the Ministerium, formed the Synod of New York and united with the
General Synod.*
*The author's connection with the work in New York began about this
time. After graduation at Yale College in 1865, he found employment in a
New York library, and soon after matriculated as a student in Union
Theological Seminary. The needs of Protestant Germans on the East Side
attracted him into mission work which resulted in the formation of a
congregation of which he took pastoral charge upon his ordination by the
Synod of New York, October 19th, 1868.

The lines of three synodical bodies, General Council. [sic] General
Synod and Synodical Conference, that is "Missouri," were now distinctly
drawn and for the rest of the century the relations of Lutheran
ministers and churches were sharply defined. Ministers were kept busy
in explaining the differences, but it is to be feared that some of the
laymen did not always understand.

In 1868 members of St. James Church, who sympathized with the attitude
of the General Council in favor of a stricter confessional basis,
organized a new English congregation, Holy Trinity, of which Dr. Krotel
became the first pastor. Dr. Wedekind was called to St. James. Both men,
pastors of English congregations, had come from Germany in their early
youth, were educated in American schools and were thoroughly acquainted
with American institutions. For a generation these two men, each in his
own sphere, on opposite sides of a high synodical fence, contributed
much to the growth and progress of the churches in this city.

Immigration from Lutheran lands continued to increase and reached its
high water mark in this period.