ALC - American Lutheran Church - Southeastern District 

With action of the 1978 General Convention of The American Lutheran Church (ALC) and the 1979 meeting of the ALC Church Council, work was begun to create the ALC's Southeastern District to create a greater mission emphasis in the Southeastern U.S. The Southeastern District's Constituting Convention was held Nov. 21-23, 1980, in Atlanta, in which 75 congregations from the ALC's Eastern District's Blue Ridge Conference and Florida-Bahamas Conference, joined with 15 congregations from the Ohio District's Southern Conference, came together to form the Southeastern District. The Southeastern District became the ALC's 19th district.  The new district received 138 clergy transfers from the Eastern District and 22 from the Ohio District.  The Rev. David A. Wolber was elected to a six-year term as Bishop of the ALC Southeastern District.  Prior to his election, he had served as assistant to the bishop of the ALC's Eastern District for the Southeast Region for three years.  He was based at that time in Palm Beach Garden, Florida, where he previously had been a pastor for 15 years of Nativity Lutheran Church.  He was born April 17, 1927, graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary [now Trinity] in Columbus, Ohio, and ordained in 1952.

LCA - Lutheran Church in America - Florida Synod

The roots of an organized synod in Florida stretch back to 1929.  The influx of Lutherans from other states during a land boom in the early 1920s offered a strong outreach appeal.  Thus, on January 15, 1929, at Jacksonville, the Florida Conference of the Georgia Synod of the United Lutheran Church in America  (ULCA)  reconstituted itself as the Florida Synod of the ULCA, one of the predecessor  churches of the Lutheran Church in America (LCA).  The LCA's Florida Synod was constituted on October 1-2, 1962, as Lutherans from throughout the state assembled at Faith Lutheran Church in DeLand.  The new synod brought together congregations of the merging church bodies that formed the LCA, including those of the ULCA, Augustana Lutheran Church, and Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church.  The fourth LCA merging body, the American Evangelical Lutheran Church, was represented in the new synod by one retired pastor.  Elected the first president of the LCA's Florida Synod was the Rev. Royall Austin Yount.  He had served as synod president in the ULCA's Florida Synod since his election in 1950.  He retired in July 1987 a few months prior to the official start of the ELCA's Florida-Bahamas Synod on January 1, 1988.  Bishop Yount was born May 19, 1922, graduated from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C., and ordained in 1945. 

The Rev. Clarence V. Caldwell, Assistant to the Bishop, was named acting bishop following Bishop Yount's retirement in 1987.  Pastor Caldwell graduated from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C., and was ordained on May 26, 1969.  Bishop Caldwell administered the Florida Synod's transition to the newly formed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

AELC - Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches - Atlantic District

The Rev. Rudolph P. F. Ressmeyer was the president of the Atlantic District of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod (LCMS).  Along with three other district presidents, he was removed from office on April 2, 1976, by LCMS President J.A.O. Preus for participating in the Coordinating Council organized by several moderate groups within the LCMS.  Subsequently, the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) was established.  The synods of the AELC were organized in November 1976, with the Rev. Rudolph Ressmeyer being elected bishop of the East Coast Synod on Nov. 12-13, 1976, in New York. The East Coast Synod had 28 congregations at that time. The AELC was organized on Dec. 3-4, 1976, in Chicago.  Bishop Ressmeyer was born February 22, 1924, graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Mo., and ordained in 1948.