The
Apostolic Lutheran Church of America is a
Laestadian Lutheran church denomination established by
Finnish American and Norwegian immigrants in the 1800s. They came mainly from northern
Finland and northern
Norway where they had been members of the state churches. Most or all members had ties from their home countries to the
Laestadian revival movement named after
Swedish state church administrator and pastor
Lars Levi Laestadius of
Pajala,
Sweden. Eventually, there were too many arguments between this denomination and the other American
Laestadians, and some of the followers of Laestadius were excluded from the sacrament of holy communion. Under the lead of Salomon Korteniemi, the excluded members formed a congregation of their own in December 1872, under the name the
Salomon Korteniemi Lutheran Society. In 1879 this name was changed to the
Finnish Apostolic Lutheran Congregation. As other congregations of Finns in
Massachusetts,
Michigan,
Minnesota, and
Oregon were organized on the same basis, they came into fellowship with this body under the name the
Finnish Apostolic Lutheran Church, or, as it is usually called, the Apostolic Lutheran Church.