# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S561
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

PUBLICATION MATTERS 561

ay be required and also, if necessary, to select authors to under-
ake certain literary tasks.”

Accordingly, your Board not only carefully appraised the
solicited manuscripts which were submitted, but endeavored
to establish the “literature wants” of our Church,. both of the
clergy and of the laity; and in keeping with its findings your Board
has attempted to provide the necessary literature for the various
fields of church life and work. Your Board did not succeed in
carrying out all plans that had been made; it is also fully aware
~that its decisions may not always have been in agreement with
-.the opinions of others and that the displeasure of disappointed
authors and sponsors of certain projects may have been incurred;
however, your Board essayed to be objective at all times in its
judgments, the best interests of the Church being the deciding
factor.

We desire to acknowledge the helpful spirit of co-operation
manifested at all times by Concordia Publishing House and its
manager, Mr. O. A. Dorn, as well as to commend them for the
progressive and successful manner in which they are producing
and marketing Synod’s publications. We desire also to commend
the faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, for the prompt cen- |
sorial reading of the many manuscripts referred to them for review.

A large volume of business demanded our attention in the
past triennium. At the regular meetings of the Board the various
items on our docket were carefully considered, the average number
- of items being about forty. Special committees and individual
members gave much time between meetings to the critical reading
of manuscripts.

Progress in the preparation of a scholarly Lutheran com-
mentary has been slow, despite much effort spent by your Board
and a special committee. After consultation with many authorities
in this field, a definite pattern was agreed upon, to which all
writers are expected to conform, in order that a desirable uni-
formity be attained. Unfortunately, it has been possible thus
far to secure the part-time release of only one professor and the
full-time services of a retired professor of Concordia Seminary of
St. Louis for work on the commentary. The faculty and the Board
of Control of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, which institution
should be expected to furnish the majority of authors of our
commentary, could not at this time grant your Board’s request for
a leave of absence for even a single faculty member.

In its last report to Synod (Proceedings, 1944, p. 268), your
Board ventured the statement that one or two volumes of our
scholarly history of the Missouri Synod would be “on the market
well in advance of Synod’s Centennial.” We regret to say that
Proceedings, 1947 36

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