# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 09 05_S4
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

§3. The president then delivers the synodical address and reads the annual report.

§4. The president gives a summary report of the subjects to be discussed in the present assembly. Whoever wishes to bring such subjects before the synod must submit them to the president in writing four weeks beforehand, and only in exceptional cases as late as the day before the opening of the synod.

§5. To avoid prolixity, the president refers certain subjects to individual committees for deliberation, reporting, and for proposals for the synod's decision-making. In important cases, however, every member of the synod has the right to protest against this procedure.

§6. Every summary report, together with its proposals, is first submitted to the synod for reception; once it has been received, it lies before the synod for deliberation. After careful weighing of the arguments for and against, the president calls for a decision or, respectively, a vote.

§7. The synod requires of the president a report on the results of the visitation journey he made in the past year according to his instructions, in order to oversee the doctrine, life, and official conduct of the preachers and schoolteachers. (See below, Chapter VI, A, §5.) Should the case arise, in this connection, that the president reports to the synod a preacher who, even after repeated admonition by the president, by the congregation concerned, and by the ministerium, has persisted in false doctrine or in offensive conduct, then the synod as a whole makes the last attempt to convert the one so reported from the error of his way. If the one thus admonished will not hear even the synod, he is excluded by it, and his congregation must carry out toward him Christ's command in Matthew 18:17: "If he refuses to hear the church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector." The president must also give a report on the churchly condition of the congregations visited — among other things, whether he found among them congregational or church orders, books for church and school, and the like, whose content stands in contradiction to the confession of the pure doctrine. The president is permitted, during his stay among the congregations visited, to have a congregational meeting called together by the latter's church council.

§8. The synod has the duty, in its annual sessions, to investigate and discuss jointly which articles of church doctrine are chiefly to be promoted in word and writing, against which false doctrines and defects of life the struggle is especially to be directed, and how to proceed in such teaching and defense. Accordingly, the synod is to evaluate the previous performance of the editor of its periodical, and to give him instructions for his further activity. Likewise, the synod is to discuss the needs of our churchly neglected fellow believers, and, to remedy them, to encourage and support with counsel and deed such capable men as are willing, out of free Christian love, to undertake to seek out the abandoned Lutherans, in order to prepare among them the founding of regular congregations. Such visitors are to be trained for the carrying-out of their task, examined before their departure, provided with instructions, and sent off with solemn prayer and a blessing. The visitor must keep a diary and send excerpted reports to the president, which the latter is to lay before the synod in his annual report.

The synod also considers itself obligated to cooperate, so far as it is able, in the conversion of the heathen; it takes part, however, in no way whatsoever in the religiously-mingling activity of the mission enterprise now prevailing.

§9. The synod has the duty to establish, maintain, and oversee institutions for the training of future preachers and schoolteachers for the service of the church. These institutions may be of two kinds: in the one the goal is a learned theological education, in the other a predominantly practical churchly education. Until, however, its resources have grown strong enough for this, the synod must see to it that capable preachers from its midst take upon themselves the education of suitable young men for the service of the church.

§10. a.) The synod is to appoint, through the ministerium, for a term of three years, two examiners from among the most capable theologians in its midst, for the examination of those who wish to become candidates for the preaching office. The president, together with the elected examiners, forms the synod's examination commission, and presides over it.

b.) The examination shall be both written and oral. To be submitted in writing are: a sermon on an assigned text, a treatise on a dogmatic and church-historical subject, and finally a brief outline of the candidate's life, together with a credible testimonial of good conduct. The oral examination is conducted in the following subjects: knowledge of the Bible and exegesis, Christian doctrine, knowledge of the symbolical books and of the doctrines of false-believing communions, church history — especially the history of the Reformation — and practical pastoral care; likewise, the candidate must deliver the submitted sermon and hold a catechetical instruction. All of this takes place publicly. The examiners must above all determine whether the candidate has a thorough knowledge of the right division of the Law and the Gospel (2 Timothy 2:15), and also whether he is apt to teach, and sound and decided in the pure confession.

c.) The regular time for the examinations is that of the synodical sessions, on two consecutive days; for exceptional cases see Chapter VI, A, §8.

d.) As regards the requirements made of the examinees, there are two classes of them. To the first belong those who lay claim to a complete theological education, and who are therefore to be examined in Latin, and only in certain subjects in German, especially also as to their knowledge of the original languages of Holy Scripture. To the second class belong those who have received a predominantly practical education for the conduct of the holy preaching office; these are to be examined in the German language.

e.) After the examination has been passed, a detailed testimonial of their fitness is to be issued to the candidates.

f.) Those who wish to be examined must apply in writing to the president about six weeks beforehand, enclosing their life history and a testimonial of good conduct. Thereupon the president shall send them, at least four weeks before their examination, the text for the examination sermon and the theme of their treatise. These two pieces of work the examinee is to bring with him to the examination. The examination is to be waived for those candidates who can sufficiently show, by testimonials, that they have already been examined by other recognized orthodox churchly bodies and found competent. As for the examination of those who wish to become candidates for the teaching office, this is to be undertaken by the pastor of the place, who is to issue the candidate a detailed testimonial for presentation to the synod. The subjects of the examination are: knowledge of the Bible and understanding of Scripture, doctrine of the faith with special reference to the symbolical books, especially the two catechisms of Luther, church and Reformation history, world history, knowledge of the fatherland, the German language, arithmetic, penmanship, geography, music. In addition, the examinee must submit a written catechesis and deliver it, and also prepare a written treatise on a pedagogical subject assigned to him by the examiner. Every new schoolteacher is to be installed in his office publicly and solemnly in the church, before the assembled congregation, by the pastor of the place.

§11. The ordination and installation into office of newly called preachers is performed by the president, under the restrictions given in Chapter VI, A, §11; he carries this out in the company of at least one of the neighboring preachers, if possible before the congregation concerned, with a solemn obligation to all the symbolical books (see Chapter II, §2), and indeed according to the formulary of a recognized orthodox agenda.

Ordination is given only to one who has received a lawful call from and to a specific congregation, and who, after a preceding examination, has been found sound in the faith, capable of teaching, and of blameless conduct. The so-called licenses customary here are not given by the synod, because they are contrary to Scripture and to all churchly practice.