¶ Meeting in St. Paul, delegates to the 96th annual synod of the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (membership: 516,968, fifth largest of the 18 Lutheran bodies in the U.S.) pondered the current shortage of pastors (857 available for 1,211 congregations), protested that "political expediency" in Washington has held up operation of the 1953 Refugee Relief Act, re-elected the Rev. Dr. Oscar A. Benson of Minneapolis for his second four-year term as president. Hottest issue of the convention was a proposal made by the United Lutheran Church in America (membership: 2,061,004) that Augustana join with U.L.C.A. in inviting "all Lutheran Church bodies...
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