# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S494
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

494 INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS

tions. The Doctrinal Affirmation was sent to all pastors and
teachers of our Synod, and to all the sister synods of the Synodical
Conference. It was made accessible to all members of the Honorable
American Lutheran Church. Copies were sent to the presidents
of the other Lutheran Church bodies in our country. During the
forepart of this triennium the document was studied throughout
the length and breadth of Synod, by individual members, by pas-
toral conferences, by teachers’ conferences, in Bible classes, in the
meetings of our young people and elsewhere. It was the subject
of study at summer schools and at many intersynodical conferences.

Your Committee, in obedience to Synod’s instructions of 1941,
met with official representatives of our sister synods in the Synodical
Conference to discuss the Affirmation. Two meetings were held,
each lasting two full days, to consider the numerous objections
which were made by the Honorable Wisconsin Synod and the
Honorable Norwegian Synod.

Objections to the Affirmation were received also from individual
members and from conferences of our Synod. In general, the
criticisms stated that the wording of the Doctrinal Affirmation in
a number of instances was not definite and precise enough to pre-
clude the possibility of misunderstanding.

After carefully considering all the objections, your Committee
decided to propose changes in the wording of the Doctrinal Affirma-
tion. At our request the presidents of the sister synods appointed
representatives who collaborated with our subcommittee in pre-
paring and approving the suggested changes. These changes
proposed by the subcommittee were adopted with minor alterations
by your Committee on Doctrinal Unity and under the title of
“Clarifications” were submitted for examination to the clergy of
our Synod and their congregations, and to the Fellowship Com-
mittee of the American Lutheran Church. A copy of these
“Clarifications” is attached to this report.

Efforts on our part to arrange a meeting with the Fellowship
Committee of the American Lutheran Church failed until August 23,
1946, At that meeting we received what was to us disappointing
information. It was stated that in many sections of the American
Lutheran Church there prevailed an apathy, a reluctance, to study
the Doctrinal Affirmation, and that this document did not receive
a favorable reception where it was studied, that only three Districts
of the American Lutheran Church approved it, but not enthusiasti-
cally, that some Districts rejected it, and that some Districts took
no action at all. Since then it has come to our knowledge that
one District rejecting the Doctrinal Affirmation in principle pub-
lished in its official report the reaction of its pastoral conferences,