The ''Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book'' was the first official English-language hymnal of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, then called the ''Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States''. It was published in 1912 by the synod's publishing house, Concordia Publishing House, in St. Louis, Missouri. The adoption of the ''Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-book'' was part of the transition of the synod from the use of German to English. Since its founding in 1847, the synod had used the ''Kirchengesangbuch für Evangelisch-Lutherische Gemeinden ungeäderter Augsburgischer Confession'' (Church Hymnal for Evangelical Lutheran Churches of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession), compiled and edited by

C. F. W. Walther Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther (October 25, 1811 – May 7, 1887) was a German-American Lutheran minister. He was the first president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and its most influential theologian. He is commemorated by that ...

(the synod's first president) and a group of other pastors. By the late 1800s, the need for an English hymnal had become apparent. Walther himself recommended the ''Hymn Book for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Schools and Congregations'', which had been edited by Professor August Crull of Concordia College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and published in 1879 by the

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in Decorah, Iowa. Other English hymnbooks that were used especially for outreach included ''Lutheran Hymns: For the Use of English Lutheran Missions'' (1882), ''Hymns of the Evangelical Lutheran Church: For the Use of English Lutheran Missions'' (1886), and ''Hymns for Evangelical Lutheran Missions'' (1905). Professor Crull assembled and edited a new hymnal, the ''Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book'', and presented it to the English (Evangelical) Lutheran Conference of Missouri, who published it in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore wa ...

, in 1889. That conference eventually merged into the Missouri Synod as its English District in 1911. A later edition of this collection of hymns with accompanying music and with the slightly altered name of ''Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book'' was then published by Concordia Publishing House in 1912 as the first official English hymnal of the synod. The hymnal was later often referred to as the "old green hymnal" due to the color of its binding. Originally containing 543 hymns, it underwent significant expansion prior to the publishing of '' The Lutheran Hymnal'' in 1941.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book Lutheran hymnals 1912 books Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod 1912 in music 1912 in Christianity

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