St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-06-15
REPORTS AND ELECTIONS
P3INc.P.,LLY THE BUSINESS OF THE
LUTHERsNS YESTERDAY.
TO BUILD A NEW SEMINARY

The United Norwegian Lutheran
Church Will Build New One,
to Take the Place of the Augs-
burg, Either in Minneapolis or
St. Paui-Casting About for the
Location.
Rev. o. Gulbrandsen, of Montevideo.
yesterday opened the morning session
OF the United church conference at the
auditorium by reading Matthew XIV.
After the minutes of the previous
session had been approved. Prof.
E. &. Lund obtained the floor,
and called attention to the
fact that between three and four hun
dred thousand COMMUNICATE members
of different Lutheran churches III this
country belong to an organization
known as ''the general council" and he
also suggested that it might be both
pleasant and profitable for the United
church to come into fraternal
relations to the general council. He
finally announced that Rev. Z. A.
Swensson, PHI. d.. the president of the
general council, was present. and Presi-
dent q. Hoyme introduced that gen
tleman to the audience. Rev. Swens-
the old stumps of Pennsylvania"
has the reputation of being "the most
eloquent Swede in America" sustained
his reputation as an orator in short
speech. in which he brought friendly
greetings from thu general council.
and expressed desire that
as many Lutherans as possible
should stand shoulder to shoulder
in an organization like the one he rep
resented and feel the bond of fellow
ship. He also spoke of the progress OF
the Lutheran church. and stated that
on the average one new Lutheran
church is dedicated every day in
the year. and the growth of
this church in America had been
60 per cent in a certain given time,
while the growth for the same period
shown by the most progressive non-
Lutheran denomination was only 81 per
cent. In Rev. Swensson's opinion the
Lutheran church occupies the whole
some center" between the extremes of
Puritanism, with its infdelity, and
Catholicism, with its bigotry. -
One hundred and twenty names were
added to the roll of lay delegates and
seven to that of ministers and pro:es-
sors, making the whole number of lay
votes So. and that of ministers 146.
Arne kirkeli. Rev. Abraham Jacob.
sen and L. SandersOn were given the
privilege of the flour.
The secretary OF the United church.
Rev. j. W. Kildahl. of Chicago, sub
mitted his annual report, in which the
following statistics were given:
Number of congregations formally
belonging to the United church, 727:
S0l others served by ministers of the
United church; total, 1.02S congrega-
tons. Thirty-One new churches have
been organized and fourteen dis
solved during the year. The LOIS
churches have membership of
1G7, $50 communicates. Number of MIN
listers belonging to the United church.
exactly 800. and all but 81 of these are
entitled to vote at the meeting. Num-
Der of divine services, 20, S34.an increase
of 1.4l4 for the year. This makes
an average of 100 services for
each minister, and 20 for each
congregation. There are 763 church
buildings, 200 Of which were erected
during the year. Twelve thousand nine
hundred and seveDty-one children have
been baptized and $685. young people
confirmed. Only about one-khird of the
members have been to holy communion
during the year,and of this the secretary
said it was too sad to be expressed .
4,0l3 Sunday school teachers have been
q xunriy nd S61 ohnrnh6c hnuo nornob
ial schools: $40 churches have both Sun
day and week day schools, and 344
churches have neither. Number Of
school children. IS, coo.
Hon. Lars Swenson, the treasurer
also read lengthy report, showing tina
the endowment fund now amounts tt
SS0, S2949, and the interest received
from this source is $4.902.S7. Tit
pieasantest feature of this report wa
that relating to the removal of the deb
of the church. A year ago the churci
decided to raise $4,000. but at first TIN
subscriptions came in at despairinglN
slow rate. In the course of time, how
ever, the people began to take courage
and the result was that the grand tota
raised amounts to S42, S57.9i. |,
connection with the review of thi
work the treasurer mentioned til
names of Mrs. Lena Dahl
of Stoughton. Wis, and I've
Larsen. If DEBORAH, To-, in particu
lar. Three hundred and seventy-seve
churches have not contributed one cen
to this amount, ard many of these wer
the very ones which would carp an
criticise the work OF the United church
Mr.. SwenSOn recommended that til
conference move cautiously in maxim
new appropriations, and thought man.
of the institutions of the church ough
to be supported by the people of the 10
calities where they are situated, thu
relieving tile United church of parto
Its burdens. He further estimated tn
running expenses for the coming yea
at $500.
The buildings belonging to the Unite
church are worth $4,000. aud the Augs
bury Publishing house $4,000, which
added to the endowment fund OF $50, OOt
makes total of $4,000.
The election of the committee O
nomination resulted as follows:
Rev. e. Rasmussen, 1871 votes: Os
mund Wing. IS; Rev. Th. Eggen, 197
Rev. T. II. Dahl. 26S: Rev. o. Wiser
145; Rev. w. B0. 90; Knute Thompson
166; Erik Hadland. 146; Rev. b. A
Hartmann. 80; Sven Strand, IL. Tots
number OF votes cast, $40. Rev. G. Ra.
mussen. Rev. T. Eggen, Rev. r. f
Dahl. Knute Thompson and Erik Ha(
land were declared elected members {
this, the most important of all commit
tees.
Rev. P. Dreyer, of Harmony, MINI
led in PRAYER at the opening of the nj
ternoon session. and Rev. j. T. Evans
the district Superintendent of the Ame
lean Bible society, was introduced /
the president and made few remarl
III regard TO the society lie representa-