to those that have signed onto the document. This was part of a series of "Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogues" have been taking place on an official basis every few years with statements and booklets on various theological topics published since 1966. Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The differences between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) arise from theological, historical, and cultural factors. The LCMS was briefly in fellowship with the former The American Lutheran Church, one of the ELCA predecessor bodies from 1969 to the early 1980s. Although the denominations cooperate through Lutheran World Relief and some university/college student ministries and military chaplaincy, they are not officially in communion with each other. When the first Lutheran immigrants came to North America, they started church bodies that reflected, to some degree, the churches they left behind in Europe. Many maintained until the early 20th century their immigrant languages. They sought pastors from the "old country" until patterns for the education of clergy could be developed here. Eventually, seminaries and church colleges were established in many places to prepare pastors to serve congregations. The earliest predecessor synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was constituted on August 25, 1748, in Philadelphia under the influence of Henry Muhlenberg, known as the "Patriarch of American Lutheranism". It was known as the Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States. The earliest nationwide "synod" or "union of synods" was established in 1820 as the General Synod, followed later by the General Council. The ELCA was created in 1988 by the merging of the 2.85-million-member Lutheran Church in America (1962), 2.25-million-member The American Lutheran Church (1960), and the 100,000-member Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (1978). Previously, the ALC and LCA in the early 1960s came into being as a result of two mergers of eight smaller ethnically based Lutheran bodies composed of German, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Slovak, Dutch, and others organized over 150 years. Some of these smaller ethnically based bodies previously had ecumenical arrangements involving the Missouri Synod. The LCMS was established in 1847 by German immigrants fleeing the forced Prussian Union between Lutherans and Reformed church members in European Germany, who later settled in Perry County, Missouri. It grew through immigration, offspring, and church mergers while participating in some, but not all of the dialogues, controversies, and compromises which affected the various predecessors of the ELCA during the 19th and