St. Paul daily globe., 1894-06-13
A NATIONAL CONVENTION
or THE UNITED K0R WEG!AN LUTHERAN
cHURcH
BEGINS IN ST. PAUL TODAY.

Division Over the Right of the
United Church to the Augs-
burg Seminary in Minneapolis
Likely to Cause Some War IN
Work-Judge Seagrave Smiths
DecisiOn-Great Lights Here.
The United Norwegian Lutheran
Church Of America will open its fifth
annual business meeting at the Audi
forum this forenoon. This body now
consists of about 10000 communicant
members. who are organized into LOCO
churches. and whose spiritual wants are
attended to by little more than 300
ministers.
The order of exercises for today's ses-
sion embraces religious services in the
forenoon. with sermon by Rev. j. n.
Kildahl, of Chicago. The afternoon
services will be of preliminary nat
ure, looking towards organic .tion.
The present officers are: Rev. q.
Hoyme, Eau Claire, Wis, president
now serving second term. These
are OF three years each, and so
he holds over for two years more. |
Rev. l.. M. Bjorn, Zumbrota. is vice
president; Rev. j. N. Kildahl. Chicago
secretary. The present board of trus-
tees consists of the following:
lver Larsen, Decorai. To-; Prof.
S. Oftedahl, Minneapolis; Obey Mel
son. Slater. To-; Halle Steensland,
Madison. Wis.,; Nels, jacobson. Port
Washington, Wis; Ole Aanstad, Eau
Claire, Wis.,; Andrew Himie. DEBORAH,
To-; A. Klove, Leland, ILL.,; Oof Hoff,
Minneapolis.
The following members of the faculty
of the United Church seminary at Min
neapolis will be in attendance: Prof.
NJ. D. Bockmann. President; Prof. E..
q. Lund,vice president; F. A. Schmidt,
u. ID.
This meeting bids fair to be almost as
| fatefui as the last one, though the
church is in far better condition finan-
cially, and its path for the future is
| staked out more plainly than year
ago.
The most delicate matter 10
| be acted upon is the relation
Of the United church, or rather
strong majority Of the same, to the
minority" The position of this mi
nority'' may be stated in few words.
When the board of trustees of Augs-
burg seminary, of Minneapolis. last year
| refused to transfer the seminary
| property to the United church
| according, as stated, to an agreement
entered upon i'll $780, the United church
| removed its theological seminary from
| Augsburg to building on Franklin
| and IWenty-siXth avenues south. About
| 100 churches and so ministers sided
| with the board of trustees of Augs-
burg seminary and had meeting
| of their own last fall, at which a
committee was appointed to confer with
the meeting which opens today as to
the disposal of Augsburg seminary.
That committee is not in a pleasant po-
sition. On the fourth of this month,
Judge Smith, of the Fourth judicial
| district. decided that the united church.
not the minority as represented by
the board of trustees of Augsburg
seminary. is entitled to the possession
| of the Augsburg Publishing house, a
| business which is valued at $40, 900. and
| in 1898 gave profit of nearly $4,000.
| This was hard blow to the uniYer-
sity; for not only did they
lose so many thousand dollar
but the majority firmly believe that
they are just as much entitled to Augs-
burg seminary as to the publishing
house. Therefore, it is not improbable
that the majority will simply demand an
unconditional surrender" of Augsburg
seminary.
Two graduates from the theological
department of Augsburg seminary will
apply to the meeting for holy orders,
and thus compel the United church to
commit itself III regard to the work ac-
c0mpllShed by said institution.
The preliminary exercises will begin
at 10 O'Clock today, and afterwards the
sessions are likely to be from to II a.
M, and from 2 to p. Ill.
There are about 500 delegates to the
convention and several hundred other
visitors, large number OF whom ar
rived last evening.
Among the visitors are large num-
Der of distinguished and we'll known
citizens of the land, among whom might
be mentioned Rev. Rasmussen, of Lis
bon. ILL.,; Prof. L. Ii. Mohn, of North
field college; Profs. Oftedahl and
Swendrup, of the Augsburg seminary
! of Minneapolis. Then there are the
professors OF the seminary of tine United
| church. +. A. Smith aud 0. NJ. Brock.
| man. The present session promises
| to be one of the most important yet
held since the organization of
| the United church "a few
years ago. 1t may be remem-
bered that at the foundation of the
union several factions OF the Lutheran
church among the Norwegians united
into one society. assuming the title of
"The United Norwegian Lutheran
Church." Other branches of the old
Lutheran persuasion remained outside
the new organization, the separation
arising out of dispute over the ques-
ton OF predestination.