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* Pectoral crosses are usually associated with bishops, but U.S. Lutheranism has no bishops, the result of immigrant prejudice against the aristocratic traditions in the old world. In Fry's United Lutheran Church crosses are sometimes worn as a symbol of supervisory office. * Dutch Lutherans came first to America (New Amsterdam) in 1623. In 1638 Swedish Lutherans established a colony in Delaware. By mid-18th century Lutheranism was firmly established, mostly by Germans, along the eastern seaboard. Patriarch of Lutheranism in the U.S. was the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, organizer and theologian, who in 1748 formed the first Lutheran Synod in America. In the early 19th century Lutheranism joined the great westward move, swept along by new waves of immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia.
