THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE RESOLUTION

INTRODUCED BY CLYMER, AUMENT, BAKER, BRENNAN, BRIGGS, BROOKS, CALTAGIRONE, DiGIROLAMO, EVERETT, FABRIZIO, FREEMAN, GILLEN, GINGRICH, GODSHALL, GOODMAN, HAHN, HENNESSEY, HESS, HICKERNELL, KILLION, MAJOR, MALONEY, MANN, MILLARD, MURT, QUINN, READSHAW, REICHLEY, ROCK, ROEBUCK, ROSS, SAINATO, SIMMONS, STERN, SWANGER, THOMAS, WATSON AND YOUNGBLOOD, SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35, SEPTEMBER 27, 2011  

A RESOLUTION

Commemorating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Henry

Melchior Muhlenberg.

WHEREAS, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg is the patriarch of

American Lutheranism; and

WHEREAS, He was born in Einbeck in Hanover, Germany, in 1711,

and studied theology at Georg-August University of Gottingen and

at Halle University; and

WHEREAS, He completed his studies in 1738 and four years

later immigrated to Philadelphia and took charge of a

congregation at Providence in present-day Trappe, Montgomery

County; and

WHEREAS, Lutherans in America at that time were found in a

few scattered communities, of various national backgrounds, with

no central organization and with a grave danger of factionalism;

and

WHEREAS, In 1748, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg convened the

Ministerium of Pennsylvania, the first permanent Lutheran synod

in the United States, assisted in the preparation of a uniform

liturgy and wrote basic tenets for an ecclesiastical

constitution, which were adopted by the Lutheran churches by

1761; and

WHEREAS, He regularly traveled outside Pennsylvania from New

York to Georgia during his nearly half century as a minister;

and

WHEREAS, One of his sons, John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg,

served as a general under George Washington in the Revolutionary

War; and

WHEREAS, Another of his sons, Frederick Augustus Conrad

Muhlenberg, became a member of the Continental Congress and the

first Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; and

WHEREAS, A third son, Henry Ernst Muhlenberg, attained

distinction as an eminent scholar and first president of

Franklin College, now Franklin and Marshall College; and 

WHEREAS, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg died October 7, 1787, and

is buried at Trappe; and

WHEREAS, Muhlenberg College is named in honor of Henry

Melchior Muhlenberg; therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives commemorate the

300th anniversary of the birth of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg and

remember his many contributions.