# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 08 03_S99
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

that the Lutheran ministerial candidates Trautmann and Lochner were sent to serve unprovided-for German Lutheran congregations of the synodical district, while for the purpose of the heathen mission a small German Lutheran mission congregation set out from Franconia to settle, together with their called pastor A. Crämer, on the Cass River in Saginaw County, State of Michigan, and, united with the missionaries who had gone out from Ann Arbor, to carry on at the Sebewaing station the mission among the heathen. Large sums of money were also sent by the Franconian Lutherans in support of this mission. Meanwhile, for the Sebewaing station there had come a student of the Basel Mission Institute, the Reverend Mr. Dumser, who had indeed been ordained in the old homeland but had not been bound to the symbols of our church, and who rather declared later that an unreserved commitment to our symbolical books would be, for him, a matter of conscience. It also came to light that the so-called Lutheran Synod of Michigan had previously and openly served several mixed congregations, as such, with Word and Sacrament. Against these abuses an unanimous protest was at once lodged by Pastors Hattstädt, Crämer, Trautmann, and Lochner, pressing for the exclusion of the un-Lutheran missionary Dumser and for a public clearing of the synod regarding the charge of having served mixed congregations as such. At the synodical assembly of June of this year, however, the very first motion — for the exclusion of the un-Lutheran missionary Dumser, who continued to persist in his refusal to bind himself without reservation to the symbols of our church — failed; wherefore Pastors Hattstädt, Crämer, Trautmann, and Lochner felt compelled in conscience not only to leave the Synod of Michigan and to lodge a protest concerning the omitted clearing of the synod, but also to set down the grounds of their withdrawal in writing in the hands of the synod's presiding officer, exactly as they are printed below. The withdrawing brothers will at once join the purely Lutheran synod now forming at Fort Wayne, Indiana, while the mission on the Cass River will be carried on all the more conscientiously from a churchly Lutheran standpoint, since the church order of the German Lutheran mission congregation on the Cass River — signed under oath by pastor and congregation — already sets forth the following conditions with respect to purity of doctrine:

Chapter I.
§1. We confess ourselves bound to all the confessional writings of the Lutheran Church: to the Augsburg Confession, its Apology, to Luther's two Catechisms, to the Smalcald Articles, and to the Formula of Concord — or, in short, to the Lutheran Book of Concord of 1580, as it first appeared in print at Dresden. By this very confession we declare ourselves to belong to the Lutheran Church itself. To it belong we and our children, our church and school, our pastors and schoolteachers, without reservation.

Our preachers and schoolteachers swear to the full content of the Lutheran Concordia of 1580, not merely quatenus (insofar as it agrees with the Word of God), but quia (because it agrees with the Word of God) — not merely out of compliance and obedience, but out of their own innermost conviction. This provision is to be incorporated into the ordination oath.

Chapter II.
§22. If the one elected (the pastor newly elected in the event of a vacancy) is already an ordained minister, he shall be presented to the congregation by the synodical president or his representative, and office and authority shall be committed to him. In any case, the one elected also then testifies publicly and under oath to his fidelity to the Concordia.

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In this pure, churchly consciousness the mission on the Cass River calls upon all Lutheran brethren in the faith throughout North America all the more confidently for active participation and support,*) inasmuch as it has already, in faith and prayer, begun with zeal the work of proclaiming the divine Word among the heathen. A mission house has been built, 70 acres of land have been purchased for the mission, and an interpreter has been hired. The Indian bands on the Cass, Swan, Pine, Cacallin, and Belle rivers have been visited repeatedly. Eleven heathen children are already being instructed and cared for by the mission, and larger numbers of others are expected daily. One heathen boy of 16 years, after six weeks of religious instruction, has asked for holy baptism, and only the lack of a witness conversant in the language, and an urgent business journey of Crämer's, have postponed its performance.

*) Contributions of any amount may be addressed to the current treasurer: Rev. W. Hattstaedt, Monroe, Michigan. Proper receipt will be announced in the "Lutheraner."

May the Lord bless this his work, and let it serve not only to establish the honor of his holy name through the proclamation of his pure Word and the administration of his unadulterated sacraments among the heathen of Michigan, but let it also react, in a quickening and strengthening way, upon the Lutheran congregations and their churchly consciousness.

Declaration of Withdrawal.
Venerable Mr. President!

We, the undersigned pastors, hereby declare to a Reverend Synod of Michigan our formal withdrawal from the same, and indeed for the following reasons:

1. It was to serve the Lutheran Church and mission — and indeed to serve it alone — that we came here from the fatherland, and we offered the said synod our services and membership under the express condition that it be a purely Lutheran synod; and that, accordingly, all its pastors and missionaries be bound without reservation to all the symbolical books of the Lutheran Church, and indeed not insofar as, but because, these agree with Holy Scripture. The undersigned also declared, in the instruction they submitted, not only that they were unable to serve mixed congregations (which constitute themselves as such), but also bore witness against any such service.

2. Nevertheless it soon came to light that one of the heathen missionaries sent out by the Synod of Michigan had not been bound at all to the symbolical books of our church, but rather declared later, repeatedly, that he would not allow himself to be bound without reservation to our symbolical books. It has likewise proven to be a fact that in this synod the serving of mixed congregations, as such, had previously and openly taken place.

3. Therefore the undersigned felt compelled in conscience, at a conference called for the purpose, to move for the exclusion of the un-Lutheran missionary, Mr. Dumser — a motion on which, however, we were referred to the sessions of this year's synodical assembly. We also unanimously petitioned, in a written appeal to the then president of the synod, for a clearing on account of the previously occurring unchurchly serving of mixed congregations as such, namely for a public clearing on the part of the whole synod.

4. At this year's synodical assembly of June 24 we formally renewed, in open session, our first motion concerning the un-Lutheran missionary Mr. Dumser. But the Mission Committee of the Synod of Michigan, even before our motion had been disposed of, cast its vote that it would confirm Mr. Dumser anew in office and send him back to his post, although he had repeatedly and publicly declared that he would not allow himself to be bound without reservation to all the symbols of our church. Thereupon we, the undersigned pastors, formally declared our withdrawal from the Synod of Michigan. We herewith lay down this declaration in writing, with our names subscribed, in the hands of the synod, and add to it a solemn protest against the omission of the other point, namely the public clearing on account of the unchurchly serving of mixed congregations as such.

We part with heartfelt sorrow over the un-Lutheran standpoint which the synod maintains despite all the loud testimonies we have borne, and we beseech the Lord of the Church soon to bring the Synod of Michigan to the conviction how dangerous such a standpoint is, especially under the churchly conditions of this land, and