# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S460
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

* 460 Report of Board for Higher Education

(e) The problem. of distances permits a satisfactory solution; :¢
the promotional value of the institution in the District ma
secured by other means. 5

Therefore it would apppear that the weight of the argument favor

the closing of the institution.

However, in an open hearing conducted by the. Board of Direct

and the Board for Higher Education in St. Louis on November 9. ant
10, 1943, representatives of the faculty and the Board of Control
the Portland Concordia arid of the Oregon-Washington District p
sented an admirably calm, clear, and objective rejoinder to th
conclusions of the survey which dealt with the Portland problem
These gentlemen presented convincing evidence of a mounting ant
healthy acceleration in the growth of interest in, and attachment -
the Portland Concordia among Lutherans in the Northwest. More
over, they. manifested additional confidence in the future expansion o
the Northwest and of Lutheranism in that area.
It should be reported in this connection that in the month of:
January, 1942, by direction of the synodical convention of 1941, a
‘special committee of the Board of Directors and the Board for Highe
Education visited the Portland Concordia for. the express purpose of.
examining the institution and its relation to the work of the Church,‘ 4
so that a conclusion might be reached on the question of closing °
continuing Portland. The report of this committee did not offer any:
definite conclusion, mainly because the committee found it impossibl
at the time to make a satisfactory appraisal of the real value of the
presence of a preparatory school in the Northwest to the present and
the future Church in that area.
‘ The solution of that problem seemed to be provided by a sub;
stantial quantity. of new and convincing evidence presented by repre
sentatives of the Portland Concordia and the Oregon-Washington
District in the open hearing on November 10, 1943. Your Board.
recognizes, as a possibility, that important developments in the
Northwest may take place. It also acknowledges an impressive:
tebirth of genuine interest among Northwest Lutherans in the’:
Portland Concordia. As a result of the open hearing, your Board has
modified its recommendations respecting Portland. It now submits 5
the recommendation that Synod gratefully recognize the recent Church: ‘
expansion in the Northwest and the renewed interest of Northwest’
Lutherans in the Portland Concordia, that it accept the probability
that this growth will, in large measure at least, be retained, that it
.admit.the possibility that further growth may take place, and, con
sequently, that Synod retain the Portland Concordia College in its
family of preparatory schools, with the understanding that the neces
sary. new buildings will be provided as quickly as possible.

ACTION. OF SYNOD

The recommendation of the Board for Higher Education was
adopted, “that Synod retain the Portland Concordia in its family
of preparatory schools with the understanding that the necessar
new building will be provided as quickly as possible.”