The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.2004, Page 28

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 58 #4
few who are willing to assist him.
I would like to hear from you when
you have the opportunity to write.
My best wishes, to you and your wife,
for a good summer.
Your friend,
Fr. Fridriksson
Letter #14
Gimli, May 22, 1877
Dear Rev. Jon Bjarnason:
I wrote to you the day before yester-
day, and last night I got a letter from your
wife for which I thank her very much.
Along with the letter from you came a
great number of letters from Iceland telling
about things known to you - namely pros-
perity and good catch of fish in the north-
ern part of Iceland, but also widespread
discontent because of taxation, poor
national leadership and general corruption.
But let's talk about something else - you
are better acquainted with these matters
than I am, and, besides, there are other
things on my mind right now about which
I shall tell you because I know that you are
interested in them. As I told you in my lat-
est letter, two meetings were held up in
"Fljotsbyggd" dealing with our attempts to
get a minister. There was a split, the
minority leaders are Bjorn Pjetursson and
Jakob Jonsson from Munkathvera (the
minority group is very small). Jakob does
everything in his power to gain ground for
the "Synod" and increase its influences
south of here. Very recently a letter
appeared from Jakob to "Icelanders of
New Iceland." The aim of this letter is to
convince people that the "synod's" reli-
gious doctrine is in accordance with those
beliefs which we learned in Iceland and
therefore there is no need neither to be
offended by it nor to fear it. To prove this
statement there is a chapter from a
Norwegian booklet translated by Jakob
(by request from Rev. Pall). This booklet is
titled What are Lutherans? Decorah, Iowa,
1875. The above mentioned chapter only
proves its author's spiritual poverty. Rev.
Pall had personally sent a few of these
booklets to the colony. If we fail to show
a strong resistance the "Synod" is likely to
invade our territory. Therefore it is of vital
importance that we stand firm against it. I
have every intention of doing so here in the
southern part of the colony. I regard
myself as a leader in this matter (this state-
ment is not intended as a praise of myself),
and I am confident that we can overrule the
"Synod" followers. We will not be able to
succeed, however, unless we get a minister
soon, because - rather than being without a
minister - people are going to accept Pall -
which is understandable. I am strongly
hoping that you are willing to help main-
tain the dignity of Icelanders in America
and protect them from the darkness of the
"Synod" and other kinds of blindness. I
express this hope of mine to anyone. I shall
get an excellent opportu-
nity to present my views
next Saturday at a gener-
al meeting which is to
deal with this matter and
which is to try to make
the best arrangements
possible. Immediately
after this meeting a letter
will be written to you,
asking you to become a
minister for the southern
part of the colony. In
this letter you will also
learn about what kind of
payment we will be able
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