Hi List! I've been corresponding with a non-Lister about the meaning ot "The Conference" in Ulvestad's church histories. He sent me this message that you may find interesting. Looks like those Norwegians were a rascally bunch of rebels - what else is new? Olaf I have, however, unraveled the matter of "the Conference," I think, and have found consistent references to the term "the Conference." The clearest presentation is probably found in the following URL: http://www.stolaf.edu/collections/archives/scripts/25/norwegian.html This is a history of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church in America, and the phrase "The Conference" clearly identifies a Norwegian church body that was the product of the split of the Scandinavian Augustana Lutheran Church into two main parts: the Swedish Augustana Synod, and the Norwegian [& Danish] Augustana Synod. Contributing to the difficulty in understanding what church bodies we are talking about is that less formal names are often used, and the most formal name for the Norwegian group was the Conference of the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. But it appears that this was too much of a mouthful, and so by some Norwegians it was referred to as the Norwegian Augustana Synod, and by others as the Norwegian Danish Augustana Synod, and obviously from this report, its most common title must have been "The Conference," as the bold-faced sub-title suggests. That would explain why Ulvestad's reports based on the surveys referred to "The Conference! " so much. The above information appears to be consistent with the very brief information on ELCA (the main Lutheran body in the United States today -- and the product of many mergers) on the following website: http://www.elca.org/co/timeline/18.html I believe it is accurate to say that "the Conference" was the largest collection of Norwegian Lutheran churches in America from 1870 thru 1890, though there were 6-8 competing "synods" which were largely Norwegian Lutheran in character in America at that time. In 1890, a merger occurs between the Conference, the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod (which was actually a third body that resulted from the breakup of the Scandinavian Augustana Lutheran Synod - but had only 10-30 pastors in it), and the Anti-Missourian Brotherhood (which was a Norwegian group that had become part of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, but had broken away from that body). The official statistics submitted in June, 1899, show this new church body, called the United Norwegian Lutheran Church in America, numbered 1083 congregations, 225,605 souls, 126,872 communicants, and 661 parochial school teachers. Other helpful web sites include: http://www.luthersem.edu/archives/Collections/6-Augustana.asp which reports the following [with my editing]: Scandinavian Augustana Synod 1860-1890 The Scandinavian Augustana Synod was formed in 1860 from pietist Scandinavian elements in the new land, and initially was a union of Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes. However, the Scandinavian Augustana Synod split in 1870 leaving the Swedes as the core remaining members; the Swedes apparently continued to use the name 'Scandinavian Augustana Synod" but at some point it morphs into "Swedish Augustana Synod" and then is shortened to just Augustana Synod. As recounted above, the bulk of the Norse and Danes formed what was called the Norwegian-Danish Augustana Synod, but which had the longer title beginning with "the Conference ..." and apparently "the Conference" became the commonly used name for this main off-shoot that was dominated by Norwegians. Another website, http://www.arnold-ruddat.org/history/lutheran/norwegn.txt also utilized the "Conference" in reference to the splinter group from the old Scandinavian Augustana Synod. Further, the above website talks a lot about Hans Nielsen Hauge, a layman, who lived in Norway 1771-1824. He led a movement against many practices of the Norwegian State Lutheran Church, He spoke out against rationalism and proclaimed the need for a warm personal Christian experience. He denounced the dead orthodoxy and inconsistent lives of the pastors, wrote hundreds of books and tracts and taught his followers to be preachers. As Norwegians immigrated in small numbers to the U.S. in the early part of the 19th century, some were followers of Huage, and they established the Fox River Valley settlement in northern Illinois in 1834, and established the first Norwegian Lutheran congregation in the midwest. Eiling Eielsen, a Hauge lay minister, came to that settlement in 1839, was ordained, and started a congregation in the early 1840s. In 1846, Eielsen and his followers met at Jefferson Prairie (Clinton), WI. and organized the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (Eielsen Synod). It emphasized religious awakening and preaching by both laymen as well as ordained pastors. Its aim was to "unite the 'awakened' to work more effectively for the salvation of souls." I mention this because the Eielsen Synod becomes the Hauge Synod (more or less), and is a fairly large contingent of Norwegian Lutheran churches. They resist merging with other Norwegian Lutherans until 1917, when they merge with the United Lutherans, and the Norwegian Synod to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The ELC thus existed for nearly a half century as a unified synod of Norwegian Lutherans. A chart of important Lutheran bodies in America with dates: http://www.elca.org/archives/churchbodykey.html