# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2004_S302
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

302 ECCLESIASTICAL SUPERVISION AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION

8-25 .

To Establish Ecclesiastical Supervision
of Synod President

Wuereas, Every Christian is simultaneously saint and sinner
(Romans 7); and

WHEREAS, This reality calls for the proper supervision of all
who are in authority; and

WHEREAS, No public officer, also those within the church and
including the President of our Synod, ought be above the law or
stand outside the timely reach of meaningful discipline; and

WuerEAS, “The sole rule and standard according to which all
dogmas together with [all] teachers should be estimated and judged
are the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and of the
New Testament alone” (FC Ep Rule and Norm 1); and

Whereas, Res. 1-04A of the last Wyoming District convention
reports how recent opinions of the Synod’s Commission on Con-
stitutional Matters (CCM) have “revealed that members of the
Synod are without a means for suspension or deposition of a sit-
ting president in between conventions”; and

WHEREAS, Previously the President of the Synod was subject to
the ecclesiastical supervision of the Missouri District President; and

WHEREAS, Art. XI C 2 of the Synod’s Constitution even allows
for “the deposition from office” of a sitting President, although the
Synod does not have Bylaws in place for such a deposition to be
carried out; and

WHEREAS, Res. 5-08 of the latest Montana District convention
correctly points out problems that ensue upon the CCM’s ruling
that “the President of Synod may only be held accountable for his
actions by an assembled convention of the Synod.” The District
notes the following:

The President of the Synod appoints the convention com-
mittee which will review his actions to determine whether they
were in accord with the Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod
[and] this creates a situation in which the President of the Synod
is in reality accountable only to himself; and

This condition is described in our Lutheran Confessions as a
situation which existed in the Roman Church at the time of the
Reformation: “The ninth question of the third canon states, ‘No
one shall judge the supreme see, for the judge is judged neither
by the emperor, nor by all the clergy, nor by kings, nor by the
people’ ” (SA Treatise 50); also, “When proper judicial process
has been taken away, the churches are not able to remove impi-
ous teachings and impious forms of worship, and countless souls
are lost generation after generation” (SA Treatise 51); and

The Confessions warn against the danger of this, and de-
scribe the Roman pontiff as guilty of two great sins: one, “He
wrests judgment from the church and does not allow ecclesias-
tical controversies to be decided in the proper manner” (SA.
Treatise 49), and further, “Unwillingness to be judged by the
church or by anyone is to make himself out to be God” (SA
Treatise 40); and

This opens the possibility for spiritual tyranny in the church,
since we have no guarantee that in the future a President may
[not], according to this opinion, place himself above the church,
exempt from any accountability except to his own “Star Cham-
ber Court”; and

Holy Scripture warms against placing our trust in men, “Do
not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man in whom there
is no help” (Ps. 146:3), and our Confessions state, “Such un-
willingness to be judged by the church or by anybody is to make
himself out to be God” (SA Treatise 40); therefore be it

Resolved, That the Carrollton Circuit Forum petition the Synod
in convention to return to the Missouri District President the eccle-
siastical supervision of the Synod President; and be it further

Resolved, That the first sentence of Bylaw 2.41 d be amended as
follows:

PRESEN+F/PROPOSED WORDING
An individual member of the Synod who is serving the Synod
itself or an agency of the Synod other than a eongregation-er Dis-

trict, and other than a missionary or chaplain serving under call by
the Synod, shall hold membership through the District designated
by that person if approved by both the President of that District and
the President of the District in which the office or agency is lo-
cated, but shall be subject to the ecclesiastical supervision of the
President of the geographical District in which the office or agency
is located;

and be it finally

Resolved, That provisions also be added to the Bylaws of the
Synod to reflect the following safeguards (as suggested by the Mis-
souri District in Res. 1-03 of its last convention):

¢ The Missouri District President’s supervision of the Synod President
be limited to complaints brought to the attention of the Missouri Dis-
trict President under Bylaws 2.21-2.27 and Chapter VIII of the By-
laws;

e The Missouri District President may not himself initiate a complaint
against the Synod President, but only receive and act on complaints
brought to his attention under Bylaws 2.21-2.27 and Chapter VIII of
the Bylaws; and

¢ The Synod President be afforded the same protections and right of
appeal afforded to other members of the Synod under Bylaws
2.21-2.27 and Chapter VIII of the Bylaws.

Carrollton Circuit Forum, Missouri District; Circuit 26
Forum, South Wisconsin District

8-26

To Support Ecclesiastical Supervision
of Synod President

WHEREAS, The Christian is at the same time saint and sinner
(Rom. 7:7~21); and

WHEREAS, Such a reality calls for the proper supervision of all
who hold authority; and

WHEREAS, The office of Synod President is not under ecclesias-
tical supervision by any entity other than the Synod in convention;
and.

WHEREAS, Checks and balances are effective tools for good
order in the church; therefore be it

Resolved, That the 2004 Synod convention change the Bylaws
of the Synod so that the President is placed under the ecclesiastical
supervision of the Board of Directors of the Synod; and be it fur-
ther

Resolved, That the Synod President be afforded the same pro-
tections and rights of appeal that all other pastors are afforded
under Bylaw 2.21—2.27 and Bylaws Chapter VIII.

Salem
Taylorsville, NC

8-27

To Clarify Ecclesiastical Supervision
of Synod President

WHEREAS, An opinion of the Commission on Constitutional
Matters in 1992 (Ag. 1915) concluded that the Synod President is
not under the ecclesiastical supervision of the President of the Mis-
souri District; and

WHEREAS, Opinion 98-2122 of the Commission on Constitu-
tional Matters in 1998 stated that “the President of the Synod is
under the ecclesiastical supervision of the President of the Missouri
District under Bylaw 2.41 d since the synodical President serves
the Synod at its headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri”; and

WHEREAS, Opinion 01-2240 of the Commission on Constitu-
tional Matters in 2001 reversed the opinion of 1998 stating that the
previous opinion of 1992 was based primarily on constitutional
grounds; and