Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio
| Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Lutheran |
| Theology | Confessional Lutheran |
| Structure | National synod, middle level districts, and local congregations |
| Associations | Former member of Synodical Conference |
| Region | United States, especially in Ohio and nearby states. |
| Headquarters | Columbus, Ohio |
| Origin | September 14, 1818 Somerset, Ohio |
| Branched from | Pennsylvania Ministerium |
| Separations | English District Synod |
| Merged into | American Lutheran Church (1930) |
| Congregations | 876 (1929) |
| Members | 166,521 (1929) |
| Ministers | 768 (1929) |
| Other name(s) | Ohio Synod, Joint Synod of Ohio |
The Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States, commonly known as the Joint Synod of Ohio or the Ohio Synod, was a German-language Lutheran denomination whose congregations were originally located primarily in the U.S. state of Ohio, later expanding to most parts of the United States. The synod was formed on September 14, 1818, and adopted the name Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States by about 1850. It used that name or slight variants until it merged with the Iowa Synod and the Buffalo Synod in 1930 to form the first American Lutheran Church (ALC).
In 1929, just before its merger into the ALC, the Ohio Synod had 768 pastors, 876 congregations, and 166,521 members.
During the 1780s and 1790s, German-speaking Lutherans began to move into the portion of the Northwest Territory that is now the state of Ohio, with the numbers increasing after Ohio gained statehood. The Pennsylvania Ministerium sent two itinerant Lutheran pastors, Wilhelm Georg Forster and Johannes Stauch, to minister to the immigrants. By 1818 the Ministerim has sent another ten pastors, including Paul Henkel and John Michael Steck. These pastors began meeting together as the Ohio Conference of the Pennsylvania Ministerium, with the first convention on October 17–19, 1812, in Washington County, Pennsylvania. and the last on September 20–24, 1817, in New Philadelphia, Ohio. However, the Ohio Conference was not an independent synod, and so any candidates for the pastoral office were required to go to Pennsylvania for ordination. Most candidates found it difficult to make that trip, so instead the Ohio Conference merely licensed them to preach. In order to remedy this, the conference asked for and received permission from the Pennsylvania Ministerium to form a new synod, and on September 14, 1818, in Somerset, Ohio, the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Preachers in Ohio and the Adjacent States (German: General Conferenz Der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Prediger in Ohio und den angrenzenden Staaten) was organized.
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