The Christmas Tree and the Two Churches

Authors

Johannes V. Knudsen

Keywords

religion, history, community

Abstract

Part of the Danish American heritage is the fact that there were, unfortunately, some believe, two separate Danish American Lutheran Church groups. Because of theological differences (and perhaps personality conflicts, as well) between these two groups, they remained separate entities from their complex beginnings in the latter half of the nineteenth century until mergers took place with a number of other ethnic Lutheran church groups in the early 1960s, culminating in the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1988. The histories of and differences between the two synods, the American Evangelical Lutheran Church and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church, have been eloquently documented by others,1 so that is not the purpose here.

Recommended Citation

Knudsen, Johannes V. (2003) "The Christmas Tree and the Two Churches," The Bridge: Vol. 26: No. 2, Article 9.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge/vol26/iss2/9