cooperative agency organized in 1872 by several conservative U.S. Lutheran groups. Its members accepted strict conservative interpretations of the Bible and the Lutheran confessions and insisted that fellowship among Lutheran groups could take place only after agreement was reached on doctrine and church practices. Over the years some of the original members left the Synodical Conference because of doctrinal differences, and some merged into other groups, while some new groups joined the conference. One of the founding churches and always the largest member was the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

In the 1950s controversies developed within the conference when the Missouri Synod adopted a more open attitude toward more liberal Lutheran groups. In 1963 the Wisconsin Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (formerly the Norwegian Synod) withdrew from the Synodical Conference, leaving only the Missouri Synod and the small Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches as members. The council dissolved in 1967 with the formation of the Lutheran Council in the United States of America (LCUSA).