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Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

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Finally, the doctrinal controversies in the Synodical Conference would bring the<br />

ELS and the WELS closer and closer <strong>to</strong>gether as sister synods the more the Missouri<br />

Synod deteriorated in her doctrinal position. In periodicals, conventions and colloquies,<br />

the ELS and the WELS found they were talking the same language theologically.<br />

I. Educational endeavors (1922-46)<br />

There is perhaps no single fac<strong>to</strong>r for the growth of fraternal relations between the<br />

WELS and ELS greater than the use of one another’s educational institutions. Through<br />

these educational institutions the pas<strong>to</strong>rs and teachers of the ELS and the WELS found<br />

they had a common approach <strong>to</strong> Scripture, a shared passion for Christian education,<br />

especially the <strong>Lutheran</strong> Elementary School, and a trusted friend during the painful<br />

breakup of the Synodical Conference.<br />

Following the Lime Creek meeting of 1918, the ELS was faced with two practical<br />

problems. First, they had no educational institutions for the training of pas<strong>to</strong>rs. Second, a<br />

majority of the congregations also had <strong>Lutheran</strong> Elementary Schools (one of the greatest<br />

blessings the Lord had bequeathed <strong>to</strong> this group) which meant they would also need <strong>to</strong><br />

have a steady supply of <strong>Lutheran</strong> grade school teachers. At this early stage of ELS<br />

his<strong>to</strong>ry, there was only one alternative, “[the Synod] had adopted the easy but the only<br />

way out, namely, of urging our students <strong>to</strong> attend the schools of Missouri and <strong>Wisconsin</strong><br />

synods.” 123<br />

After being accepted in<strong>to</strong> membership in the Synodical Conference in 1920, the<br />

Norwegians immediately set about finding arrangements for the training of their young<br />

people for the ministry. The Missouri Synod had offered Concordia College-St. Paul and<br />

123 S.C. Ylvisaker, “Our Twentieth Anniversary,” <strong>Lutheran</strong> Sentinel 30, no.18 (Oc<strong>to</strong>ber 1947), 279.<br />

71

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