# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S528
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

528 INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS

Article II. Purposes and Objectives
The purposes and objectives of this Council are:

a. To witness for the Lutheran Church on matters which re-
quire an expression of common faith, ideals, and program.
b. To bring to the attention of the Participating Bodies matters
which in its judgment may require utterance or action on
their part.
c. To represent Lutheran interests in America in matters which
require common action, before
1. National and State Governments.
2. Organized bodies and movements outside the Lutheran
Church.

d. To emphasize the continuing importance of a right relation
between Church and State.

e. To further the interests and the work of the Lutheran
Churches in America.

f. To be the National Committee for the Lutheran World
Federation in the United States of America.

_g. To undertake and carry on such work as may be author-
ized by the Participating Bodies in fields where co-
ordination or joint activity may be desirable and feasible,
such as publicity, statistics, welfare work, missions, educa-
tion, student work, and other fields.

h. To take the necessary steps to meet emergencies requiring
common action, each Participating Body to determine the
extent of its co-operation in emergency work.

i. To undertake additional work with the specific consent of
the Participating Bodies.

Article X, Section 6, of the Constitution provides:

A Participating Body may determine the extent of its partici-
pation in the work of the Council; and its non-participation in the
work of one or more Divisions, Departments, Bureaus, and/or
Commissions shall not affect its relationship to the Council, pro-
vided that the Councillors representing a Participating. Body shall
not be entitled in meetings of the Council or of the Executive
Committee to vote upon any matter relating specifically to a phase
of the work of the Council in which that Body is not participating.
Article IX of the By-Laws specifies the following fields of work:

American Missions, Jewish Missions, Public Relations, Social
Welfare, Student Service, Service to Military Personnel, Commis-
. sion on Younger Churches, and Orphaned Missions. -

INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 529

Article IX, Section 6, of the By-Laws also provides:

Other Divisions, and/or Departments within Divisions, such
as World Missions, Youth Work, Parish Education, Higher Educa-
tion, and/or others, may be added from time to time, as deemed
desirable by the Council, upon approval by the Participating
Bodies.

The National Lutheran Council Constitution in Theory

It is the considered opinion of your Committee that the Consti-
tution of the National Lutheran Council as it reads contains nothing
which would make it sinful for the Missouri Synod to sign. There
are expressions in the Constitution of the National Lutheran Coun-
cil, such as “Holy Scriptures as the Word of God” (in the
Preamble), “common faith” (Article III, a), which.are subject to
various interpretations. It could also be pointed: out that the
Constitution of the National Lutheran Council does not enumerate
all the Lutheran Confessions.

However, it would not be fair to interpret such expressions
otherwise than they are interpreted by the members of the
constituent bodies of the National Lutheran Council.. Representa-
tives of the National Lutheran Council with whom we met empha-
sized that the Constitution of the National Lutheran Council is
not a basis of confession for the. participating hodies. To, them
their Constitution is merely an expression of a “common: faith
and general unity of spirit sufficient to warrant their working
together in specified common objectives.” ,

Furthermore, the provision in the National Lutheran Council
Constitution “that a Participating Body may determine the extent
of its participation in the work of the Council” would make it
possible for the Missouri Synod to become a member of the
National Lutheran Council and to participate in one or the other
purely external objectives without violating its principles concern-
ing unionistic practice.

The National Lutheran Council Constitution: in Practice

However, the National Lutheran Council Constitution on paper
and in theory and the National Lutheran Council in fact and
practice are two different things. We quote from an article -by
Dr. Lawrence M. Stavig, a member of the National Lutheran
Council, in the Lutheran Quarterly, May, 1949, page 151, in' whith
the National Lutheran Council of today in practice is described
_as follows:

“Let me first of all point out that we have already developed

within the framework of the National Lutheran Council a relation-
ship which constitutes in effect a Federation of Lutheran ‘Bodies.

ete tear ee annette,