The earliest American Lutheran women’s organization was founded in New York in 1837, by a group of pastor’s wives when they accompanied their husbands to a meeting of Hartwick Synod clergy. Considering that they should put their own repeated meeting to good purpose, they formed a missionary society. Their organizing also centered around the cause of a young man who wished to seek ordination in order to go to India to work in the mission started there the previous year by Father John Heyer. Thus, Rev. Walter Gunn was supported in his schooling and graduated from Gettysburg Seminary and sent to India in 1844, all due to the support from this New York women’s organization.   View Slideshow