# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S662
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

662 MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS

Recommendations

The physical needs of the people in war-torn Europe will be
as great in 1947 to 1948 as in 1946 to 1947, if not greater. This is
not merely the opinion of your Committee, but the official findings
of Mr. Herbert Hoover on his recent survey of Europe. Mr. Louis
P. Lochner, a member of our Church and for many years the dean
of Associated Press correspondents in Germany, who accompanied
Mr. Hoover on his recent survey, personally assured our Committee
that the needs for both food and clothing next winter would be even
greater than they were last winter.

However, the spiritual situation, even more than the physical
wants, demands a continuation of our work. Europe today is the
front line of a battle between Communism and Christianity. Toa
much larger degree than we members of the Missouri Synod realize
will our help be a decisive factor in the final outcome of that
struggle. To a people who are down in an abyss of cold and hunger
and starvation and who are continuously tempted with the question
“Is there a God who cares?” our gifts and labors of love constitute
a positive answer. Into the office of the Emergency Planning
Council there pours a stream of letters from Finland, Austria,
Poland, France, and Germany. These letters tell us that our
tokens of Christian fellowship are tangible evidences to them that
there is a God in the heavens who cares.

There is no church body in the world which has suffered greater
reverses and losses during the war than the Lutheran Church.
Europe today presents not only a struggle between an atheistic
communism and Christianity, but also the survival of Lutheranism
is at stake. There is a very strategically planned effort on the part
of the Reformed churches to Calvinize Europe. Unfortunately,
the diluted Lutheranism of pre-war Germany presents only a
wavering line of defense. It is only due to the heroic efforts of
a few staunch confessional Lutheran leaders that the plans for the
formation of a non-confessional united church have not quickly
materialized after the war. To these Lutheran leaders in the
Landeskirchen our Church has lent its full support. We believe
that it is a God-given obligation of our Church to continue to lend
aid to these men who are endeavoring to rebuild a confessional -
Lutheran Church in Germany.

During the past year, the constituency of our Church has
responded nobly to the plea for help with an outpouring of more
than two and one-half million dollars, not counting the many hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars spent by the thousands of individuals
with their direct relief to needy fellow Christians in Europe. We
are not unmindful of the fact that it will be much more difficult to
secure an equal amount for the coming year. We recognize that