# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S836
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 258
[607] ‘
St. Louis Resolutions No Basis for Union

‘BRETHREN:

In 1938 Synod adopted resolutions on Lutheran Union, contain-
ing the following provisions (Proceedings, 1938, p. 232, section 6,
a and c): ,

“a The establishing of church fellowship between the Amer-
ican Lutheran Church and the Missouri Synod will depend on the
action taken by each body with reference to the Brief Statement,
the Declaration of the representatives of the American Lutheran
Church, and the report of this Committee as adopted by Synod.”

“ce, As far as the Missouri Synod is concerned, this whole matter
must be submitted for approval to the other Synods constituting
the Synodical Conference.”

The facts at present are these:

The American Lutheran Church has received our resolutions,
has discussed them, but has not accepted them — the Brief State-
ment, the Declaration, and the report of Committee 16 as adopted
-by Synod —as a basis for future church fellowship.

The Wisconsin Synod, a member of the Synodical Conference,
has studied our resolutions and has not approved them but rather
condemned them, saying: “The unity of the Synodical Conference
seems endangered by the action of Missouri.”

The Norwegian Synod, also a member of the Synodical Con-
ference, has likewise disapproved of them and is now asking Synod
to revoke these resolutions.

According to our own stipulations in these resolutions and the
action of the bodies named above, the 1938 resolutions on’ Lutheran
Church Union are not and cannot any longer be a basis for future
church fellowship.

Further, these resolutions have been subjected to various and
conflicting interpretations, causing doubt, uncertainty, and divi-
sions in our own Synod.

They are causing divisions in the Synodical Conference and

are endangering the continued existence of the Synodical Con-~-
ference. : ‘
Our Synod has recognized the difficulties adhering to the 1938
resolutions, and in its 1941 convention it restated the whole matter,
laying a better foundation. This makes the 1938 resolutions un-
necessary and a hindrance to a God-pleasing endeavor for
church unity. -

Now therefore we earnestly ask that the resolutions of 1938 on
Lutheran Union be declared to be no longer a basis for future

church fellowship.
ship Farrmont CoNFERENCE, Minnesota DISTRICT

E. Kosere, Secretary

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