# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1864_S251
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church-Contemporary Affairs. 251

silver altar vessels set with precious stones. To this is added the
splendor of the sculptures and carvings in marble and heavily gilded
wood, together with a quantity of iron, richly gilded lattice doors of
gigantic size before the chapels and side altars. The mass vestments
are stiff with gold, and are frequently richly interwoven with pearls
and jewels. The cathedral in the capital possesses a statue of the
Blessed Virgin, entirely of gold, weighing 139 marks, and thus worth
more than 11,000 ducats.

How an American Understands Depicting the Progress of the
Lutheran Church of This Country. In the "Lutheran and Missionary"
of June 23 we read on this: "Thirty years ago, in the year 1834, the
Lutheran church here numbered about 220 pastors, 670 congregations, and
approximately 60,000 communicants. Its entire educational institutions
consisted of the small gymnasium at Gettysburg, the seminary there, the
one at Hartwick, N.Y., and the one at Columbus, O. The two synods of
Pennsylvania, the New York Ministerium, and the synods of Maryland and
Virginia comprised all congregations north of the Carolinas. The synod
of Ohio and adjoining states, which at the same time included most of
the congregations of western Pennsylvania, had the entire church of the
West under it. Thirty years ago this body assembled at Zelienople,
Butler Co., Pa., and counted about 30 pastors on its roll. In the
territory of this then-sole synod in the West there are now no fewer
than 24 Lutheran synods. These are: the five district synods of the
General Synod of Ohio and adjoining states, the English Synod of Ohio,
the East Ohio, the Wittenberg, and the Miami Synod; the Michigan Synod;
the North Indiana, the Olive Branch, and the Union Synod in Indiana; the
Synod of Kentucky; the North and the South Illinois Synod; the English
and the German synods of Missouri and Iowa; the Wisconsin and the
Minnesota Synod; the Scandinavian Augustana Synod, and the Synod of the
Norwegian Lutheran Church in the United States. In the same territory
there are now, instead of the small seminary at Columbus, O., theological
seminaries at Columbus and Springfield, O., at Springfield and Paxton,
Ill., at Decorah and Wartburg, Ia., at St. Louis, Mo., and Watertown,
Wisc. Besides this there are colleges at Springfield and Columbus, O.,
at Fort Wayne, Ind., Springfield, Ill., Fairfax, Albion, Decorah, Ia.,
and a normal school for teachers at Addison, Ill. Instead of the 10
students that Columbus counted thirty years ago, there are now more
than 300 students of theology at these institutions. Instead of the 30
pastors, 120 congregations, and about 12,000 communicants of the Ohio
Synod at that time, these 24 synods now count 800 pastors and 1,400
congregations with 140,000 communicants. Instead of the crude log and
frame churches in which they mostly held their services, comfortable
and stately churches of brick and quarried stone have been erected, of
which many are models of architecture and would grace any community.
The same can be said of many of the colleges and seminaries of the
church in the West. Thus the Norwegian institute at Decorah, Ia., is
a building of remarkable elegance and durability, costing about
$50,000. — Though the progress of the church in the East was not as
rapid as in the West, it was nevertheless also excellent and
encouraging. Instead of the 4 synods that existed there thirty years
ago, there are now 6 synods in Pennsylvania, 4 in New York, 1 in Canada,
1 in New Jersey, 2 in Maryland, and 2 in Virginia. Particularly
encouraging has been the growth of the church in Pennsylvania. Twenty-
four years ago the West Pennsylvania Synod assembled at Pittsburgh, and
although it comprised the entire territory west of the Susquehanna, it
numbered only 40 pastors. Now the mother synod comprises only the 4
counties of York, Adams, Franklin, and Cumberland, and yet the number of
its pastors and congregations is considerably greater than before,
while the three synods of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, and Central
Pennsylvania, which have since formed and occupy the rest of its
territory, count 140 pastors, 335 congregations, and 21,000
communicants. The church east of the Susquehanna has, to be sure, not
grown on the same scale, owing to language and other local
circumstances. And yet, in spite of the ever increasing