# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S917
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

332 APPEAL MATTERS

274 “to review the action of the District and its officials, render 7
a decision, and report its findings to the appellant and to Synod.”

Another statement on page 274 is also of great importance.
Point F reads: “When the Board of Appeals has acted and an
appeal is made to Synod in convention assembled, a committee of
review, consisting of two pastors, two laymen, and one teacher,
elected by Synod, shall determine whether error has been made
in the procedure of the Board of Appeals or new evidence has
been produced. In either case the matter shall be remanded to
the Board of Appeals for a new hearing. If this is not the case,
Synod shall confirm the findings of the Board of Appeals. This
action shall be final and no further appeal shall be entertained
by Synod.”

As far as the District Boards of Appeals are concerned, the
regulations ‘clearly indicate that their action must be ratified by
the District itself, Point d, on page 273f., states: “If District offi-
_cials and committees, including the District Board of Appeals and
the District itself, have acted, and an appeal is made to Synod, the
matter shall immediately and automatically be referred by the
President of Synod to Synod’s Board of Appeals, which is to review
the action of the District and its officials, render ‘a decision, and
report its findings to the appellant and to Synod.”

None of these restrictions were placed upon Synod’s Board of
Appeals, The reasons for this difference between the District
Boards and Synod’s Board seem to be quite obvious. In the Dis-
trict a large number of the clergy and teachers and a number of
the delegates may have some knowledge of the case or at least
be somewhat familiar with the person or persons involved or may:
easily become acquainted with the case and be able to judge in-
telligently and with conviction after a full presentation of the
case. Moreover, at District sessions, time can more easily be
found for a sufficient discussion of the case to enable the members
to pass judgment. In Synod, however, only rarely is there any
considerable acquaintance with even the important facts of the
case. The persons involved are to a great extent, if not entirely,
unknown to the majority of people meeting in the convention,
Moreover, the great amount of business to be transacted at Synod
has made it practically impossible to devote much time to the con-
sideration of cases of appeals on the floor of Synod. Already in
1911 Synod thad to declare that it was unable to decide a certain
appeal and therefore elected a committee to decide the case in the
name of Synod. See Report, 1911, p. 186. A similar procedure was
followed in 1929. There usually was very little discussion of the
reports of committees on appeals. On one occasion, when a report
was, made on such a case, some member rose to object to the.