# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1953_S1055
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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818 PARISH EDUCATION

There are, however, circ
, ‘umstances under which tem
cats may be extended without reflecting at all upon the divinity
o : ‘e car In . come cases @ Congregation may consider it advisable

end a or imited period of service, J],

é - In the
executives, high school faculty members, instructors in colleges al
Seminaries, etc., a permanent call may be inadvisable. Under these
the divinitn re limited period of service has nothing to do with

inity of the call. When pastors or teachers ; i i
the d ; Ts, including min.
isterial candidates or teacher graduates, accept such limited ‘tenurs
Positions, their status in the Church is not affected. Since their
work involves the Proclaiming of the Word of God, their Positions
are recognized by the Church as a divine calling.

3. What is the Status of the installed male teacher?

Our Church has Consistently held that the i
teacher Is a servant of the Word, that he participates in the pane
punistry of the congregation, and that he has a divine call The
atheran teacher is not a layman; although he is not a pastor, he
elongs to the clergy. The Lutheran teacher is an assistant of ‘the
Pastor; his duties are Specified in the call. The “call” of the con-
8regation emphasizes that the teacher, like the Pastor, is doing his

PARISH EDUCATION 319

is the status of the woman teacher?

roperly qualified and appointed woman teacher in the
schools is also a participant in the public ministry of
As such, she has a sacred calling, requiring qualifications
able to those of the regular male teacher, with respect to
sonal faith and character and professional training and
: ce. Her calling does differ in certain respects, however,
fre fhe call of the male teacher or pastor.

awiWhile the call of the male teacher, like that of the pastor,
ordinarily involves lifetime tenure, the appointment of the regular
woman teacher leaves her free to marry and to assume all of the
responsibilities of married life, though this new status will probably

make-it necessary for her to terminate her professional service to _

the Church. The conditions of her service are, therefore, best set
forth in a “Solemn Agreement,” which remains in force indefinitely,
unless dissolved by common consent or for valid reasons by either
party. The form of Solemn Agreement now in use in our Church
states; “Nothing in this appointment and agreement is to be
construed as interfering with the rights and preregatives of
a woman to terminate her service as a teacher at the end of the
school year in order to enter upon a woman's higher calling of
matrimony and other household duties or to transfer to another
school for good and valid reasons.” Since the Solemn Agreement
encourages a tenure continuing at least over a period of years,
it is advantageous to both the congregation and the teacher. The
woman teacher may, however, serve under the terms of an annual
“appointment,” or “contract,” renewable by common consent,

The congregation obligates itself in this same agreement to
respect the woman teacher “as a participant in the public per-
formance of the office of the ministry,” subject to the limitations
placed upon the members of her sex in 1 Cor. 14:34: “Let your
women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto
them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience,
as also saith the Law,” and 1 Tim. 2: 11, 12: “Let the woman learn
in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”

5. What is the status of the Lutheran high school teacher?
Lutheran high schools are essentially extensions of the edu-
cational program of the regular eight-grade Lutheran parish
schools. As such they teach and apply the doctrines and practices
enjoined in God’s Word and the Lutheran Confessions in precisely
the same manner and with the same objectives in view. Since
such an advanced program of education cannot ordinarily be
carried out by a single congregation, Lutheran high schools are

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