Verhandlungen der 117ten jährlichen Versammlung des Deutschen Evangelish-Lutherischen Ministeriums von Pennsylvanien und den benachbarten Staaten

Allentown, PA: Trexler, Harlacher und Weisser, 1864. Paperback. 8vo. Blue printed wrappers. 94pp. Very good. Outer wrappers (only) a bit age toned, with a couple small edge chips; lacks rear folding chart found in some copies. Sharp copy, entirely in German, for this annual assembly of the German Evangelical-Lutheran Ministry of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States. This yearly report records the detailed affairs of this important German-American church association, with sessions devoted to ministry business -- finances, foreign and domestic mission activities, parochial numbers, etc. To review this organization's complex history: The influential "Pennsylvania Ministry" is the oldest Lutheran church body in the U.S. and created the first Lutheran liturgy; originally called the "German Evangelical Lutheran Ministry of North America" when founded in 1748, it became the "German Evangelical Lutheran Ministry of Pennsylvania and the Adjacent States" in 1792. Only in 1918 did it cease to exist when the three major Lutheran church bodies joined to form the United Lutheran Church in America -- which in 1962 joined other American Lutherans and morphed into the Lutheran Church in America -- which in 1988 transformed into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.