АҚШ Лютерандық Шіркеуінің Ағылшын Аудандық Өкілдігінің Тарихы

Non geographical district of the LCMS

The English District is one of the 35 districts of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS). It is one of the Synod's two non geographical districts, along with the SELC District. The district presently has congregations in the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as the Canadian province of Ontario. The district has its origins in the congregations of the former English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States, which merged with the LCMS in 1911. The English Synod had been formally organized in 1888 out of the English (Evangelical) Lutheran Conference of Missouri of the Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod.

Prior to 1839, a group of Lutherans of the Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod moved from western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee to southeast Missouri. In 1872, a free conference was held in Gravelton, Missouri, with participants from that group, the LCMS, the Holston Synod, and the Norwegian Synod. The LCMS president, C. F. W. Walther, urged the Tennessee Synod members to organize themselves as a conference of the Tennessee Synod, the English (Evangelical) Lutheran Conference of Missouri. The conference applied for admission to the LCMS as a district in 1887, but was advised to instead form a separate synod because the LCMS was still a German language synod while the conference used English. The conference therefore organized as the independent English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States in 1888. The English Synod was in full agreement with the LCMS on doctrine, and joined the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference in 1890. English District offices are located in Farmington, Michigan. Delegates from each congregation meet in convention every three years to elect the district president, vice presidents, circuit counselors, a board of directors, and other officers.