Icelandic Evangelical Lutheran Synod of America

Icelandic Evangelical Lutheran Synod of America was a Lutheran church body in North America.

The Synod was founded in June 1885 at a constitutional convention in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The early churches in this body were located in Manitoba and North Dakota. Later churches could be found in Minnesota and Washington in the United States and in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan in Canada. The synod was never a large synod. The synod joined the United Lutheran Church in America in 1942 remaining as a separate synod in that denomination. When the United Lutheran Church in America became part of the Lutheran Church in America, the Icelandic Synod was dissolved and the member churches were placed in geographical synods.

In 1962, the United Lutheran Church in America became part of the new Lutheran Church in America. On January 1, 1988, the Lutheran Church in America ceased to exist when it, along with the American Lutheran Church and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, joined together to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, today the largest Lutheran church body in the United States.

Presidents of the synod

• Jon Bjarnason 1885-1908
• Bjorn B. Jonsson 1908-1921
• N.S. Thorlaksson 1921-1923
• Kristinn K. Olafson 1923-1942

Sources

• Wolf, Edmund Jacob. The Lutherans in America; a story of struggle, progress, influence and marvelous growth (New York: J.A. Hill. 1889)
• Bente, F. American Lutheranism Volume II (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 1919)
• Nichol, Todd W. All These Lutherans (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishers. 1986)