A study of the history of Icelanders in North America soon reveals continuous religious controversy throughout the so-called Emigration Period 1870-1914. It may seem strange to many because back home in Iceland the State Church was not affected by new theories and trends in the least. Icelandic Mormons visited, promoting the new faith from Utah without much success. Icelandic emigrants went to America with their faith which was sufficient in the beginning. But the immigrants in North America had to take religious matters in their own hands as there was no State church in Canada or the United States. The routine was nearly always the same; a few families settled together somewhere on the Canadian Prairie or in the Mid-Western States of the US. The first task was the construction of a home for the family, then clear some land so it could be broken and cultivated. Schools were important, most often authorities wanted a certain number for each county or municipality. Sometimes settlement was permitted prior to official planning. On occasion settlers had to move their home and start anew clearing land as where they initially had settled was land meant for railway or school. After a while, a few settlers began to feel the need for a church, they wanted to organize the new community and one of the corner-stones was a church. A settler would volunteer a section of his land for the construction of a church and a cemetery. Before this took place, settlers would gather on Sundays at the home of a farmer where the reading took place. Among the items immigrants from Iceland brought was a book of religious messages which had been published in Iceland and could be found in every home in the country. The Sunday reading was not a problem, but children had to be baptized and confirmed, men and women married, and the dead needed to be buried. Without a pastor, such community would not survive so there was always rejoicing when a young man decided to study theology at a proper institution and be ordained. Theology in North America was based on religious theories, each Synod had its school where students received education and training. Icelandic pastors who emigrated to America soon discovered different interpretations of the Bible by North American pastors, some having a very hard time accepting them; Rev. Jón Bjarnason more so than any other Icelandic pastor. Consequently, he was involved in religious controversies. For instance, he could not accept Rev. Paul Thorlaksson’s interpretation, who received his education and training from both The Norwegian and The German Evangelical Lutheran Synods. Nor could he tolerate the Unitarian theology late in the 19th century. Those who settled in cities or towns normally could choose from a number of congregations, established by different ethnic groups. During 1875-1880, for example, some nine different churches operated in Winnipeg, most Icelanders there at that time attended the Congregationalist Church.