The Bridge Volume 27 Number 1 Article 17 2004 Danish Lutheran Churches in America: Contributions of the United (Danish) Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1896-1960 Edward A. Hansen Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge Part of the European History Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, and the Regional Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Hansen, Edward A. (2004) "Danish Lutheran Churches in America: Contributions of the United (Danish) Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1896-1960," The Bridge: Vol. 27 : No. 1 , Article 17. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge/vol27/iss1/17 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Bridge by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Danish Lutheran Churches in America: Contributions of the United (Danish) Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1896-1960 by Edward A. Hansen The most noteworthy contribution of the UELC was its people. The laity and clergy of this church brought a willingness to change their old ethnic ways in order to convey their faith, their energy, and their insights to the broader body of Lutherans in America. The Situation in the UDELC at the close of World War II The United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church was formed in 1896 by a merger of two Danish immigrant groups. One group, the "Blair Synod" had been excluded from the Danish Lutherans organized in America in 1872, in a controversy mainly involving the Bible as the Word of God. The second group, the "North Church," had been organized in 1884 by Danish members of the Norwegian­ Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church (founded in 1870). These Danes had withdrawn peaceably from their Norwegian brethren, in order better to serve immigrants from Denmark. By the 1940s this united church had changed from almost exclusive use of the Danish language to bilingual usage in its worship and official meetings. For some years its congregations had offered worship services in both English and Danish. At the end of World War II, most congregations were moving toward exclusive use of English. Up to that time, clergy leaders were required to be bilingual. Now this was changing. When I graduated from the UDELC's seminary in 1942, ability to speak Danish was not a requirement. My graduating class from seminary was the first, in my recollection, to be free of this stricture. The older generation had been immigrants, with Danish as their mother tongue. That generation was now being superseded by their children and grandchildren, whose primary language was English. My first call to parish service in the UDELC was to Immanuel Lutheran in Minneapolis, the church which had hosted the UDELC 166 merger convention in 1896. My predecessor in this parish was required by his Letter of Call to conduct a Danish service for the congregation at least once a month. Even though this UDELC pastor was of Danish extraction, his use of the Danish language in the home and community where he grew up had been minimal. The dialect he heard as a youth was anything but "mainstream" Danish. Nevertheless, he had struggled to conduct a service and preach in Danish each month in Minneapolis. Danish speaking members of the congregation did not find his efforts satisfactory, and eventually the Church Council met with him to say that from that point on, it would be acceptable to have all the services in English. He was immensely relieved. When I came upon the scene, there was no longer any requirement in the Letter of Call for the pastor to offer Danish language services. The only remaining vestige of Danish usage was a Danish Ladies Aid, which conducted its meetings in Danish, and sang hymns from an old Danish hymnal, Sangeren. I dutifully attended these meetings, even if I did not always understand what was being said. However, I was able to enjoy the tasty refreshments, which at least offered the appeal provided by Danish cooks using Danish recipes! America's gearing up for participation in the Second World War in Europe and the Pacific had resulted in many changes of lifestyle in homes and communities. The melding of the younger generation into defense forces on land, sea, and air had drawn Danes and other ethnic immigrant groups into a new mix. Sometimes called a "melting pot" and later a "salad bowl," this stirring of the population resulted in cementing a new American self­ understanding. Even though Americans had once considered themselves a nation of immigrants, they now added a further meaning to the motto on their coins, E PLURIBUS UNUM, "Out of many, one." The UELC sought cooperation, and wanted to contribute the best elements of what it considered its "Danish heritage" to the larger body of Lutherans. In the 1940s a few efforts persisted to maintain and strengthen our Danish heritage. In our small congregation in Minneapolis there 167 were some members who thought such efforts could be furthered if the two Danish synods, which had diverged after an agonizing split in their early history, could be brought together. Now, it was thought their controversies had been put behind them. Accordingly, Immanuel congregation brought a resolution to the annual convention of the synod, requesting that the "possibilities be explored" of joining the two Danish synods into one church body. Of the immigrant peoples from Scandinavia, the Danes constituted a smaller proportion of the total than most other ethnic groups. It seemed reasonable to expect that they might make a better input of the Danish religious heritage to the broader Lutheran body together rather than separately. Immanuel's resolution was adopted by the synod convention. It provided for a committee of UDELC leaders to meet with a similar number of members from the Danish Lutheran Church to "explore the possibilities" of a merger of the two Danish church bodies. This joint committee was constituted, and in due time had one or more meetings. Apparently, they did not find sufficient common ground to propose any kind of merger. This report was brought back to the respective synod conventions, and no further action issued from this attempt. Through the years, the UDELC continued sporadically to maintain ties with the Church of Denmark, with visits from Danish prelates, scholars, and even royalty to our shores. Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid had visited Dana College in 1939. Queen Margrethe II was the speaker at Dana graduation festivities in May 1976. There was talk of inviting Pastor Kaj Munk, Danish clergyman, author, and dramatist, to cross the Atlantic and speak in some UDELC circles. His murder at the hands of the Nazis ended the prospect of bringing about such a visit. A group of students at Dana College and Trinity Seminary, under the direction of Professor Paul Nyholm, did produce one of Munk's better known dramas, Ordet (The Word) in 1942. The play was presented in Danish and was taken "on the road" to about a dozen communities in the Midwest where a Danish-speaking (or understanding) audience could still be mustered. Another effort to maintain our Danish connections was made when Professor Nyholm undertook the editorship of an annual 168 publication, Dansk Nytaar (Danish New Year). This publication, with predominately churchly contents, was well received for several years, 1953-1960. While centripetal efforts toward union around Danish roots were not productive at that time, centrifugal forces were moving the UDELC away from a Danish mother tongue-out in the direction of united ministry with other ethnic groups of Lutherans. Like the cooperative movements which were flourishing in other spheres of society in Denmark, the UELC brought an eagerness to cooperate with, and to unite with, other American Lutherans of like mind and emphasis. Beginning after World War I and accelerating after World War II, a sense was developing in most of the Lutheran churches in America that ethnic differences no longer were a barrier to cooperation among Lutherans in North America. More particularly was this true, when settlements were for the most part speaking English, the language of the new land, in the communities where the German, Finnish, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, or Swedish languages had been used for ordinary communication. An increasing drumbeat of literature helped to drive the concept that Lutherans held much in common, and that they belonged together. The tenor of these publications and books is well suggested in the title of a volume by O.H. Pannkoke, A Great Church Finds Itself-The Lutheran Church Between the Wars (© 1966). Dr. Pannkoke was a Missouri Synod clergyman of German extraction. Pannkoke enumerated a number of institutions, agencies, and enterprises, which contributed to a growing sense of common cause with other Lutherans, and gave details of his own personal involvement with these unifying enterprises. Some of these were the 400th anniversary of the Reformation of the Lutheran Bureau, the Lutheran Church's support of its men and women in the armed forces, the National Lutheran Council, the Lutheran colleges and their great fund appeals, and the American Lutheran Conference, which was formed in 1930. In social work, there was the Lutheran Welfare Society, the name of which was later changed to Lutheran Social Services. Its 169 significant ministry was carried out then and since on an inter­ synodical basis. The Lutheran Bible Institute made use of teachers from many of the Lutheran synods, and students from all over the Lutheran spectrum converged to study the Bible at one or more of its four schools - Minneapolis, Seattle, New York area, and California. This Bible movement contributed significantly to fostering a sense of collegiality among Lutherans from coast to coast.