# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S493
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION
and be it further
Resolved, That Synod Bylaw 4.2.2, with respect to voting
delegates for district conventions, be amended as follows:
PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
4.2.2
The delegates of a voting congregation or multicongregation parish to a district convention shall be accredited.
…
(c) Congregations with more than 1,000 confirmed members
shall be entitled to two additional delegates, at least one of whom
shall be a member of the laity of the congregation.

Mount Olive
Greenwood, IN
Ov. 9-12

To Clarify the Meaning of Parish
as it Relates to Congregational
Representation at District Conventions
and Election of the Synod President, and
to Distinguish Assisting Capacity Pastoral Calls
Rationale
At the time of its inception, one of the major founding principles for
the polity of the Synod was an equity between the laity and clergy
in the decision-making process of the Synod. This was written into
the Constitution by designating that the right to vote belongs to the
member congregations of the Synod, with each congregation (the
German term was Pfarrgemeinde, or “pastor-congregation”)
receiving two votes: one was the vote of its pastor, and the other
was the vote of its lay delegate (in the German, these were
Deputierten der Pfarrgemeinden). A footnote of the 1847
constitution of the Synod describes what was understood by the
term Pfarrgemeinde:
A Pfarrgemeinde is either one single congregation or the sum of
the individual congregations which the pastor serves, as in
Germany the territory in which he serves is called Kirchspiel or
Kirchensprengel. The pastor may serve 3 or 4 or more
congregations, locally separated; they are in relation to him
essentially only one congregation and must, therefore, jointly
send to the convention one delegate.
When the Constitution of the Synod was translated into English in
1924, the term congregation was used to refer to a Pfarrgemeinde
comprising a single Gemeinde cared for by a pastor, and the term
parish was used to refer to a Pfarrgemeinde comprising two or more
Gemeinden cared for by a pastor. Thus, one German term
Pfarrgemeinde was divided, in English, into two constituent cases.
Thus, while the term parish was not used until 1924, the concept
that a parish is “two or more congregations being cared for by the
same pastor (or pastors)” goes back to the 1847 Synod constitution.
This arrangement, that representation was on the basis of
Pfarrgemeinden ensures a congregation-pastor parity, a “balance of
power,” at the conventions of the Synod between the laity and the
clergy. Even more fundamentally, it sees to representation of the
congregations—which are the voting members of the Synod—on an
equitable basis by units of preaching and hearing. One may be
reminded of Luther’s bipartite definition of the Church as
comprising hearers and those who preach to them: “holy believers
and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd” (Smalcald
Articles, Part III, Art. XII 2).

493

These same apparent desires, for Synod to be composed
fundamentally of units of preaching and hearing (Pfarrgemeinden
or pastor-congregations) and to maintain equity between the laity
and the clergy at the conventions of the Synod, led to establishment
of advisory membership when Synod was formed in 1847. This
category was created to allow pastors to fulfill their desire to join
the Synod while their congregations yet desired to remain
independent. Typically, in the early period of the Synod, a large
number of those pastors in attendance at conventions were advisory
members, entitled to voice at the convention but no vote.
Thus, while the understanding and intention of the Synod is clear
regarding voting representation at conventions of the synod—a
parish being the total number of congregations cared for by a pastor
(or pastors)—unique situations occurred and were addressed by the
Synod. One of these situations was the practice of forming a
Gesammtgeminde as Lutheranism expanded in certain cities.
Perhaps the most notable of these was the Gesammtgeminde in St.
Louis. In 1847, due to the growth of Trinity Lutheran Church in St.
Louis, where C.F.W. Walther was the pastor, the congregation
started a school and church on a second location, which took the
name of Immanuel. Initially Immanuel was not an independent
congregation. In 1856, a third school and then church were added,
which caused a re-evaluation of the arrangement. The solution was
the division of the Gesammtgemeinde into three “districts.” In this
arrangement, while the Gesammtgemeinde would nominate pastors
for a vacant congregation, each “district” or congregation would
actually elect him, with the result that each congregation was cared
for by its own pastor even though the congregations were related to
one another in the Gessamtgemeinde.
The question thus arose: at conventions of the Synod and district,
was this group of congregations to be understood as one
Pfarrgemeinde, entitled to only one pair of delegates? The situation
was brought to the 1866 convention of the Synod for resolution, and
the convention determined that each congregation with its own
independent pastor was to be recognized as a congregation entitled
to be represented at conventions by an ordained and a lay delegate.
The sense of congregation or parish, taken together as equivalent
to the German Pfarrgemeinde, thus is more flexible than the oftenapplied, modern-day rule, as stated in the since-removed 1963
Bylaw 3.09: “If a pastor serves two or more congregations, these
shall be regarded as one parish and shall be entitled to only one lay
vote.” While this bylaw was removed in 1981, without replacement,
this interpretation has been consistently applied since. In the early
period, however, congregations having pastors in common might
still be separate Pfarrgemeinden, so long as each had a distinct
pastor to call its own (head) pastor.
Today as well, there are unique situations occurring which raise
complex problems for representation and for which the current
bylaws do not provide a means of addressing. To give two
examples:
• Congregations A & B have formed a two-congregation
parish and have been regularly served by a pastor. After that
pastor took a call, the situation of those two congregations
was such that it would be difficult to support a pastor. A
larger Congregation C, which has its own pastor (Pastor 1),
offers to help solve their dilemma by having the new pastor
of Congregations A & B (Pastor 2) assist at Congregation C
for one day a week and paying a portion of the salary. The
pastor of Congregation C has no responsibilities in

2019 Convention Workbook