The Lutheran Church in America (LCA) was a U.S. Lutheran church body that existed from 1962 to 1987. It was headquartered in New York City and its publishing house was Fortress Press. The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ... Augsburg Fortress is the official publishing house of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and also publishes for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) as Augsburg Fortress Canada. ...

Theologically, the LCA was often considered the most liberal and ecumenical branch in American Lutheranism. In church governance, the LCA was clerical and centralistic, in contrast to the congregationalist or "low church" strain in American Christianity. Among the Lutheran churches in America, the LCA was thus the one that was most similar to the established Lutheran churches in Europe. // Introduction Liberal Christianity, Progressive Christianity or Liberalism is a movement within Christianity that is often characterized by the following features: internal diversity of opinion an embracing of higher criticism of the Bible with a corresponding willingness to question supernatural elements of biblical stories (e. ... The word ecumenism (IPA: ɛkˌjuˈmʌnɪzʌm) is derived from the Greek oikoumene, which means the inhabited world. The term is usually used with regard to movements toward religious unity. ... Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation indepedently and autonomously runs its own affairs. ...

The LCA ordained the country's first female Lutheran pastor, the Rev. Elizabeth Platz, in November 1970. It subsequently ordained the nation's first female African American Lutheran pastor (1979), first Latina Lutheran pastor (1979), and first female Asian American Lutheran pastor (1982). This article is about the sacrament. ... Main article: Minister of religion A pastor is the head minister or priest of a Christian church. ... The Rev Elizabeth Platz The Rev Elizabeth Alvina Platz was the first woman in North America ordained by a Lutheran church body. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... Latina may refer to one of the following: The female gender of the noun Latino in reference to Latin-American immigrants and their descendants. ... An Asian American is a person of Asian ancestry or origin who was born in or is an immigrant to the United States. ...

Formation

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, many of the independent U.S. Lutheran church bodies moved progressively toward greater unity. In 1960, for example, a number of such bodies joined to form the American Lutheran Church. The American Lutheran Church (ALC) was a Christian Protestant denomination in the United States from 1960 to 1987. ...

The Lutheran Church in America was another product of these trends, forming in 1962 out of a merger among the following independent Lutheran denominations:

• The United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA), established in 1918 with the merger of three independent German synods: the General Synod, the General Council and the United Synod of the South.
• The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church (Suomi Synod), established in 1890.
• The American Evangelical Lutheran Church, traditionally a Danish-American Lutheran denomination, established in 1872.
• The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, traditionally a Swedish-American Lutheran denomination, established in 1860.

The merger was largely engineered through the efforts of Franklin Clark Fry, who had served as president of the United Lutheran Church in America since 1944 and president of the Lutheran World Federation since 1957. Fry was known by contemporaries as "Mr. Protestant," a moniker that captured his tireless work on behalf of greater unity among Protestant church bodies. Upon its inception in 1962, the LCA became the largest Lutheran church body in the United States. The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church was one of the lutheran church bodies that merged into the Lutheran Church in America in 1962. ... American Evangelical Lutheran Church was established by Danish immigrants in 1874 took the name Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and formally organized as a synod in Neenah, Wisconsin, in 1878. ... The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (previously the Augustana Lutheran Synod) was a Lutheran church body in the United States that was one of the churches that merged into the Lutheran Church in America in 1962. ... Franklin Clark Fry (1900 - 1968) was a famous U.S. Lutheran clergyman. ... The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is a global association of national and regional Lutheran churches headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. ...

Merger

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 (ELCA), today the largest Lutheran church body in the United States. At the time of the merger, the LCA remained the largest Lutheran church body in the United States, and it brought approximately 2.85 million members into the ELCA. January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The American Lutheran Church (ALC) was a Christian Protestant denomination in the United States from 1960 to 1987. ... The Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) was a U.S. church body that existed from 1976 through the end of 1987. ... The ELCA The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant denomination headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ...

Presidents/Bishops

• 1962-1968 Franklin Clark Fry
• 1968-1978 Robert J. Marshall
• 1978-1987 James R. Crumley, Jr.