# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S755
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS

To Change the Term “Negro Missions”
(Memorial 412)

The undersigned congregation, consisting largely of members of
the Negro race, would herewith respectfully submit the following
for consideration by the triennial convention of The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod, to be held at St. Paul, Minn., in
June 1956:

Wuereas, St. Philip’s Lutheran Church was organized through
the efforts of the Missionary Board of The Evangelical Lutheran
Synodical Conference of North America, of which The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod is the largest constituent synod; and

Wuereas, The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod took the
necessary steps to make it possible for churches which operated
under the Synodical Conference Missionary Board to enjoy a larger
fellowship through full membership in The Lutheran Church —
Missouri Synod, so that St. Philip's Church has since June of 1949
been a member of the Western District of said Synod; there-
fore be it

Resolved, That St. Philip’s Lutheran Church express its thanks
to The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod for all that it has done
to bring the Gospel also to members of the Negro race, for having
opened the doors of fellowship to congregations whose membership
is predominantly Negro, and particularly for all the favors which
St. Philip’s has enjoyed through its association with The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod.

And now, wishing that The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
might not only continue but also increase its efforts to win members
of the Negro race for Christ, we, as members of Synod, in all sin-
cerity and in the hope that it will be received in the same spirit
of love in which it is given, submit the following for careful
consideration:

Wuereas, The Bible pattern of mission work knows no dis-
tinction of race and color; and

Wuereas, Recent changes in the national social climate have
made integration the order of the day, so that the term “Negro
Missions,” which would seem to imply that church work among
Negroes had to be carried on on a segregated basis, is no longer
acceptable to many Christians, both white and Negro; and

Wuereas, Continued use of the term “Negro Missions” in the
mission reports and other literature published by The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod can well prove detrimental to good pub-
lic relations among the members of the Negro race as well as
among others, while serving no useful purpose that would not