# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S511
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 511

were not directly nor satisfactorily answered (cf. Proceedings of
the 39th Regular Convention of the Missouri Synod, 1944, p. 251).

Then came the Saginaw Resolution of 1944, which attempted
to draw a distinction between “joint prayer” and “prayer fellow-
ship” —a distinction which the Missouri Synod previously had
never made. These resolutions, accordingly, were also protested
by our Norwegian Synod on the grounds that this distinction cannot
be supported on the basis of Scripture and opens the door to
further unionistic practices. The answer of the Missouri Synod
to such protests was the re-affirmation of its 1944 Resolution
(cf. Proceedings of the 40th Regular Convention of the Missouri
Synod, 1947, p. 517; also Proceedings of the 42nd Regular Conven-
tion of the Missouri Synod, 1953, p. 552).

In 1945 the Chicago Statement appeared, signed by 44 Missouri
Synod pastors and professors, many of whom held high positions
of leadership in that synod. This was a document which further
weakened the bulwarks against unionism and laid down unscrip-
tural principles of church fellowship. Representatives of our Nor-
wegian Synod repeatedly asked the Missouri Synod in committee
meetings either to require the signers of the Statement to retract
or to exercise discipline over against them. In this case no sat-
isfactory doctrinal discipline was exercised, nor did these signers
retract their Statement.

Then came the agreement with the National Lutheran Council,
a federation of liberal and heterodox Lutheran synods, by which
the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod entered into joint welfare
work and joint armed service work with these erroristic groups
(cf. Proceedings of the 43rd Regular Convention of the Synodical
Conference, 1954, PP. 99—100) —a_ practice which is still being
carried on, contrary to all the principles of the Synodical Con-
ference and the “old” Missouri Synod (cf. Directory for Service
People, May—June, 1955). To these acts of unionism, as well as
numerous other instances, our Norwegian Synod has repeatedly
protested, but to no avail.

Then, in 1950, came the Common Confession, the most recent
document between the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod and the
A.L.C., which was hailed as a settlement of the past doctrinal dif-
ferences between these two bodies and a sufficient basis for union
between them (cf. Proceedings of the 41st Regular Convention of
the Lutheran ‘Church — Missouri Synod, 1950, p. 585). To this
document we can only state once again that, in spite of numerous
attempts to prove the adequacy of the Common Confession and
vigorous and valorous defences of the Common Confession, we find