# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S914
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

TX. APPEAL MATTERS

{901]

Report of Board of Appeals

Your Board of Appeals begs leave to submit the following.
report: ;

The first meeting of the Board of Appeals was held in Fort.
Wayne, Ind., Sept. 12—13, 1941. At this meeting the Board or—
ganized, with Prof. Paul F. Koehneke as chairman, Rev. W. C..
Wangerin vice-chairman, and Prof. Erwin Schnedler secretary..
The other members of the Board are Mr. E. C. Jacobs, Mr. Carl
Thrun, Mr. Car] Zollmann, and Rev. F. Oberschulte, the last named
having become a member through the resignation of Rev. E. W.
Frenk. Twelve meetings were held during the triennium, five in
Milwaukee, five in Fort Wayne, one in Detroit, and one in St. Louis,
each meeting extending over two, three, or four days. Because
of the disqualification of certain members of the Board in par-
ticular cases and the illness of another member, members from
the reserve list were called upon to serve, namely, Rev. E. T. Otto
and Teacher H. A. Stolper.

When the Board of Appeals assembled for its first meeting,
one of the first questions that had to be answered was, What kind
of board did Synod have in mind when it created this new board?
Was the board to be merely a fact-finding body to study appeals:
presented to Synod and report its findings and decisions to Synod
for final action, or did Synod intend that the Board should decide
questions in the name of Synod?

In 1938 Synod’s Constitutional Committee had suggested two
plans for taking care of the vexing problem of appeals. The second
plan suggested was to handle appeals by having a permanent com-
mittee of appeals. Paragraph six of this recommendation read as
follows: “Every decision of this committee shall be considered final,
subject, however, to the approval of Synod, which may amend
or reverse the decision at the convention next following the
handing down of the decision.” Committee 9, which considered
this recommendation of the committee on constitutional matters,
made some changes in these suggestions. This report was referred
to the new Committee on the Revision of the Synodical Handbook.

This new committee presented to Synod a more detailed sug-
gestion for the Board of Appeals. In this report, which was
adopted substantially as presented, no reference was made to the
provision of the 1938 suggestions that “every decision. of this com-
mittee shall be considered final, subject, however, to the approval
of Synod.” The duty of the Board is stated in the words on page

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