, 

 7 evangelists, 10 teachers at Rajahmundry and 



