# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1856_S149
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

A General Conference of the Lutheran Ministers in America. 149

...and had also read the proceedings of the German Kirchentag with heartfelt sympathy, and in doing so cherished the wish: Oh, that we too, in this land — where it would be even more needful — might have similar conferences, in which the members of all the orthodox synods of this land could take part, so that as brothers they might exchange their experiences, views, and convictions with one another, reconcile the differences still remaining, attain and confess ever more fully the unity of faith in all essential points, and thus at least open the way toward the eventual unity of the Lutheran Church of this land, so pitifully torn asunder. For my own part I have often cherished such a wish, and without doubt many Lutheran ministers of various synods have as well. And behold! this wish is now met by Professor Walther of St. Louis, in his "Lehre und Wehre" of January 1856, with a proposal. It reads there as follows:

"Would it not, toward the attainment of an eventual realization of a united evangelical-Lutheran Church of North America, be beneficial and conducive for those members of the various synods calling themselves Lutheran — who without reservation recognize the unaltered Augsburg Confession of 1530 as the pure and faithful expression of the doctrine of Holy Scripture and of their own faith — to hold a gathering from time to time? For our part we would be heartily ready to take part in such a conference of orthodox Lutherans, whenever and wherever it should take place according to the wish of the majority of the participants, and we can in advance assure the same readiness on the part of several theologians and laymen here, to whom the prospering of our dear evangelical-Lutheran Church in this our new homeland is no less the deepest longing of their hearts, and to whom we have already communicated the thought expressed here. Since it is a fact that even among those Lutherans who cling with all their heart to the fundamental confession of our Church, there still exists a certain diversity of conviction, the discussion of which in our periodicals may easily contribute more to hindering than to furthering the unity of our Church so longed for by all, a personal, oral exchange and conference can be nothing but salutary, and would surely, above all, bring the incomparable blessing that the struggle — still needful again and again even within our Church — would take on and retain the character of a mutual rivalry among brothers for the faithful preservation of the precious jewel of purity of doctrine and unity."