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Updated: June 21, 2025
But to the older members of the Swamp Church there was doubtless no one, not even Washington himself, who stood higher in their esteem and affection than the representative from Pennsylvania, the Reverend Frederick Muehlenberg.
This constitution, with the removal of the temporary provisions at Philadelphia, was at once accepted by the congregations at Providence and New Hanover; in Lancaster, during a visit of Muehlenberg, soon after Gerock left, in 1769, at York under Kurtz, in 1781, and earlier or later, by most of the prominent congregations connected with the Ministerium, at least in its chief provisions.
The charge seems to have been sustained by nothing else than the statement that Halle Pietists were not orthodox Lutherans; and secondly, that Muehlenberg alleged that the Lutheran Church had some imperfections.
On political questions our ancestors differed almost as widely as do their successors on synodical questions. Some of them were for George the Third, others were for George Washington. In this respect, however, they were not unlike other inhabitants of New York. Frederick Muehlenberg, the pastor of the Swamp Church, was an ardent patriot.
We see that Muehlenberg avoided the chief mistake of Brunnholtz in that he did not make the elders appointees of the pastor, but gave their election to the whole congregation. The constitution of 1746, in St. Michael's, Philadelphia, proved even more unsatisfactory as the congregation increased in size.
The open letter given by the congregations at Philadelphia, Trappe and New Hanover, to their representatives sent to Europe in 1733, is signed by the Vorsteher and Elders of the congregations, and there were like officers in these congregations when Muehlenberg arrived, to whom he presented his credentials. The form of power of attorney sent by Dr.
Only the last named served long enough to identify himself with local history. He was followed by Frederick Muehlenberg, a son of Henry Melchior, an ardent patriot, who had expressed himself so freely in regard to English rule that when the British army marched into New York in 1776 he found it expedient to retire as quickly as possible to Pennsylvania.
When Muehlenberg came to Philadelphia in December, 1742, he presented his credentials and was accepted as pastor, in behalf of the congregation assembled in the Swedish Church, by the three elders and four vorsteher. The first change made by Muehlenberg and Brunnholtz was in 1746, partly for the purpose of legally securing the property.
The partial reconciliation that had been brought about by Muehlenberg between the Dutch and the German congregations was occasionally disturbed by a pamphletary warfare conducted by their respective pastors, Weygand and Gerock. Weygand died in 1770. Tradition reports that he was a brilliant preacher of distinguished appearance and of courtly manners.
As to the doctrinal basis in the constitution of the ministerium, nothing was formally established, there was no written constitution until after the separation of the missions in this country from the patronage and government of the Old World after the independence of the States, in 1781. But the charges made by Lucas Raus afforded Muehlenberg occasion to make his position very clear.
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