about great difficulties, not to speak of the economic problems and the time expenditure involved. These reasons led the Synod to discuss dividing the church work into smaller, geographical units, as proposed by Pastor J. J. Hoikka; accepted by the 1909 Synod annual meeting, regional conferences thus came into being, that of the Western Conference being the first to be formed, followed by an Ohio-Pennsylvania Conference, the Eastern Conference, in 1912 the Michigan Conference and finally, in 1917, the Minnesota Conference, including the areas of South and North Dakota and Wisconsin. The Minnesota Conference, like the others, established its own governing body with a board of directors, annual meetings, etc., but still belonging to the higher Suomi Synod Consistory and under the jurisdiction of the decisions of the Synod annual meeting.

The Suomi Synod has had J. K. Nikander, K. L. Tolonen, J. Wargelin, A. Rautalahti, A. Haapanen, and Raymond Wargelin as its chairmen.

The Fenno-American Church: Parallel with the Suomi Synod there were other early church organizations, including that of the Fenno-American Church, the history of which dates back to the early 1890s, when Pastor J. W. Eloheimo, already mentioned, began suggesting a church body to be headed by a bishop. When he issued a sort of pamphlet of revelation, "Declaration of that Divine Kingdom which will appear in the next Millenium," he was ousted from the Synod, and when this occurred he founded his new church, supported by several congregations which followed him. He ordained several lay preachers to serve in his church, and the last of them, Mikko Kivi, preached in several Minnesota churches. In 1895, when this church was at its largest, it had more than 10 churches and 6 pastors, but when Eloheimo was elected chairman of the still younger National Church in 1898, the Fenno-American Church was dissolved, with its congregations joining the new body.

The National Church: The first `national' congregation was born when several members of the Calumet Evangelical Lutheran Church, opposed to its joining the Suomi Synod, founded a congregation of their own in 1890. After that, many other similar independent parishes were born. Reluctant to join the Suomi Synod and not lured by the Fenno-American Church, they remained without any central organization in the beginning. However, in 1898, Pastor K. A. Koski of the Rock Springs, Wyoming, inde

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