# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S546
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

546 INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS

Unprinted Memorials 8, 9, 13, 22, and 23 are also covered in
the resolution of Committee 3, adopted by Synod with one nega-
tive vote:

Resolution 16

Wuereas, Dissatisfaction has been expressed in and outside
of our Synod in regard to various doctrinal documents approved
by Synod; and

Wuereas, Such dissatisfaction seems to rest on the charge of
inadequacy and lack of clarity in the doctrinal statements con-
cerning election, objective justification, conversion, and the inspira-
tion of the Scriptures; therefore be it

Resolved, That we reject any and every interpretation of
documents approved by Synod which would be in disagreement
with the Holy Scriptures, the Lutheran Confessions, and the
Brief Statement.

Clarifying Our Position on Fellowship,
Prayer Fellowship, and Religious Unionism

Under consideration was Memorial 608 and the following
section of Memorial 614:

Concerning the Matter of Praying Together
(Joint Prayer, or Prayer Fellowship)

The official resolutions and writings of the Missouri Synod
show that the expressions “prayer fellowship” and “joint prayer”
have always been used synonymously among us (e. g., Proceedings,
Oklahoma District, 1937, Essay on Prayer). On this doctrine our
Synod has said (Proceedings, Southern District, 1895, p. 97):
“People who join in prayer must be of one mind, one faith, one
hope, for joint prayer is an expression of common faith. For that
reason Christians cannot join in prayer with the heterodox.” See
also Proceedings, Missouri Synod Convention, 1881, p.31; also,
Homiletic Magazine, XLIV, 231: “Joint prayers presume Christian
fellowship.” Therefore the Lutheran Witness summed up Synod’s
former position correctly when it stated in 1940: “Leaders in the
ALC believe that prayer is under some circumstances permissible
with those agreeing with us in the essentials of Christianity, though
not throughout in confessional harmony. From this view we
dissent.”

However, at its Saginaw Convention in 1944 Synod adopted
a resolution on joint prayer at intersynodical conferences which
has been officially interpreted as making a distinction between
prayer fellowship and joint prayer and which maintains that joint
prayer with the heterodox is permissible under certain circum-