# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S894
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

894 MISSIONS

Future ProcRaAM

A promising development of recent months is the approach be-
tween the members of the Gospel Society and the clergy of the
Free Church. Arrangements are now being made to hold joint
conferences between the stronger members of the Gospel Society
and the pastors of the Free Church. In this connection it ought
to be emphasized that our endeavor in Finland ought not to be
confined to the establishment of new congregations but should also
attempt the infiltration into the Finnish Lutheran State Church
and particularly also into the Gospel Society with a more positive
confessional standard and orthodox teaching by means of the
testimony of the lay members of our Free Church. For this pur-
pose the adaptation of the “Each One Reach One” program to
Finnish conditions is an absolute necessity. One of the pastors of
the Free Church is even now making a study of the “Each One
Reach One” material which is available to him and will make use
of such other materials as can be sent to him by our Board.

The question might be raised whether our Church ought not to
work directly with the Finnish State Church instead of with the
Free Church. The official attitude of the State Church in Finland
is an obstacle to such co-operation. The archbishop and other
leading figures of the State Church whom our representative con-
sulted, stated their attitude as one of tolerance toward divergent
views in theology as long as the center truth of sola gratia and the
objective reality of the redemptive acts of God are held fast.
Under these circumstances our relations with the Finnish State
Church can only be those of help in physical relief and an attempt
to influence theological conservatism through personal contact
with leaders of the Finnish Church.

A further area of co-operation with elements of the Finnish
State Church is the publication of sound Lutheran literature in the
Finnish language. The publication house of the Gospel Society
expressed great interest in a series of publications of Concordia
Publishing House and expressed the desire to translate and publish
them. Through the agency of our representative, negotiations to
that end are under way. This is being done with the knowledge
and consent of the members of our Free Church.

F. Sweden
Our Synod has had no official relations with any particular
group within the Lutheran Church of Sweden. However, when
in 1921 Dr, Dau made a survey of European Lutheranism, he con-
tacted Editor Axel B. Svensson, the head of a Swedish Lutheran
laymen’s movement, which sought to combat the Liberalism which