# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1977_S112
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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ADDRESS OF THE LCUSA GENERAL SECRETARY 113

This aspect of the Council’s work is now being
supported by only The American Lutheran Church and
the Lutheran Church in America. I hope that when I
greet you two years hence I will be able to thank you for
your support of this activity too.

All of us who hold responsibility for administering
the work of the churches through the Lutheran Council
in the U.S.A. cherish the hope that the Synod’s
continued evaluation of the council and its activities will
result in an expansion of cooperation through the
council by The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
Such additional support will surely assist in furthering
Lutheran unity, in expressing the Lutheran unity that
has been achieved, in facilitating inter-Lutheran plan-
ning, in providing staff services for programs main-
tained by the church bodies, and in augmenting church-
body program efforts.

The Lutheran Council has completed a decade of
service as the cooperative extension of your church body
in partnership with The American Lutheran Church
and the Lutheran Church in America. In many ways it
has been a difficult decade. But it has also been a

rewarding period of growth and development in what I
believe has been God-pleasing service.

As I look ahead to the next ten years, I predict that
the Lutheran Council will become more important than
ever to The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. From a
very practical point of view, if the Association of
Evangelical Lutheran Churches is accepted by the
partners as a part of the Lutheran Council, the conciliar
process with which you are familiar can play a role in
the ultimate healing process and the preservation of
continuity of service and mission-sharing. You will need
the facilities, the forum, and the functioning framework
of the Lutheran Council to help you make your witness
to the people of our nation and to enhance and extend
your own efforts among the millions who know not and
care not about the fractions within the so-called
Lutheran family. You will continue to need the Lutheran
Council, and it will continue to need you.

With Carl Sandburg, “I see great days ahead, great
days possible to men and women of will and vision.” I
shall only add: “to men and women committed to
partnership in the Gospel.”

George F. Harkins, D.D.