THE LUTHERAN CHURCH
Profiles of Congregational Units in Richmond
First English Lutheran Church
Early History
Lutheranism is given its name by a 16 th century German theologian named Martin Luther, who was trained as a lawyer before becoming an Augustinian monk. As he studied for his divinity degree, he became concerned by what he perceived to be contradictions between the Bible and the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. On October 31, 1517 he is said to have nailed a challenge to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, taking issue with the Church’s practice of selling indulgences in return for salvation, and putting forth his “95 Theses” for theological debate. This legend is the symbolic beginning of the Protestant Reformation, and the day is still celebrated as Reformation Day by contemporary Lutherans. Although Luther hoped to reform the Roman Catholic Church and bring it more in line with scripture, instead millions of Europeans left the Church, inspired by Luther’s teachings. Among his ideas that gained widespread popularity were a rejection of clergy as necessary intermediaries between an individual and God and the assertion that salvation is achieved only by the grace of God (sola gratis) and by faith alone (sola fide). Another key issue for Martin Luther was the belief in the importance of reading the Bible, the only true source of God’s Word (sola scriptura). For this reason, he believed that Bibles should be printed and taught in native languages whereas in his day Bibles were printed and masses were celebrated in Latin or Greek. Luther believed this prevented people from having direct personal access to the Word of God. Because Lutheranism did not reject the practices of Catholicism that Luther believed did not contradict the Bible, the two faiths still share much in common. Some Lutherans still see the movement as a reform movement within Catholicism, rather than a separate movement.
Luther’s ideas triggered a theological debate that soon grew into a political debate and eventually would lead to war. Luther and his followers were excommunicated (banned from receiving the Holy Sacrament of communion) as heretics, and at the Diet of Worms Luther was ordered to recant his teachings, but refused. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V then issued the Edict of Worms, outlawing Luther, his followers, and his teachings. This was a hugely unpopular decision, as Luther had gained the support not only of the common people but also of German rulers who sought independence from Rome’s control. The territories in opposition to Rome became known as Protestant countries for their defiance, and with the 1530 Diet of Augsburg, they became known as Lutheran for the first time. Luther died in 1546, and a year later a war erupted between the Lutheran countries, allied as the Schmalkald League since 1531, and the territories of Charles V. The war was known as the Schmalkald War. Although Charles V was militarily successful, he was unable to impose Catholicism upon the conquered peoples, and in 1577 Lutheran theologians published a declaration of Lutheran doctrine known as the Formula of Concord. Along with the Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Large and Small Catechisms of Martin Luther, the Smalcald Articles and the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, it was published in 1580 as the Book of Concord, still in use by the Lutheran church today.
Lutheranism in the United States
Early followers of Lutheranism were primarily German and Scandinavian, and it was primarily German and Scandinavian Lutherans who first immigrated to the United States in the 17 th century. The first Lutheran church building erected in the United States was on Tinicum Island, a small area in the Delaware River southwest of Philadelphia, PA. It was dedicated in 1646. The first man to be ordained by a Lutheran body in the United States was Justus Falckner, a German who had immigrated to Pennsylvania. He was ordained by a retiring Swedish pastor, under the authority of the Swedish bishop, on November 24, 1703. The earliest Lutheran congregation to be formed in Virginia was that of German settlers bound for Pennsylvania who were blown off course. They settled in Madison County, VA, in 1717. Funds were raised to build a church known as the Hebron Lutheran Church in 1740. The church has been in continuous use since.
The initial Lutheran synod (an ecclesiastical council) in the United States was the Pennsylvania Ministerium, which was established in 1748. Other regional synods were formed along the East Coast, while in the Midwest and West ethnic synods were formed by Norwegians, Danes, Finns, and others. Virginia established her own synod in 1829. Smaller, regional synods within Virginia also functioned in cooperation with the Virginia Synod. The Southwest Virginia Synod, for example, was especially instrumental in the spread of Lutheranism in Richmond.
The Synod of Virginia was particularly concerned with the spiritual state of affairs in the state capital, and in 1846 sent a missionary to visit the German-speaking congregation already in existence but unaffiliated with any synod. The name of that early Richmond congregation appears to have been lost in history. The missionary was able to persuade the Richmond congregation to apply for membership, and the application was approved. However, membership ultimately was not granted as the pastor’s failed to appear at the Virginia Synod’s 1847 or 1848 councils. Subsequent correspondence revealed that the congregation had dissolved.
In 1852 it was reported at the Virginia Synod’s fall meeting that between 3,000 and 4,000 Germans in Richmond were in need of pastoral care. Within one year a missionary successfully founded Bethlehem Church, claiming 40 male members and the purchase of a lot on which a church was to be erected. The edifice was dedicated on June 4, 1854, and the Virginia Synod was so enamored with the congregation’s success that they planned to hold their 1856 meeting at Bethlehem Church. However, before the meeting could take place, Bethlehem Church wrote the Virginia Synod asking for (and receiving) an honorable dismissal so that it might align itself instead with the newly-formed “German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States”, whose name would later be shortened to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, or LCMS.
In 1867, the Southwest Virginia Synod once again attempted to form a congregation of its own in Richmond. The Richmond mission, known as St. Mark’s, was transferred to the Virginia Synod in 1869 and struggled through five years of instability under intermittent, short-term pastors before coming under the steadying leadership of William Carl Schaeffer 1875, who spent thirteen years as the congregation’s pastor. Under his direction, the congregation was renamed First English Lutheran Church, to emphasize their keeping with the traditional Lutheran value of teaching in the native language. A church building was erected at 7 th and Grace Streets. In 1911 the current church building was erected at Monument Avenue’s Stuart Circle.
Today the Richmond area is home to thirteen Lutheran congregations: six belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, or ELCA; five belong to the LCMS; one belongs to the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, or WELS; and one is unaffiliated.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America ELCA, LCMS, and WELS
Lutheranism in America has a long history of congregations organizing, merging, aligning, dissolving, and re-aligning as ecclesiastical councils. At one time there were over 150 Lutheran ecclesiastical councils; that number has now been reduced to three. The first significant merger involved the formation of the General Synod in 1820. The General Synod consisted of most of the regional synods in the Northeast, with the notable exceptions of the New York Synod and the Pennsylvania Ministerium. Pennsylvania and New York later allied themselves with five other General Synod members to form the General Council in 1867. In 1863, the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Confederate States of America was formed from synods of secessionist states. In 1866 this group changed its name to the United Synod of the South. These three bodies united in 1918, the centennial anniversary of the Reformation, as the United Lutheran Church of America (ULCA).
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) was founded in 1847 by 12 pastors representing 15 congregations of Lutherans in the Missouri area. Many of the members were German Saxons who had fled from the forced merger of their church in Germany which they believed would dilute their religion. They settled in St. Louis, Missouri, and were led by pastor C.F.W. Walther, who would become the first president of the LCMS. In 1872, the LCMS entered into fellowship with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) and other Midwest congregations in a synod known as the American Evangelical Lutheran Church (AELC).
The Danish Association and Danish North Church merged to form the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1896, dropping the “Danish” from their name in 1946 to become known as the UELC. The Norwegian Lutheran Church of America united the vast majority of Norwegian Lutherans in 1917, later changing its name to the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC). The American Lutheran Church (ALC) formed in 1930, merging several regional Midwest synods. The UELC, ELC, and ALC merged in 1961, retaining the name of the ALC.
In 1960, the LCMS and WELS each broke away from the AELC, and the remaining congregations joined with the ULCA and two smaller synods in 1962 to form the Lutheran Church in America (LCA). Finally, in 1988, the ALC and LCA united, along with a breakaway sect of LCMS calling themselves the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), which is today the largest Lutheran church in the United States, with over five million members. The LCMS is the second largest, with over two and a half million members. WELS, with nearly half a million members, makes up the third largest Lutheran denomination.
There are important doctrinal differences among these various strands of Lutheranism. ELCA is the most theologically liberal of the three. It emphasizes the importance of interpreting Scripture in the context of the time and place in which it was written and in the context of the larger message of the Scripture. The ELCA ordains women, accepts gays and lesbians even as members of the clergy, and plays a supportive role to women struggling with the question of abortion. The ELCA is also very ecumenical, and has entered into full communion with the Reformed Church of America, the United Church of Christ, and the Presbyterian Church (Formula of Agreement, 1997), as well as the Episcopal Church and the Moravian Church (1999). Also in 1999, the ELCA signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification with the Roman Catholic Church, retracting their centuries-old mutual condemnation. In 2005, the ELCA entered into an agreement to share Eucharist with the United Methodist Church, with the goal of full communion by 2008. It is also in ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox Church, the Mennonites, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Disciples of Christ.
Both the WELS and the LCMS are theologically conservative. They stress a literal interpretation of the Bible and hold both the Bible and the Book of Concord to be the inerrant word of God. Neither body ordains women; the LCMS grants women suffrage within the church body, while the WELS does not. The WELS does not recognize the role of the pastor as one divinely granted, while the LCMS does. Finally, WELS and LCMS disagree over the nature of church fellowship: whether it is between entire units, as WELS contends, or whether there is a distinction between altar and pulpit fellowship, as LCMS asserts. It was this disagreement that led them to break fellowship in 1961. Both entities condemn homosexuality as sinful and abortion as murder. Neither body has entered into full communion with any other organizations. Each maintains that the Bible condemns some forms of fellowship, eucharist fellowship but not prayer fellowship, with churches who differ in their doctrines.