# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S500
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

500 INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS

tions of the several doctrines under the topical headings where
they are specifically discussed.

14. The effort to explain and defend The Common Confession
has led to a questioning of clear declarations of Synod’s Brief
Statement, to misstatements of fact, and to dubious doctrinal ex-
pressions. See, e. g., A Fraternal Reply, pp. 19, 9; Another Fraternal
Endeavor, pp. 19, 21f.

15. Two synods of the Synodical Conference, as well as
a number of congregations, pastoral conferences, and individual
members of the Missouri Synod, hold that The Common Confession
does not show that the doctrinal differences between the American
Lutheran Church and the Synodical Conference have been com-
posed according to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions
(cf. Proceedings 1950, pp. 575—585 and 918; 1953, pp. 529—538;
542—544; and a declaration of 89 members of the Missouri Synod
to the 1952 Synodical Conference convention, dated June 10, 1952).

In 1950 Trinity Congregation informed Synod of its rejection
of The Common Confession because it found it “doctrinally am-
biguous, inadequate, and confused” (Proceedings 1950, p. 918), and
reiterated its position to Synod in 1953 (Proceedings, pp. 542ff.).
The congregation now informs Synod that it rejects both parts of
The Common Confession for such reasons as are here adduced,
and asks Synod

1. To revoke all documents drafted in the course of Lutheran
union negotiations after 1932 and submitted to Synod for accept-
ance as evidences of unity in confession, because they do not fulfill
the stipulated purpose of clearly and unequivocally resolving the
existing doctrinal differences;

2. To declare pamphlets and brochures published in the defense
of such documents to be without status and force as official expo-
sitions of Synod’s position; and

3. To resolve that the Brief Statement be reinstated as the basic
document for any further discussions looking toward Lutheran
unity, in harmony with the resolution of the 1941 convention: “In
calling for one document, we do not mean to dispense with any
doctrinal statement in our Brief Statement ... for we believe that
it correctly expresses the doctrinal position of our Synod . . . but
we concede that, for the sake of clarification under the present
circumstances, some statements may need to be more sharply de-
fined or amplified” (p. 302).

Trinity Ev. LutHeran Cxurcu, Oak Park, IL.
E. L. Krert, Secretary

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