Lutheran Gains

Into the pulpits of the 3,780 parishes of the United Lutheran Church last Sunday stepped 3,780 pastors to preach from the same text: "There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed."

With this text from Joshua, the biggest of the 17 groups of Lutherans in the U.S. marked its silver jubilee. The United Lutheran Church is the result of the 1918 merger of Northern and Southern branches separated at the Civil War. Last week the group, looking back over a quarter of a century, noted a 58% increase in membership, from 1,051,815 in 1918 to 1,666,004 today*

*Second and third largest groups: the Synodical Conference with 1,640,788 members; the American Lutheran Conference with 1,578,059 members. Total number of Lutherans in the U.S.: 4,963,919, a gain of 66,256 over last year.

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