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German Evangelical Association of the West

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a sect of German Protestants in America corresponding to the United Evangelical Church of Germany. It was instituted at St. Louis, Missouri, May 4, 1841, by seven ministers of the United Church of Germany. The object in view in forming this body is, stated in the first paragraph of the revised statutes as follows: "The object of the association is, to work for the establishment and spread of the Evangelical Church in particular, as well as for the furtherance of all institutions for the extension of the kingdom of God. By the Evangelical Church we understand that communion which takes the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Tests. as the Word of God, and our only infallible rule of faith and practice, and commits itself to that exposition of the Scriptures laid down in the symbolical books of the Lutheran and Reformed churches, chiefly the Augsburg Confession, Luther's Catechism, and the Heidelberg Catechism, so far as these agree; and where they differ, we hold alone to the relevant passages of Scripture, and avail ourselves of that freedom of conscience which prevails on such points in the Evangelical Church." It will thus be seen that the main purpose is to unite in one body the Lutheran and the German Reformed churches.