| California
Lutheran University > |
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| The youngest as well as one of the largest of the 28 colleges and universities of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), California Lutheran was incorporated in 1959 long after the ethnic-Lutheran migrations that established many of the other Lutheran colleges in the United States. Because of the leading role that the Augustana Lutheran Church played in the founding of California Lutheran College (now California Lutheran University) and the university’s strong contemporary ties with Swedish America and Sweden itself, CLU is one of the six institutions formally recognized today as “Swedish heritage colleges” by the Swedish Council of America. |
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| The vision that led to the founding of California Lutheran College dates back to the late 19th century when the West Coast Missionary District of the Augustana Lutheran Church broached the idea of a Lutheran college in the West and was offered 40-50 acres of Leland Stanford’s Palo Alto ranch for this purpose. This and a subsequent initiative to establish a Lutheran college in the Del Ray Hills west of Los Angeles in the late 1920s did not come to fruition. When a successful effort to found a Lutheran college in California was finally made in the mid-1950s, it was through a coalition of five Lutheran church bodies including the Augustana Lutheran Church. |
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| Among the many Augustana Lutheran congregations that provided vital leadership and support in founding California Lutheran College, Angelica Lutheran in Los Angeles particularly stands out. The Carlsen and Samuelson families, which built much of the original campus and later the Samuelson Chapel, were members of Angelica as were many other founders and benefactors including Walter Danielson, who was dean of the consul corps in Los Angeles and Honorary Consul General for Sweden for four decades. Both as pastor of Angelica and then as President of the Southwest Synod of the LCA (Lutheran Church in America), the successor body to the Augustana Lutheran Church, The Reverend Dr. Carl Segerhammar played a particularly strong role in founding and sustaining the college. Dr. Segerhammar served as a Regent for two decades starting in 1959 and as Acting President in 1980-1981. |
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| The Augustana Lutheran Church merged into the LCA in 1962. For many years after the “Augustana Saints,” a group of former Augustana pastors, continued to meet on or near the CLU campus. Since 1962 the legacy of ecumenism and civic engagement associated with the Augustana Lutheran Church has been perpetuated through the Segerhammar Center for Faith and Culture at CLU. The university is represented today on the boards of both the Augustana Heritage Association and the Swedish Council of America and supports a Scandinavian Cultural Center, annual Nordic Symposium, and annual Scandinavian Festival with strong Swedish emphases. CLU’s exchange program with the University of Kristianstad, Sweden, and participation in activities of the Los Angeles Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce help round out the social and economic as well as political, cultural, and religious strong attachments of the university to its Swedish Lutheran identity.
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additional information regarding California Lutheran
University please call 805-492-2411, or refer to the following web sites: |
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