The last few days have been busy, so here’s another photo of New Sweden Evangelical Lutheran Church!
I’ve written a bit about the Texas Synod over the last few weeks. New Sweden was not part of the Texas Synod; they (along with two other nearby Swedish Lutheran churches– Palm Valley near Round Rock and Gethsemane in Austin) were affiliated with the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America (usually just called the Augustana Synod).
The Augustana Synod eventually became the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, and it maintained its independence until 1962 when it was merged into the Lutheran Church in America (which in turn merged into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American in 1988).
Augustana Synod churches weren’t as numerous in Texas as Texas or Missouri Synod churches, yet somehow I managed to photograph a church that was affiliated with the Augustana Synod years ago before I was even a Texas Resident– Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lyford. I’ll have to dig up that photo and post it soon…
If you’d like to learn more about Swedish Lutherans in Texas, check out Pr. Elroy Haverlah’s book (https://amzn.to/2GKpDB6). Haverlah served as pastor of Palm Valley Lutheran Church for almost twenty years.