# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S502
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

502 INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS

teachings by their acceptance of The Common Confession, as our
Lutheran Confessions require on the basis of Passages of God’s
Word, and that therefore the Wisconsin and Norwegian Synods
were right when they declared that the adoption of this document
as a settlement of differences between ourselves and the ALC
involves an untruth and creates a basically untruthful situation.

To Reject the “Common Confession”
(Memorial 616)

We wish to lay before The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
the following facts pertinent to the Common Confession and the
doctrinal discussions between the Missouri Synod and the American
Lutheran Church,

Fact 1. 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
(cp. Proc. Mo. Syn., 1950, pp. 575—585 and 918; 1953, pp. 530—532,
935—538, 542—544; and a declaration of 89 members of the Mis-
souri Synod to the 1952 Synodical Conference convention, dated
June 10, 1952).

Fact 2. The American Lutheran Church continues to lend its
approval, support, and membership to the National Lutheran Coun-
cil, Lutheran World Federation, and World Council of Churches
(cp. e. g., Lutheran Standard, July 1952, p. 8), organizations which
the Missouri Synod has found to be unionistic (cp. e.g., Proc.,
1950, p. 692).

Fact 3. The American Lutheran Church, by unanimous con-
vention action, continues to move toward an early merger with
church bodies which are not in agreement in doctrine and practice
with The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod (cp. Lutheran Stand-
ard, October 23, 1953, p. 3).

Fact 4. The president of the American Lutheran Church has
declared that “differences remaining to be ironed out” for the final
merger “have nothing to do with doctrine and practice” (St. Paul,
Minn., Pioneer Press, January 14, 1954).

Fact 5. The president of the American Lutheran Church de-
clared to the 1954 convention of the ALC that there is “com-
plete agreement” between the Common Confession and the United

merger within the former American Lutheran Conference, while,
on the other hand, officers of the Missouri Synod have publicly

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