# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S279
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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348 MISSIONS

as would be inevitable.

It is our sincere hope that the Hon. Missouri Synod wi}
our petition acceptable, thus enabling us to remain in. Possession of
the only central building we have for our activities.

of support it can give; of this sum only so much would be Used: .

A. Arsau Uppata (WEGELIUS)
President of the Free Ev. Luth. Church in Finlang
In Hiameenlinna, on the 8th March, 1950

[408]
Report of the Armed Services Commission

The war is over, but the work of the Armed Services Com-
mission goes on. . ;

During the war years, Pastor Paul Mehl was the Executive
Secretary of the Commission. In the spring of 1948 he accepted
a call into the parish ministry. Chaplain Kenneth L. Ahl was
appointed to succeed him.

In May of 1948 we moved our office from Chicago to Washing.
ton. We have office space in the Lutheran Church Center, which
is owned by the National Lutheran Council and is located right
off Pennsylvania Avenue, within the shadow of the White House.
Since much of the Commission’s business has to do with the
Defense Agencies, it makes for efficiency to have our office located
in the nation’s capital.

The Commission functioned prior to the war, and it-is rather
self-evident that it should continue to function. An added function
since the close of the war is the rendering of spiritual service to
ex-servicemen and servicewomen in the 136 Veterans Administra-
tion hospitals in our country. Since veterans hospitalization is only
at the peak load of World War I, this phase of our endeavor will
increase considerably in the next twenty years.

Scope of Program

The scope of the program is as large as ever, the difference
being that the number of people in the military is not as large
as during the war. The Commission continues to serve as the
endorsing agency for the Church. Chaplains in the Army, Navy,
Air Force, and Veterans Administration must be endorsed to enter
and to remain in the service. Our chaplains are required to submit
monthly reports to the Commission. The names of service per-
sonnel and patients in our Veterans Administration hospitals are
still being filed and forwarded. Prayer books and religious litera-
ture are still being supplied to those on our files. There is a big

MISSIONS 849

demand for our tracts. A number of new tracts for use in hospitals
are being written. For the sake of emphasis we would again call
attention to our conviction that names and addresses and changes
of addresses of men in the military and patients in Veterans Ad-
ministration hospitals are not being sent in to our office as they
should.
Chaplains

We have fifty chaplains on duty. Of these, twenty-two are
Regulars, and twenty-eight are Reserves. There are eight full-time
Veterans Administration chaplains and five part-time. We have
three full-time chaplains working in Veterans Administration hos-
pitals, whose salary we pay. These men are stationed in New York,
Chicago, and Los Angeles. One hundred and twenty-six of our
pastors assist in this ministry to veterans.

Service Personnel

We have the names of over 5,000 service personnel, men and
women, on our files; of these, over 1,700 are overseas. During 1949,
3,295 changes of addresses were received; 2,336 new names were
added, and 1,492 were discharged. 6,228 pieces of mail were re-
turned. 4,957 prayer books and 600,000 tracts were mailed out
during the past year.

Service Center

At the present time we are operating only one service center,
located in Balboa in the Canal Zone. We have here a beautiful
chapel, a service center in the second story of which the pastor
resides. This project received a gift of $20,000 from the P.T.O.
and $10,000 from the Commission. A loan of approximately $60,000
was made to this congregation from Commission funds.

Chaplains’ Report for 1949

451 Number communed 6,890
oe Number of services... 2,976

The full-time Veterans Administration chaplains communed
665 and conducted 934 services. ,

Finances,

The Commission has invested about $75,000 for residences in
Washington, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, where pastors
serving the Commission live. A grant of $5,000 was made for
a service center in Brazil. This was done upon request from the
Home Mission Board of North and South America. The Com-

mission’s Operating costs in 1949 were about $100,000. The chief
items were the following: a . °

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