The Ministerium of Pennsylvania, From 1748

by G E O R G E E. HANDLEY

"A twisted cord of many threads will not easily break."

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg
August 15, 1748

of organized Lutheran-
A FTER TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS
ism in the new world, it is fitting to pay tribute to the Min-
isterium of Pennsylvania. Early on called the Ministerium of North
America, this annual gathering of pastors, and some lay people too,
is the oldest organization of American Lutherans beyond the con-
gregational level, older than the United States itself.1
Lutherans had first come to the Americas early, even as early as
the sixteenth century. However, the first beachheads did not last as
settlements, neither in Venezuela (1528), nor on the shore of Hud-
son Bay in Canada (1619). In the seventeenth century, there was
the New Sweden colony and the Dutch Lutherans in New Ysrk.2
But pastors were scarce. One example of good pastoral care as well
as concern for the broader needs of the church in seventeenth-
century America is provided by Andrew Rudman, a pastor from
Sweden who served on the Delaware. Falling ill, he secured a re-
placement from Sweden. Before returning home, however, he
moved to New \ork, served the Dutch Lutherans there and pro-
vided for their pastoral care after his departure. Rudman persuaded
Justus Falckner, who had studied theology in Germany, to accept
ordination and to serve in New \brk. Thus, Falckner became the
first person ordained by Lutherans in America. Here was a Ger-
man, ordained in 1703 by Swedes, to serve the Dutch, all in English
colonies. Thus we see issues which Muhlenberg would eventually
face: language differences and especially the difficulty in securing
and training an indigenous clergy supply for the growing and scat-
tered numbers of Lutherans in the New World.
It was through the lay leadership of three congregations in
southeastern Pennsylvania that the movement for cooperation in
Lutheran witness began in the new land. The congregation of Lu-

363

LUTHERAN QUARTERLY Volume X (1996)

364 LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

therans in New Hanover was organized in 1717 or 1718, some

forty miles northeast from center city Philadelphia, and just east of
present day Gilbertsville. Fifteen miles closer to Philadelphia was
Trappe (originally, New Providence) where Augustus Church dates
from 1730.3 The congregation of Zion and St. Michael's in Phila-
delphia dates from 1733. These and other scattered places had been
served by itinerant pastors such as Anthony J. Henkel, John C.
Schulze, and John Casper Stoever, Jr. The lay leaders wanted a
more focused ministry, not only for the regular conduct of worship,
but also for the establishment of schools. Their appeal to Germany
was not only for a pastor, but also for financial aid. Faithful lay
people kept these and other communities alive for years without
regular pastoral leadership, but their stories are not well docu-
mented.
Their joint petition was received in Halle, Saxony, where Au-
gust Herman Francke had established missionary institutions. Nine
years after the congregations requested help, a young pastor who
had been trained at Göttingen and Halle was recruited for the
mission to America. His name: Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. Af-
ter a difficult Atlantic sea voyage in 1742, he landed in Charleston,
visited the Lutheran Salzburgers in Georgia with their Halle pas-
tors, and then journeyed north by coastal boat where he arrived
in Philadelphia in November of 1742.
Muhlenberg quickly set about his responsibilities in the three
"united congregations." His Journals provide vivid detail of how
vigorously he went about his work. 4 Immediately after getting off
the boat, he encountered the first of many problems: the splitting
of the Philadelphia congregation into two factions, one which had
accepted the radical ideas of the Moravian, Count Nicholas von
Zinzendorf, and the other which had called as pastor, John Val-
entine Kraft, who had been dismissed from his call in Germany.
The situation at Trappe and New Hanover was not much better,
for another unauthorized pastor was serving there. Quickly, how-
ever, Muhlenberg established his authority. Reports of his ministry
spread, and he was often asked for help to preach the Word and to
settle disputes, even long-standing ones such as at Raritan in north-
ern New Jersey.
 T H E M I N I S T E R I U M OF P E N N S Y L V A N I A , F R O M 1748 365

Under Muhlenberg's leadership, churches and school houses

were built and the people regularly heard the Word vigorously
preached. But he needed help. The year 1745 witnessed the arrival
of three men sent from Halle: Peter Brunnholtz, who was already
ordained, and two lay catechists, John Nicholas Kurtz and John
Helfrich Schaum. Brunnholtz took responsibility for Philadelphia
and Germantown congregations, since St. Michael's, German-
town, had now been added to the sphere of "united" congrega-
tions. Muhlenberg, residing at Trappe, served both there and New
Hanover; however, his responsibilities also included overseeing a
growing number of additional congregations still further in the
countryside. Thus it was that he became the organizing leader for
the gathering of scattered Lutherans.

Muhlenberg and A Ministerium for North America

The goal was unity. Its implications for the strengthening and
extension of the Lutheran church propelled Muhlenberg to speak
fervently of cooperation and unity. He did so regularly as he trav-
eled among the scattered Lutheran congregations in various com-
munities in eastern Pennsylvania and other American colonies
from New 'York to Virginia. He also had correspondence even
farther afield along the eastern seaboard of the new continent, from
Georgia north. From his arrival, Muhlenberg faced issues in the
church which he believed could be more effectively addressed co-
operatively rather than singly.
The summer of 1748 provided the opportunity for addressing
certain issues together. A new church building had been con-
structed in Philadelphia for the growing St. Michael's congrega-
tion. The dedication was set for Sunday, August 14th. Pastors and
representatives of congregations as far away as New ifork and York
County on the western side of the Susquehanna River in Penn-
sylvania were expected. Muhlenberg, the senior pastor of the
"united congregations," further encouraged those coming for the
dedication to remain and meet on Monday to work cooperatively
on problems which were common to all of them. Ten congrega-
366 LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

tions responded positively, represented by either the pastors and/

or lay leaders. Thus a general conference or synod was launched
and the commitment was made to meet annually. Not only was
the summer of 1748 auspicious for the dedication of a new church
building in the major city of the colonies, it was also the occasion
for an ordination. John Nicholas Kurtz, one of the two catechists
who had arrived with Pastor Brunnholtz three years earlier, sub-
mitted to a rigorous examination by the gathered pastors. The
church was dedicated in the morning of August 14, 1748, and
Kurtz was ordained that afternoon. Here was a very tangible ex-
ample of why the fledgling Lutheran church needed organization.
The meeting which launched this Ministerium continued the
next day.5 The ordained ministers present at this first meeting, in
addition to Muhlenberg and Brunnholtz and the newly ordained
Kurtz, were John Frederick Handschuh, who had arrived from
Germany earlier that same year and was called to the Lancaster
congregation, as well as John C. Hartwig from upstate New ifork
and the current Swedish provost, John Sandin. There were twenty-
four laymen from the ten congregations: two each from five coun-
ties of southeastern Pennsylvania: Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, Mont-
gomery and Philadelphia. These congregations were New
Hanover, Bernville, Germantown, Lancaster, New Holland,
Trappe, Zion & St. Michael (Philadelphia) Zionsville, Upper Sau-
con and Stouchsburg. It could be said that the Swedish Gloria Dei
(Philadelphia) was represented by Sandin. "York (Codorus) was also
interested and would have been represented, indeed featured, for
its catechist Schaum would have been ordained with Kurtz if he
had been able to make the trip.

Muhlenberg's opening address struck the theme:

A twisted cord of many threads will not easily break. There must be
unity among us. . . . We are here assembled for this purpose, and, if
God will, we shall assemble yearly; this is only a trial and a test.6

Muhlenberg also presented the order for worship which he had

already worked out with Brunnholtz and Handschuh; it was
adopted and copied for common use, as a liturgical expression of
 THE M I N I S T E R I U M OF PENNSYLVANIA, FROM 1748 367

the cord of many threads.7 In general, Muhlenberg's counsel was

well received and there was a commitment to meet the next year,
which they did in June in Lancaster, when Schaum was finally
ordained.
N o officers were elected the first two years, but in 1750 Brunn-
holtz was elected "superintendent" or "president." Other titles
were used variously, but it was clear that there was a desire to have
someone in charge between annual meetings, especially to deal
with issues that had best not wait, such as placement of pastors and
resolution of disputes. The latter problem was particularly vexing,
not only because of the inroads made in German Lutheran com-
munities by the Moravians, who were also German, but also be-
cause of the many rogue pastors who invaded unsuspecting com-
munities almost always with false credentials. Problems of behavior
unbecoming a minister of the gospel likewise had to be addressed.
Various names were used for the group in the minutes of the
annual meetings, even Ministerium in North America in 1781,
which was somewhat pretentious given the lack of participation
by the well established congregations of the greater Hudson River
Villey, which early on included settlements in both the Schoharie
and Mohawk River valleys. Then, too, distance and travel diffi-
culties precluded any meaningful participation by congregations
from Virginia to Georgia. It was not until 1786 that another re-
gional synod was organized, namely, the Ministerium of New
\brk. In the early part of the nineteenth century others would be
organized.
The whole idea was rather experimental, as Muhlenberg openly
said, and for six years in the 1750s no meetings took place. It was
the Swedish provost, Carl Magnus Wrangel, who urged that the
annual meetings be resumed in 1760, which led to a regular pat-
tern. In this case, the twisted cord found additional strength in the
ethnic diversity of its threads.8 Examinations, ordinations, calls and
plans for mission outreach, reports, approval of a uniform order for
worship, complaints, constitutions, greetings, and financial issues—
all these and more were addressed by the gathered pastors and lay
representatives of congregations at these annual synodical meetings
of worship and deliberation.9
368 LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

After being debated in committee for a few years following the

difficult years of the American Revolution, the first constitution
was adopted in 1781. Although laymen took part earlier, this first
constitution gave no voice or vote to the laity. This decision was
overturned in the 1792 revision of the constitution, where official
lay delegates with voice and vote equalled the ordained in num-
bers.10 The official 1781 name was "an Evangelical Lutheran Min-
isterium in North America." In 1792, the name became "The

v y—*•' yaw w t -3 - — m »i i p — 3
vu
1

M Jshrícccñ

III. The Pennsylvania Ministerium, first page of the

Constitution/Ministerial Ordnung of 1781
 T H E M I N I S T E R I U M OF P E N N S Y L V A N I A , F R O M 1748 369

German Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium in Pennsylvania and

Adjacent States." That wording had more accuracy because the
meetings included congregations across the Delaware River in
New Jersey, across the Susquehanna River in Maryland and across
the Potomac Paver into Virginia. It was not for a century, however,
before the word "German" was dropped. Even then two secretaries
were retained, one for German, the other for English. Further, the

IV. St. Michael's, Philadelphia, dedicated August 14, 1748, and

site of the first meeting of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania
on August 15, 1748
370 LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

president was required to speak both languages which were often-

times interchanged in meetings.
Generally the holder of the office of president changed from
year to year. This assignment was always in addition to the ongoing
pastoral needs of the incumbent's congregation. Several held this
office more than once, most notably Muhlenberg himself. Until
his death in 1787, his counsel was always influential and he was
regularly regarded as the senior or elder brother. From this it was
only a short step to the title he held in later generations, the Pa-
triarch of the Lutheran Church in America. The year 1748 thus
became the starting point of an organization intended to provide
Lutherans with a broader outlook, better organization and coop-
eration, and oversight of pastoral care.
Although the focus here is on the Ministerium, Muhlenberg's
legacy includes his amazing family and his own pastoral activities.
On one of his itinerant journeys, he met and stayed in the home
of Conrad Weiser, a German who had become an important Indian
agent on the frontier in Pennsylvania. Eventually, he married Anna
Maria, one of Weiser s daughters. Several children were born to
them, among them three sons, who at various points in their lives
served as pastors; but who also had other notable careers:

Gotthilf Ernestus—a noted botanist and naturalist, who became pres-

ident of Franklin College, later Franklin and Marshall, in Lancaster.11
Frederick Augustus—who entered politics and became a Pennsylvania
legislator and then was elected the first speaker of the US House of
Representatives.
John Peter Gabriel—who, when a pastor at Woodstock, Virginia,
during the American Revolutionary War, removed his robe in the
pulpit and revealed that he would henceforth be a colonel in the 8th
Virginia Regiment. His service is marked with a memorial plaque at
Valley Forge National Park.12

Trappe was the central locus of Muhlenberg's ministry. His home

was there. He is buried in a plot right next to the fine church built
in 1745. Both buildings still stand. (See the illustration on p. 362).
The house is now restored to a replica of its original. Although
the congregation built a new and larger building in the 1800s, the
 THE M I N I S T E R I U M OF PENNSYLVANIA, FROM 1748 371

original structure still stands in excellent condition, used once a

year for an annual worship service, as well as on other special oc-
casions.
Muhlenberg's organizing journeys cannot be overemphasized.
As a result of them, and the related actions of the Ministerium, the
church was served and the faithful were gathered. His phrase was
Ecclesia Plantanda, "the church must be planted." And so it was.
There were an estimated eighty Lutheran congregations in Amer-
ica when Muhlenberg came, many of them held together by faith-
ful lay men and women, clergy being in short supply. The number
of congregations had more than tripled by the time of his death;
pastoral care for them was organized and regular. Although not all
were the result of his work, most were the result of his counsel and
inspiration. Considering the conditions of travel in his times, it is
amazing that his visits extended from New "Vbrk to Georgia. His
correspondence carried his influence the entire length of the col-
onies along the eastern seaboard, as far north as Nova Scotia.
The estimated number of Lutheran congregations in America
in the eighteenth-century span of Muhlenberg's ministry shows a
striking increase, especially in Pennsylvania and adjacent states.
.2 I79O
Nova Scotia 2
New England I
New "York ;0 25
New Jersey 9 l8
Pennsylvania .8 ICI
Maryland and Delaware 3 27
Virginia 2 l8
North Carolina 15
South Carolina IB
Georgia I 4

Always there was a question as to whether the report of a gathering

of Lutherans meant that a congregation was formed or simply that
a pastor preached there from time to time. The existence of a
church record book wherein baptisms, marriages, and so forth,
were inscribed argues for the former.
372 LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

Although Muhlenberg's contact with native Americans was not

extensive, he certainly knew about them, both from his father-in-
law and from Hartwig. One incident among others tells of his
openness to receive all into the church. On one of his journeys he
was made aware of a group of African Americans who had been
catechized by a minister of another denomination, who then had
refused to baptize them. Muhlenberg thereon examined them,
found them knowledgeable in the Christian faith, and baptized
them.
Muhlenberg envisioned the ministerium's annual meeting to be
a place for the discussion of theological issues, especially amid the
specific practical problems facing the young church. For example:
training indigenous leadership. Eventually, the ties with Europe
would be broken, both because of the growing maturity of the
American church and because of the dislocation caused by the
American Revolution. The same stress caused by the revolutionary
war also meant a scarcity of resources. So it was that candidates for
ordained ministry were tutored by local pastors, with the candidate
sometimes being assigned as an assistant. Licensure became one
avenue of training, wherein the candidate, upon application to the
annual meeting, would be licensed to teach, preach, and administer
the sacraments. This was subject to annual renewal. Those licensed
often served small congregations and frequently were sent on itin-
erary to catch up with members of established congregations or
new immigrants who had moved further west and south to better
their family situations. Although Muhlenberg himself had hopes
of launching a seminary in Philadelphia, he was never able to do
so.13
Traveling over great distances was always a problem for these
pastors, both because of the time and physical energy required, but
also because of cost. In 1783 the ministerium set up five districts
to organize the mutual ministries more locally. One was in New
ifork and this undoubtedly set in motion the desire to form the
separate synod in 1786. In 1801 the districts were further expanded
to include the congregations in Maryland, in Virginia, and also
western Pennsylvania. Thus, the seeds were sown for still more
synods.
 THE M I N I S T E R I U M OF PENNSYLVANIA, FROM 1748 373

Virious movements competed for the religious allegiance of

Lutherans. The first was Zinzendorf's Moravianism, which
preached the lowest common denominator unity of all Christians.
Deism, the religion espoused by many of the founding fathers,
ascended along with the revolutionary spirit. Deism spoke of God,
but denied the Trinity and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
In Europe, where many pastors who would come to America were
trained, rationalism, which maintained that human reason is per-
fectly capable to judge the truth in all religion, was the ascending
philosophy. Deism and rationalism did not however have as much
impact on the Lutherans in America as did the Great Awakening.
Under the influence of the "new measures," some Lutherans, par-
ticularly in rural areas, embraced the more emotional religious
practice of their Methodist, Baptist, and other denominational
neighbors. At its deepest, this meant periodic "revivals" for those
who needed to repent of their sins.
The religioius pendulum continued swinging, however. In 1817,
sparked by the three-hundreth anniversary of the Reformation,
scholars and theologians in Europe rediscovered the power of the
Lutheran confessional writings, partly in reaction to the trend of
turning Christianity into a system of intellectual and moral teach-
ings. The confessional movement, which eventually would come
to America, called the Lutheran church back to its theological
roots. This development certainly had its advocates in the Minis-
terium of Pennsylvania, which had dropped all references to the
Lutheran confessions in its 1792 constitution. Thus in the early
nineteenth century, a confessional revival contributed to the for-
mation of a general body.
With the creation of various other synods besides the Minister-
ium, the issue of unity in organization had again to be addressed
on a practical level. The answer was a proposal by the Ministerium
of Pennsylvania to form a General Synod, which all synods would
be invited to join. The original proposal was scaled back by several
amendments at the 1820 constituting meeting in Hagerstown,
Maryland. It moved from a regulatory agency to an advisory one,
largely because some Ministerium congregations were concerned
to maintain their relationships with the Reformed. In fact, the
374 LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

Ministerium—which was much bigger than the other participat-

ing synods combined—withdrew from the General Synod alto-
gether in 1823. Unity in national organization would await another
time, as the Ministerium placed principle above organic unity.
Nevertheless, the Ministerium sent its candidates for ministry to
the General Synod seminary in Gettysburg, especially since it was
leading the confessional movement at the time.
Language was another issue. In colonial America, the number
of non-English speaking persons rivaled the number of those who
spoke English. This was especially true of German-speaking peo-
ple, particularly in Pennsylvania. Generally, Lutherans, who tended
to reside in ethnicallly homogenous communities, were comfort-
able speaking German. Among them, German was the language
of the home, the neighborhood, and the schoolhouse. English,
however, was the language of business, as well as jurisprudence. In
the cities and larger towns the younger generation was requeseting
worship in the language of their new land. What had happened
earlier to the Swedish congregations in Philadelphia and Wil-
mington was a warning. They had changed their worship language
to English, but only a few Lutheran pastors were able to preach in
English. Therefore, when these congregations needed a new pas-
tor, they turned to the Protestant Episcopal Church, and eventually
joined that denomination.
It was not the same for the Germans. For one thing, from the
1830s there was a fairly steady influx of new people from Germany.
Muhlenberg himself spoke English and Dutch (and Latin?) as well
as German. Where required, congregations would conduct wor-
ship in both German and English. Not until the early decades of
the nineteenth century did congregations actually split over the
language question, and still later before English-only congregations
were organized. The first congregation to be organized in Phila-
delphia solely for English was St. John in the first decade of the
nineteenth century. However, the first such congregation in Ger-
mantown, Trinity, was not organized until a generation later.
Early on there was concern for a uniform liturgy for worship,
whatever the approved language. The founding meeting of the
Ministerium in 1748 approved one; handwritten copies of it were
 THE M I N I S T E R I U M OF PENNSYLVANIA, FROM 1748 375

made and distributed. Printed hymnbooks appeared in the latter

part of the eighteenth century. In 1786 a printed liturgy and hymn
book were published. The service of 1818 scaled down the pre-
vious one, as this was the time when "new measures" were begin-
ning to have their impact on the Lutheran church. A hymnbook
also accompanied it. Cooperation across synod lines was in evi-
dence, but the Pennsylvania Ministerium was the leader. There
were officially approved liturgies in 1835 (actually an endorsement
of the 1834 New \brk Synod liturgy), in 1855, and an English
liturgy in i860. Another hymnbook was published in 1849. Leaders
in the Ministerium applied the renewal of Lutheran confessional
identity to liturgy and hymnody, particularly evident in the Church
Book of 1868, which appeared one year after the formation of the
General Council (see below). In regular succession then there was
the Common Service of 1888, the Common Service Book of 1918, and
the Service Book and Hymnal of 1958; in each case the Ministerium
of Pennsylvania provided crucial leadership, although never uni-
laterally. Common worship materials bound diverse threads into a
strong cord, not merely at the 1748 start of the Ministerium but
throughout its life.

The Ministerium in the Nineteenth Century

Several of the trends noted already came to have clearer focus

in the Ministerium as the years moved into the mid-nineteenth
century. The relationship with the General Synod had been stormy,
when it was not ignored. Twice, the Ministerium pulled out of the
General Synod, staying out from 1823 to 1856 and leaving again
in 1866. This spilled over into the relationship with Gettysburg
Seminary in mid-century. More and more, the Pennsylvania Min-
isterium had developed a confessional consciousness which moved
beyond the General Synod and its seminary. Coupled with this was
the fact that eastern Pennsylvania was in regular receipt of new
German immigrants. Thus, instruction and pastoral care in the
German language was still needed alongside English. In tandem
with these was the developing liturgical consciousness. A clear
376 LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

break came in the mid i86os when a new seminary was founded
at Philadelphia, with Charles Porterfield Krauth as its leading theo-
logian. This brought theological education closer to the center of
the Ministerium. It also was the fulfillment of Muhlenberg's dream
to have a seminary at Philadelphia.
The next step in the Ministeriums break with the General
Synod was its leadership in the formation of the General Council
in 1867. There had been frequent bickering with the General
Synod and this came to a head when the General Synod accepted
the petition of the Frankean Synod for membership. This was a
small synod in upstate New York, made up of small congregations.
Alongside abolition and revivalism, the big issue was confessional
subscription, for the Frankean Synod did not require either its
pastors or congregations to preach and teach in accord with the
historic Lutheran confessional writings of the sixteenth century.
This the Ministerium would not tolerate, given its own confes-
sional awakening, and so it joined several other synods from both
the east and midwest in forming a new general body for the Lu-
theran witness.
The eighteenth-century practice of sending pastors on itiner-
aries to gather scattered Lutherans continued in the nineteenth
century, now intentionally crossing the Allegheny Mountains to
western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, and even
Missouri, as well as to the south, to North Carolina and Tennessee.
Here the Ministerium actually followed the pioneering efforts of
the Pittsburgh Synod. Church extension was common closer to
home as well, in Philadelphia, and in eastern and central Pennsyl-
vania, as well as into southern New Jersey. In 1848, at the time of
the celebration of the centennial of its founding, the Ministerium
of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States numbered 222 congregations,
67 pastors and 41,739 members. By the hundred and fiftieth an-
niversary at the end of the nineteenth century, the Ministerium
had 505 congregations, 337 pastors, and 191,251 members.
This was also the time to "go into all the world." Muhlenberg
and successors are sometimes called missionaries, but actually their
work more involved gathering and organizing into congregations
those who had already had at least some Christian experience. A
 T H E M I N I S T E R I U M OF P E N N S Y L V A N I A , F R O M 1748 377

foreign mission society was formed in the nineteenth century and

resources were gathered so that in 1841 John Christian Frederick
Heyer was commissioned at the age of 48 to be a missionary to
India, the first Lutheran pastor from this country to serve overseas.
The sea journey took five months, and he served in India, centered
in Gunter, for fifteen years. Heyer retired in 1857 a t the age of 64.
The retirement was of short duration, however. Upon his return,
the Ministerium commissioned him a missionary to Minnesota.
Then, at age 77, troubles having broken out in India, he returned,
this time to Rajahmundry. Upon his second homecoming, he re-
sided in the dormitory of the Philadelphia Seminary. There he
received the venerable title of "Father Heyer," for he was the re-
spected housefather to the seminary students. Mention should also
be made of the overseas mission work begun in Liberia, West Af-
rica, by the General Synod in i860, as part of a repatriation pro-
gram. Its first mission station was named "Muhlenberg."
Another aspect of mission in which the Ministerium was par-
ticularly active is inner, or social, missions, where Passavant and the
Pittsburgh Synod had also provided inspiring examples. In 1859 an
orphanage was begun which soon became the Germantown
Home. It included a school and a home for the aged. Other insti-
tutions, both for children's special needs and for the aging, mul-
tiplied: Topton, Tabor, Artman, and others. Two developments are
particularly noteworthy. John D. Lankenau, a successful German
businessman, saw a need for a hospital in Philadelphia and set in
motion not only the building of the German (and later, Lankenau)
hospital, but also the recruitment of deaconesses from Germany to
be nurses there. Thus was begun the Philadelphia Motherhouse
for Deaconesses.14 Soon their influence spread to include not only
a children's hospital and the Mary J. Drexel Home, but also work
in settlement houses in neighborhoods where German immigrants
were living, not always in good conditions. Large numbers of these
immigrants came in the final decades of the nineteenth century,
and into the first decades of the new century, mingling new arrivals
with established congregations. An intertwined cord indeed! Not
incidentally, this development caused the synod to organize new
German language congregations.
378 LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

Another significant social mission development, although ac-

tually taking place in the early twentieth century, was the estab-
lishment in 1908 of the Good Shepherd Home in Allentown. This
ministry started in the parsonage of Grace Church for the special
needs of crippled children. It expanded to include ministry to crip-
pled adults, including the aged. The setting up of institutions was
not the only feature of work in the arena of inner missions. Support
of chaplains working in hospitals, poor houses, and prisons was an
ongoing feature of the Ministeriums vision of ministry. Inner Mis-
sion Societies set up offices and broadened their work to include
ministry with the deaf. Foster homes also were set up.
Regarding education, one of Muhlenberg's early tasks was to
build schoolhouses as well as churches. Here the children were not
only taught to read and write, but they were also instructed in the
Christian faith. The schoolmasters frequently substituted for the
pastors when they were away, conducting worship and reading
sermons from books. The instruction in the faith not only included
the Bible and morality, but also the catechism, knowledge of which
was the basis for the rite of confirmation. It is important to note
that the setting up of the general church's publishing house in
Philadelphia was important not only for the printing of theological
and other books, but also for Sunday school curriculum. After early
involvements with the Reformed in launching Franklin College
in 1787, the Ministerium was somewhat slow getting into the mis-
sion of higher education. In 1848 an academy in Allentown was
begun, and it was upgraded to become Muhlenberg College in
1867.

Into the Twentieth Century

Generally, the biblical and theological stance of the Philadelphia

Seminary, and therefore of the Ministerium, was quite traditional
until the end of the nineteenth century. This began to change,
however, with the presence of Henry Eyster Jacobs, the leading
professor at the turn of the century and well into the new one. He
had been greatly influenced by the Erlangen School in Germany
 THE M I N I S T E R I U M OF PENNSYLVANIA, FROM 1748 379

and some new approaches to Luther studies. He would play a lead-

ing role in bringing the scattered national bodies together. In ad-
dition, Henry Offermann, Philadelphia professor of New Testa-
ment, and Charles M. Jacobs opened the seminary, and eventually
the Ministerium, to issues related to higher criticism of biblical
texts.
Through focused conversations and conferences, the leaders of
both the General Synod and the General Council began to talk
seriously about the need for a united church out of the Muhlen-
berg tradition. A third general church body needed to be a part of
these discussions. This was the General Synod—South, which split
off from the General Synod at the great national fracture, which
southerners called the War Between the States. It consisted of the
synods in the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia, and it
remained separate for the long healing period following the war.
The Ministerium of Pennsylvania was the largest synod in any of
the church bodies and took a leading role in healing the fractures
and restoring the unity so hoped for from the beginning, at least
for eastern Lutheranism. After years of talks, and sparked by the
1917 Reformation Quadricentennial, the United Lutheran
Church in America was formed in 1918.15 The "Mother Synod"
was its largest member and dominant voice.
Meanwhile there was World War I, which generated heavy anti-
German fervor. Naturally this had a major impact on the still very
German Ministerium. One of the casualties of this had to do with
a statue. The Sunday school children of the Ministerium had do-
nated pennies and nickels to pay for the large statue which depicted
Muhlenberg preaching to very attentive worshipers. The intent was
for it to take its place among the many other monuments which
adorned Franklin Parkway and the extensive Fairmount Park System
in Philadelphia. But in the anti-German atmosphere of the Great
War, no German was to be so honored! Therefore, the statue was
placed on the Mt. Airy campus of the Lutheran Seminary where it
still greets all visitors at the entrance (see p. 444).
Throughout the nineteenth century the office of president of
the Ministerium had been a part-time position and generally was
held by no one person for more than three one-year terms. With
380 LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

the great expansion of the synod's ministries, this changed with

the election of the first full time president in 1916. Those who
held this office were:
H. A. Weller (1916-1926)
Ernst P. Pfatteicher (1926-1943)
Emil E. Fischer (1943-1953)
Charles Muhlenberg Cooper (1953-1961)
Samuel Kidd (1961-1962)
Weiler was a good choice since he had been a pastor in the rural
part of the synod, but was also familiar with the cities. Pfatteicher
is described as the last of the traditional confessional school officers.
Fischer, having been a professor at the seminary, possessed a broad
and open theological position. Cooper, also a professor at Mt. Airy,
wras the first elected president after the great realignment of con-
gregations in eastern Pennsylvania, for which he had worked very
diligently. Kidd had been the stewardship secretary in the synod.
The president was not the only fiali time position established. In
1922 an Inner Mission Board was established with a full time di-
rector; similarly, a Home Missions Board started in 1925. Also in
Pfatteicher's presidency, a Secretary for Benevolence became a part
of the executive staff and then a Secretary for Education with re-
sponsibility for theological candidacy, teacher training and the
camp programs. Compared to modern synods, the Ministerium
was like a mini-denomination within the ULCA. The Ministerium
had three camps—for boys, for girls and for leader training. The
teacher training was important since by now schools in most
churches included weekday instruction, vacation school, as well as
Sunday schools.
The bicentennial of the arrival of Muhlenberg was celebrated
in 1942 with the first of a three-volume set of The Journals of Henry
Melchior Muhlenberg. Likewise the bicentennial of the Ministerium
itself was celebrated with great festivity in 1948. In that year the
Ministerium consisted of 604 congregations, 534 pastors and
346,341 members. But changes were afoot for the Ministerium. In
1950, the New Jersey Synod was formed, taking congregations
from the Pennsylvania Ministerium. Then in the early 1950s con-
versations for realignment of congregations in the two synods in
 T H E M I N I S T E R I U M OF P E N N S Y L V A N I A , F R O M 1748 381

eastern and central Pennsylvania took place. Back in 1842 the Gen-
eral Synod had approved an East Pennsylvania Synod for its con-
gregations in eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, those
which did not join the General Council. Oftentimes these con-
gregations lived side by side with Ministerium congregations, amid
occasional rivalries. Indeed, some of the largest congregations in
Philadelphia were "East Penn" congregations of the General
Synod. Likewise there were Ministerium congregations west of the
line set up for the division of the two synods. Holy Trinity in
Lancaster, one of the original Ministerium congregations, was west
ofthat line. The 1918 formation of the ULCA led to some re-
alignments, but the "mother synod" Ministerium of Pennsylvania
was not subjected to full realignment until 1953.
Then, with the negotiations which eventually produced the Lu-
theran Church in America, synods as they had been known were
changed. With the formation of the LCA in 1962, the title "Min-
isterium" was dropped. The uniform use of "Synod" replaced it.
Thus, the Ministerium of Pennsylvania became the Eastern Penn-
sylvania Synod, only to be divided a few years later into the South-
eastern Pennsylvania and Northeastern Pennsylvania Synods. R e -
sponsibilities shifted. For example, overseas missionary activity
were the responsibility of the LCA, as already begun in the ULCA.
Some Ministerium congregations still supported missionaries, not
only in India and Liberia, but in Japan and South America as well.
Likewise, in the LCA the Ministerium no longer elected the pro-
fessors to the seminary faculty. John H. P. Reumann, recently re-
tired as professor of New Testament and Greek at Philadelphia, was
the last professor to be elected by the Ministerium convention. It
is fitting that he held the honorary chair as "Ministerium of Penn-
sylvania Professor."
Other special ministries formed and continued, such as the Cen-
ter City Lutheran Parish in Philadelphia to help the many congre-
gations in racially changing neighborhoods deal with the changes
needed for the modern day equivalent of Ecclesia Plantanda. This
became the model for the coalition development which took place
in cities across the nation, spurred on by the new strength of a
national church body.
382 LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

Thus the Ministerium begun in 1748 lost its name and merged
its identity in 1962. Two hundred and fifty years is a rather signifi-
cant achievement, especially in a nation which is not as old! The
Muhlenberg tradition and the Ministerium tradition will undoubt-
edly continue in the congregations and institutions which remain
and flourish, although always adapting to the particular needs of
ever changing times. The cord of many threads has proven its du-
rability over this past quarter millennium, and Muhlenberg's de-
scriptive phrase still applies to our future: the church must be
planted.

NOTES

1. Further general reading should include E. Clifford Nelson (editor), The Lutherans
in Xorth America (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975), especially Part I—The Church's In-
fancy, written by Theodore G. Tappert; and Henry Eyster Jacobs, A History of the Evan-
gelical Lutheran Church in the United States, 5th ed. (New "Vbrk: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1907). For more detail specifically on the Ministerium, see Helen E. Pfatteicher, The
Ministerium of Pennsylvania—Oldest Lutheran Synod in America—Founded in Colonial Days
(Philadelphia: The Ministerium Press, 1938); In Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of
the Ministerium of Pennsylvania 1748—1898 (reprint from the Lutheran Church Review, January
and April 1898); and especially the Documentar}' History of the Evangelical Lutheran Minis-
terium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States lj 48—1821 (Philadelphia: General Council Board
of Publication, 1898). Henceforth, Documentary History.
2. Besides the general sources cited above, see Lutheran Quarterly 2 (1988) for a special
issue on the church in N e w Sweden.
3. See, in this issue, the map on p. 477 and illustrations of significant sites.
4. ne Journals ofHenry Melchior Muhlenberg (in three volumes), translated by Theodore
G. Tappert and John W. Doberstein (The Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsyl-
vania and Adjacent States and The Muhlenberg Press, Philadelphia, 1942-58). (A reprint
in 1982 includes additional fragments for 1772 and 3, 19 and 58 pages of manuscript
respectively.)
5. For detail, see Documentary History, 3-23.
6. Documentary History, 9.
7. Documentary History, 13-18.
8. See the article in this issue for a fragment of Wrangel's journal.
9. See Documentary History for immense detail of the meetings until 1821.
10. Documentary History, 170, 253f.
11. One of Gotthilf Ernestus' findings as a naturalist was a turtle, named Clemnys
Muhlenbergis, a statue of which may be viewed outside the science complex at Muhlenberg
College, Allentown.
 T H E M I N I S T E R I U M OF P E N N S Y L V A N I A , F R O M 1748 383

12. The actual robe is part of the holdings of the Lutheran Archives Center at Phila-
delphia, housed in the Krauth Memorial Library of the Lutheran Theological Seminary
at Philadelphia.
13. For his involvement in a preparatory Latin school, see the 1773 report below, pp.
479-80.
14. See Petersons article in this issue of Lutheran Quarterly.
15. See the new and posthumous work by E. Theodore Bachmann, The United Lu-
theran Church in America, 1918—1962 (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1997).

V. Old Zion, Philadelphia

Muhlenberg's Philadelphia Congregation
 ^ s
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