# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S520
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

520 INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS

Report of the Committee on Finnish Relations
(Report 1006)

Your Committee on Finnish Relations, whose duty and privi-
lege it is to foster relations on a Scriptural basis with the National
Evangelical Lutheran Church, was represented at all conventions
of the National Lutheran Church during the last triennium. Pas-
tor R. Herrmann, senior member of the committee, who is tendering
his resignation at this convention, was granted the privilege of
attending the three conventions at Cleveland, Ohio; New York
Mills, Minn.; and Fitchburg, Mass. Professor Steege is representing
our Synod at the 1956 convention to be held at Port Arthur,
Ontario, June 22—24.

The vacancy in the committee, created by the death of District
President W. L. Kohn, has recently been filled by the appoint-
ment of Dr. A. H. Ulbrich of Detroit.. No meeting of the committee
has been held since the death of Pastor Kohn.

The following facts are offered for the information of the
brethren. The National Lutheran Church has in its history suffered
the loss of a number of congregations. Last year the church again
lost one of its largest congregations, and that primarily because of
the Synod’s conservatism and Scriptural stand. With reference
to this loss, the president of the National Lutheran Church, Dr. J.
E. Nopola, stated, “I thank the faculty of Concordia Seminary
(Springfield, Illinois) for preparing for us preachers of the Gospel
who agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the admin-
istration of the Sacraments.” It should be clear to the members of
our Synod that our own solidly Scriptural stand has been that
of the National Lutheran Church. They are recognized today as
the most conservative of all Finnish bodies.

The close relations between the National Lutheran Church
and our own Synod are guaranteed especially under God by the
fact that twenty-eight of their thirty-three pastors are graduates
of our own seminary at Springfield, Ill. Prof. A. Monto, who is
supported jointly by the two synods, teaches Finnish and Finnish
History in addition to regular courses at the seminary. His interest
in our church has contributed greatly to the fine attitude displayed
by the Finnish students on campus and is reflected in their
continued interest manifested in the ministry.

The National Lutheran Church has become very mission-
minded in the past years and has been blessed with a healthy
increase in the number of its pastors. Eighteen of the thirty-three
now serving the church are graduates of the last ten years, and
about the same number are now enrolled as students at Springfield.