Lutheran Pastors
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Lutheran Pastors

On this day, Lutherans remember their earliest pastors in the Americas lands of the Western hemisphere or (generally) the New World, consisting of the continents of North America and South America. .

In 1619, King Christian IV of Norway and Denmark sent two ships and 64 men to search for the Northwest Passage to India. They got as far as the site of Churchill, Manitoba, on the western shore of Hudson Bay. There, locked in by ice, they spent the winter, and were ravaged by scurvy a condition caused by deficiency of ascorbic acid (vitamin C). . Their captain was Jens Munk, a thoroughly experienced naval officer. Their chaplain a member of the clergy who ministers to an institution like a hospital, the military, and so on. was Pastor a person authorized to conduct religious worship. Rasmus Jensen, of whose previous life little is known. The captain's journal relates:

The Holy Christmas day, we all celebrated and observed
Solemnly, as a Christian's duty is. We had a sermon and
Mass....
On the 23rd of January... the priest sat up in his berth and
gave the people a sermon, which sermon was the last he
delivered in this world.... On the 20th of February, in the
evening, died the priest, Mr Rasmus Jensen as aforesaid, who
had been ill and kept his bed a long time.... Only four,
besides myself, had strength enough to sit up in the berth and
listen to the homily for Good Friday. [Note: the homily a commentary that follows a reading of scripture; there is no distinction between a homily and sermon. would
have been read from a book of sermons an address of a religious nature (usually delivered during a worship service). for the various days of
the Christian year the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches which determines when Feasts, Memorials, Commemorations, and Solemnities are to be observed and which portions of Scripture are to be read. .]

In July, Captain Munk sailed for home with the only two surviving members of his crew. They reached Norway in September. The Captain's Journal has been published by the Hakluyt Society.

The next Lutheran pastors in the Americas were Magister a person who has a license from a university to teach philosophy. Lauritz Anderson Rhodius, who was preaching in the West Indies by 1656, and Kjeld Jensen Slagelse, who was a pastor on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands from 1665 till his death in 1672.

Delaware was originally a Swedish colony. Reorus Torkillus arrived there in 1639, organized a congregation, and died 7 September 1643. John Campanius (1601-1683) arrived in 1643 and remained five years, working with the Delaware Indians, for whom he translated Luther's Small Catechism. Justus Falckner (1672-1723) was ordained established by authority; Admitted to the ministry of the church. in South Philadelphia 24 November 1703, the first Lutheran pastor ordained in the Americas.

written by James Kiefer