# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1953_S1146
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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498 INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS

A further Meeting with representatives of all of th

Conference groups was held in April 19:
» 1952. is ti
tive draft of Part II was discussed, - AE tits th
At the convention of the Synodical Conf.
' erence held
Minn., in August, 1952, the following resolution was adopter au,
ceedings, 42d Convention, pp. 159f.): pied (Pro.
Wuergas, Not all brethren of the SS) i
) ynodical C
guaded that the Common Confession is adequate ‘aa rence me Pee
‘octrinal differences -between the Missouri s-. ant ot
American Lutheran Church; and Ynod and the

WHEREAS, The Committee on Doctrinal Uni
Church — Missouri Synod, eeProvided for by the Mis et sre
e Common Con fession to nn 4S prepared a tentative Part I of
Common Confession; therefore be rae objections raised against the

Resolved, That the § i
action with reference to the Cant oar erence postpone all

; * : er
as been completed and presented to ponfession until said Part I

Synodical Conference and to the Amenicag sttuent s ai of the

( hurch,”

c When the final draft of Articles VIII and IX of Part 17 of th
ommon Confession had been comple d, another meeting was h i
with representatives of Synodical Conference groups This ne ad
took place in Milwaukee in January, 1953. The Norwe i Ss ne
was not represented, but its committee agreed to hold as tne
with the Missouri S 58, whine

ynod representatives on April i
at the time of this writing is still in the future. pens 1888, whieh

INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 499

e Synodica}

4 The American Lutheran Church, meeting in Columbus, Ohio, in
e the tenta.

tober, 1950, adopted Part I of the Common Confession. At its
avention in Waverly, Iowa, in October, 1950, it received Part II
its tentative form as a progress report.
It is the committee’s conviction that the entire Common Con-
as now presented to the convention is an adequate statement
doctrine and practice, which, if also Part II is adopted by. The
eran Church — Missouri Synod and the American Lutheran
“ghurch, will be a blueprint according to which, with the help of
“God, full unity in doctrine can be attained and agreement in
practice can be achieved between the two Churches.
“"", In accordance with another resolution of the Milwaukee Con-
yention a meeting bringing together the committees, Presidents,
Vice-Presidents, and District Presidents of the two Churches was
held in February of this year. About 70 men were present at this
three-day meeting. The history of the union movement involving
the two Churches was reviewed, and the Common Confession was
discussed, with special emphasis on church fellowship and anti-
Christian organizations. As in all of the other meetings of the two
committees, the discussion was very frank, but friendly. This meet-
ing, in our opinion, constituted a major step forward. The group
resolved that further meetings of this kind should be held in order
to corroborate and verify the unity in doctrine and bring about
unity in practice as well as eventual church fellowship.

Throughout the triennium your Committee was not unaware of
the fact that the American Lutheran Church is contemplating an
organic merger with the four other bodies of the American Lu-
theran Conference. The document which is to form the doctrinal
basis for this union is entitled the United Testimony on Faith and
Life. While the American Lutheran Church, the Evangelical Lu-
theran Church, and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church have
adopted the United Testimony and are willing to enter the proposed
merger, the Augustana Synod at its meeting in June, 1952, indicated
that it would not participate in the present merger, and the Lu-
theran Free Church, also meeting in June, 1952, would not commit
itself to the goal of organic union. Your Committee had slated
discussion of the United Testimony for the agenda at several joint
meetings with the committee of the American Lutheran Church,
but lack. of time prevented the realization of this discussion. In
case the proposed merger comes to pass, an entirely new situation
will have arisen, which will require the attention of our Synod.

Vv

Your Committee herewith officially presents to this convention
the Common Confession, as augmented in accordance with the pro-
visions of the Milwaukee Convention.

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