# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S977
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

394 MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS

All this and much more will not be the work of a one-
time peace collection. We shall have to be ready to stand at the
side of the Lutheran Church in Germany for many years to come.
And we want to be there as soon as possible after the armistice
has been signed.

Before the advent of Bolshevism there were 7,000,000 Lu-
therans in Russia. The gates of hell were not successful in rooting

out the Church. It still prevails in Russia. Today
Russia churches are again being opened. Probably the Lord

will open a great door for us there. At the request
of Dr. L. J. Sieck the study of Russian is being taken up by a
number of students at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. Our
Council is to supply a small fund to finance those studies. If and
when the opportunity comes to enter the door, we want to be
prepared.

Before the war 90 per cent of all Protestants in Europe
were classified as Lutherans. The Catholic Church would gain

a big advantage if those 90
Undergirding Lutheranism per cent were split up into
in Europe many different denominational

groups, as is the case here in,
America. The Lutheran Church of Europe is in serious danger
of disintegration unless it receives ‘help from the Lutheran
churches of America.
‘Surely our Church, blessed as it is spiritually and physically,
probably more than any church body since the days of the
apostles, will not confine its postwar relief to the Freikirche.
Our labor of love to the fellow members of the body of Christ
in stricken Europe will have to extend as far as our means permit.
Before the war there were seven million Lutherans in Russia.
In Slovakia there was an Evangelical Lutheran Church of more
than 400,000 members, a Silesian Church of 178,000 members;
Denmark is almost wholly Lutheran. The same applies to Nor-
way and Finland. Lithuania, Latvia, and Esthonia have large
Lutheran populations. Germany numbered over 35 million nom-
inal Lutherans before the War. The Catholic Church has only
21 million. The Catholic Church is in much less danger of dis-
integration because of its oneness of organization, while the
Lutheran churches are split up. We do believe that the Missouri
Synod is vitally concerned in the preservation of Lutheranism
in all of Europe. Be