# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2016_S144
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

144

I. OPINIONS OF COMMISSION ON CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS

Opinion: Coordination and cooperation are essential for good
order, especially for such a widespread and varied activity as foreign missions. Designation of foreign mission areas is not intended
to curtail interest or activity.
Bylaw 3.1.4.3 assumes the existence of foreign mission areas and
suggests that they are a concept that is more general than specific. It
remains for the Board for International Mission and the Office of International Mission, under the guidance of the Chief Mission Officer
who is under the direction of the President of the Synod, to demarcate
such foreign mission areas “in support of mission and ministry in
foreign countries” (Bylaw 3.8.3). The Office of International Mission
should be contacted if there is interest in conducting or participating
in mission activity in a foreign area.
Adopted July 10–11, 2015
Service of Retired District President on Seminary Board
of Regents (15-2777)
With a letter dated September 11, 2015, a member of the Synod
called attention to Bylaw 3.10.4.2 and its listing of members of seminary boards of regents, specifically referring to subparagraph 3, “A
district president other than the geographical district president [who]
shall be appointed by the Council of Presidents.” He requested the
commission’s response to the following questions.
Question 1: If a man who had been a district president and had been
named as the representative of the Council of Presidents
to a seminary board of regents retires, his successor has taken office, and the former district president
who retired has moved to another state and district, no
longer living in or serving the district to which he had
previously served as district president, is such a retired
district president still a voting member of the seminary’s
board of regents if the Council of Presidents has not yet
named a successor to the seminary’s board of regents?

2016 Convention Workbook

Opinion: The answer to this Question is “no,” since the former district president would no longer be able to fulfill the requirement
for service as a voting member of the seminary’s board of regents,
i.e., “a district president…appointed by the Council of Presidents”
(Bylaw 3.10.4.2, subparagraph 3). When a district president is
called upon to serve, such service is tied to his office and is his sole
basis for authority to act. When an individual ceases to hold the office of district president, his authority to act as a district president
also ceases (see CCM Opinion 12-2652).
Question 2: Does a “request” of the Council of Presidents for such a
retiree to be the appointee of the Council of Presidents to
the seminary’s board of regents confer a seat and a voting right and power to such a retired district president?
If so, what bylaw of the Synod permits this, and what
of the Council of Presidents is an action of the entire
body of the Council of Presidents? Are the Synod’s
Constitution and Bylaws in fact applicable to actions
and governing, or can assertion of “custom” overrule
the Constitution and Bylaws? If so, why and how?
Opinion: There is no provision in the Constitution and Bylaws of
the Synod that would allow for a request to a former district president to serve in a position that requires the service of a district
president. Nor can an assertion of “custom” overrule the absence
of such a provision in the Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod.
Where a bylaw specifically calls for an action by a “district president,” no agency of the Synod may set aside a bylaw of the Synod
and authorize a person who does not hold the office of district president to act as such.
Adopted December 4–5, 2015