The New York Times/1918/11/11/Lutherans in One Body
LUTHERANS IN ONE BODY.
All Members Will Unite at Convention in This City.
There will begin in this city tomorrow what is considered the most important convention of Lutherans ever held in this country. The three older bodies of the Lutheran Church, the General Synod, organized in 1820; the General Council, organized in 1867, and the United Synod South, dating back to civil war days, will meet for the last time as independent organized bodies. Before the week is over their forces will be combined under the title of the United Lutheran Church of America, representing a communicant membership of 800,000 and a baptized membership of 1,600,000.
The convention will open tomorrow with the three bodies meeting separately to wind up their affairs. The General Council will meet in Holy Trinity Church, Central Park West and Sixty-fifth Street; the Central Synod in St. James's Church, Madison Avenue and Seventy-third Street, and the United Synod South in the Church of the Advent, Broadway, at Ninety-third Street. On Thursday evening the united church will go in procession to Holy Trinity Church for communion service. The procession will be led by the Ways and Means Committee, in which are the Presidents of the three general bodies, Dr. Theodore E. Schmauk, Dr. V. G. A. Tressley, and Dr. M. G. G. Scherer. The sermon will be preached by the Rev. H. E. Jacobs, Dean of Mount Airy Seminary at Philadelphia.
Friday morning the business meeting at which the merger will be formally carried out will be held in the auditorium of the Engineers Building, 33 West Thirty-ninth Street. The first business will be the election of officers of the general body, and there is much speculation as to who will lead the Lutherans in America. The public ratification meeting will be held at the Hotel Astor on Friday evening at 8 o'clock. A large public meeting will be held in the Hillodrome on Sunday evening. The centre of the decoration scheme will be a gigantic bust of Martin Luther, from whom the Lutheran Church takes its name. At the same time public meetings are scheduled for the Academy of Music in Brooklyn and another in Jersey City.