The General Synod was an association of Lutheran church bodies in America.

The roots of the General Synod reach back to the Pennsylvania Ministerium

Pennsylvania Ministerium

The Pennsylvania Ministerium was the first Lutheran church body in North America. With the encouragement of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the Ministerium was founded at a meeting of German-American Lutheran clergy on August 26, 1748...

, at whose suggestion the Synod was founded in 1820. Under the leadership of Samuel Simon Schmucker

Samuel Simon Schmucker

Samuel Simon Schmucker was a German-American Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was integral to the founding of the Lutheran church body known as the General Synod, as well as the oldest continuously-operating Lutheran seminary and college in North America .Later in his career, Schmucker became a...

, the General Synod founded Gettysburg College

Gettysburg College

Gettysburg College is a private four-year liberal arts college founded in 1832, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States, adjacent to the famous battlefield. Its athletic teams are nicknamed the Bullets. Gettysburg College has about 2,700 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women...

 as well as Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg

Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg

The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg is America's oldest Lutheran seminary and a site of 1863 Battle of Gettysburg military engagements.-History:...

, the oldest continuously running Lutheran college and seminary in North America.

Like many Protestant denominations, the General Synod was split over the issue of the Civil War, at which time the General Synod-South

United Synod of the South

United Synod of the South is the name given to a historic Lutheran church body in the southern states of the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries....

 was founded. The General Synod further split over theological issues in 1867, at which time the General Council

General Council (Lutheran)

The General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America was a conservative Lutheran church body, formed as a reaction against the new "Americanized Lutheranism" of Samuel Simon Schmucker and the General Synod....

 was formed by dissatisfied members of the General Synod. These three groups were reunited in 1918, with the formation of the United Lutheran Church in America

United Lutheran Church in America

The United Lutheran Church in America was established in 1918 with the merger of three independent German-language synods: the General Synod , the General Council and the United Synod of the South . The Slovak Zion Synod joined the United Lutheran Church in America in 1920...

, a predecessor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a mainline Protestant denomination headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA officially came into existence on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three churches. As of December 31, 2009, it had 4,543,037 baptized members, with 2,527,941 of them...

.

In 1912, the General Synod reported 1,384 pastors, 1,788 churches, 420,398 baptized members, 317,073 confirmed members, and 237,648 communicants.