Salmi's Rauhan Sointuja, published in 1906, and Ketonen's Rauhan Kilpi, published in 1910, the later Finnish Methodist movement has been but a branch of the American Methodist Church. The Salvation Army, an offshoot of the Methodist movement, gained little significant foothold among the Finns.

The Congregational Church: In point of time, the next movement to appear among the Finns was the Congregational. The Finnish name of this movement is the `Missionary Church,' derived in part from the `missionary' work which the Congregational Church began among the Finnish Americans in 1889 and in part from its close relationship with the `Finnish Free Mission' movement. The first figures among the Finns in this movement were Fredrik Franson, who was followed by Frans Karl Lehtinen, Andrew Groop, John J. Lundell and K. F. Hendrickson. A meeting held in Quincy, Massachusetts in June 1900 made this Finnish-American Congregational movement an organized church.

Following the pattern of the Suomi Synod, the Congregational Church is divided into regional geographical conferences; however, since they have no common superior central body, the organization is more in the nature of a league of churches than a church body proper. Furthermore, each congregation is a member of the American Congregational Church in its own state, and in general is under the jurisdiction of that body's state secretary. Finally, very few Finnish Congregational bodies are economically independent but generally depend heavily for assistance from the American church. Of the regional conferences, that of the Eastern States is the biggest and oldest, while the Middle Western conference, founded some time after 1910, is the youngest. The latter still counted 11 local churches in 1947, and of these 9 had their own church buildings and 1 owned its own parsonage. For all America, the Finnish Americans had 38 parishes on the eve of World War II, with 1,639 members and 20 pastors; their Sunday Schools had 976 pupils, and there were 402 members in the youth groups. Preachers were formerly schooled in Quincy, Massachusetts at a Finnish school organized for that purpose, but later this task was taken over by the American theological seminary of the Congregationalists in Chicago. It should be mentioned that a couple of women have availed themselves of this training and have served as ministers in Finnish-American churches. Indeed, the Congregational Church has emphasized the role of women in the church, and in Finnish-American churches the Women's League has often been the focal point of

382