Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays
Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays
Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays
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weight around, intruded upon a very fertile mission field of the ELS, and failed <strong>to</strong> even<br />
hear the concerns of the local ELS pas<strong>to</strong>rs.<br />
The local ELS pas<strong>to</strong>rs, S.C. Ylvisaker, C.A. Moldstad, and G.A. Gullixson,<br />
registered their complaint concerning this high handedness <strong>to</strong> the Western <strong>Wisconsin</strong><br />
District Mission Board. Feelings had been hurt and people had been thrown in<strong>to</strong><br />
confusion. The land purchased for the East Side mission was located less than 5 blocks<br />
from the land purchased by the ELS for its group. Also, as later correspondence bears<br />
out, the Norwegians, still smarting from their courageous confessional stand, had their<br />
spirits raised by the blessing that God was showering on their work in east Madison.<br />
Simply turning this field over <strong>to</strong> the <strong>Wisconsin</strong> Synod seemed unfair <strong>to</strong> say the least.<br />
Finally, a meeting was secured on December 3, 1925 at the Park Hotel in<br />
Madison, <strong>Wisconsin</strong>. In attendance were Pas<strong>to</strong>rs Ylvisaker, Moldstad, Gullixson and<br />
H.M. Tjernagel of the ELS; from the <strong>Wisconsin</strong> Synod were Pas<strong>to</strong>r Julius Bergholz, the<br />
chairman of the mission board, District President Thurow, Pas<strong>to</strong>r Abelmann, and Pas<strong>to</strong>r<br />
Fischer. 187 While minutes were not kept for the meeting, the subsequent correspondence<br />
reveals that the <strong>Wisconsin</strong> Synod men completely misjudged the purpose of the meeting.<br />
The <strong>Wisconsin</strong> Synod men thought the meeting was <strong>to</strong> simply clarify the working<br />
relationship of sister synods in east Madison. The Norwegian men did not see this as<br />
appropriate. Until the chief matter of wrong done against them had been recognized by<br />
the <strong>Wisconsin</strong> Synod men and repented of, there would be no talk about dividing the<br />
187 It is interesting that Tjernagel was at the meeting, given that he was not the president of the ELS at the<br />
time and his parish was in Iowa. The only feasible explanation for this seems <strong>to</strong> be that H.M. Tjernagel<br />
seemed <strong>to</strong> be better acquainted with the <strong>Wisconsin</strong> Synod than other men of his Synod. His son, Neelak,<br />
would graduate from <strong>Wisconsin</strong> <strong>Lutheran</strong> <strong>Seminary</strong>, Mequon, WI, in 1932. Also, Tjernagel had served as<br />
missionary <strong>to</strong> the S<strong>to</strong>ckbridge-Munsee Indians who had been relocated <strong>to</strong> a reservation in Gresham, WI,<br />
near Shawno, WI. <strong>Wisconsin</strong> Synod pas<strong>to</strong>r Carl Guenther had preceded Tjernagel at this mission.<br />
97