# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1856_S283
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

283

Call

for a general conference of all Lutherans who acknowledge the Augsburg Confession as the confession of their faith.

The undersigned, preachers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States, in the conviction that the unity and welfare of our Lutheran Zion will be powerfully advanced by the free exchange of views on the various interests of our Church in this country among brothers united in the faith, hereby issue an invitation to all members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States who acknowledge the unaltered Augsburg Confession as a faithful exposition of the doctrines of the divine Word, to meet with them in a free and brotherly conference on the present situation and needs of the Church in America, in the city of — on Wednesday, October 1 of this year.

Pastor Fr. Walz          votes for Pittsburg, Pa.
 "    Thomas T. Jäger        "    "    "       "
 "    J. Ehrhart              "    "    "       "
 "    Fr. W. T. Steimle,      "    "  Cincinnati, O.
 "    J. A. Zapf              "    "  Pittsburg, Pa.
 "    Ch. J. Weisel           "    "  Columbus, O.
 "    A. J. M. Held           "    "  Pittsburg, Pa.
 "    D. Efird                "    "  Columbus, O.
 "    W. H. Deck              "    "    "       "
 "    Ernst Lübkert           "    "    "       "
 "    Jacob Seidel            "    "    "       "
 "    J. L. Daib              "    "    "       "

Miscellaneous Church News.

The Russian Baltic Provinces. Thus writes the "Lutheran Village Church Gazette": "A rumor reports that the Lutheran Church in the Russian Baltic provinces has received equal rights with the state church from Emperor Alexander. That would truly be a great deal in Russia. Hitherto a Russian's conversion to the Lutheran Church had been made impossible; for it carried the death penalty — that is, there, banishment to Siberia, which is often worse than death. When, some years ago, through the false pretenses of Russian priests (popes), many Lutheran peasants had let themselves be lured into going over to the state church, they could not afterward turn back, once they noticed the deception, and had to go on paying their tithe as before. In Austria the Lutheran Church received equal rights with the Roman Church in 1849. But how such laws are kept was recently shown by a case at Prague in Bohemia. There a member of a religious order, E. Borzinsky, went over to the Evangelical Church, and, to be quite safe about it, did so in a Prussian border town. But scarcely was he back home again with his parents when he was fetched out of bed at night by the police, and now sits in a deep monastery dungeon, until he is worn down and recants. Such weapons are, at least among us, no longer used in Prussia against those who leave the church. But there are, on the other hand, other hardships. For example, to this very day no Lutheran church may call its members to worship by the ringing of bells. In the church tower at Jabel (near Wittstock) a bell has hung idle for four years, while the little United church's bell there rings out merrily.

Austria. The official observance of the Reformation festival in Austria has been permitted only under the present Emperor, and whereas formerly the Protestants here had only "prayer houses"