Norwegian-Danish Conference. 1870-1890.

The Norwegian-Danish Conference came about as an attempt to find a middle road between the pietism of Elling Eielsen and the “Missourian” orthodoxy of the Norwegian Synod. The Norwegian-Danish Conference was one of two churches (the other being the Norwegian Augustana Synod) to emerge from the adventures of Paul Andersen with the Americanizing Synod of Northern Illinois. Dissatisfied with the confessional indifference displayed by the American members of the Synod of Northern Illinois, the Norwegian portion, along with the Swedes, and the Danes, broke off to form the Scandinavian Augustana Synod in 1860. In 1870, the Norwegians and the Danes withdrew, forming the Norwegian-Danish Augustana Synod and the Conference for the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Conference was organized on the principle that its congregations would remain free and independent, while sending pastors, theological professors, and lay delegates to an annual conference. The organizational principles sought to find a way around Norwegian Synod “clericalism” and the organizational indifference of Eielsen’s [Hauge’s] Synod. The Conference took active part in the merger which led to the United Church, but soon thereafter, the congregationalist remnant of the Conference broke off to form the Lutheran Free Church.