# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_2023_S195
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

9. STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION
To Amend Bylaws to Provide Clarity
for Cross-Circuit and Cross-District
Multi-Congregation Parishes
RESOLUTION 9-01
Overture 9-01 (CW, 365–66)
Preamble
The 2019 Synod convention labored significantly to clarify the
representation of multi-congregation parishes in Resolution
9-05, “To Amend the Constitution to Address Individual
Membership and Advisory Representation”; Res. 9-08, “To
Amend Bylaws to Clarify Multi-congregation Parish
Representation at the Circuit Forum”; and Res. 9-12, “To
Clarify the Meaning of Parish as it Relates to Congregational
Representation at District Conventions and Election of the
Synod President, and to Distinguish Assisting Capacity
Pastoral Calls.” These resolutions had the following principal
relevant effects:
• The multi-congregation parish now has a clear
definition and clear and consistent representational
expectations: “The total number of congregations
regularly cared for (served) by a pastor or pastors
constitutes a parish as it applies to bylaws dealing with
representation at circuit forums (Bylaws 3.1.2.1 [c];
5.3.2) and district conventions (Bylaw 4.2.2;
Constitution Article XII 10 A), and in voting for the
Synod President (Bylaw 3.12.2.3).” (Bylaw 2.5.5)
• Congregations of a multi-congregation parish other
than the one supplying the district convention voting
lay delegate may send an advisory/nonvoting lay
delegate to the district convention.

• seven established cross-district parishes involving two
geographic districts; and
• two apparent but not recorded cross-district parishes
involving two geographic districts.
In addition, there appear to be 63 parishes (all of the above, of
course, naturally involve multiple circuits and are not
included in the counts below) that involve congregations from
more than one visitation circuit:
• 38 established parishes (including two triples and a
quad) involving two visitation circuits each; and
• 12 apparent but not recorded parishes involving two
visitation circuits.
Bylaws are presently silent as to how congregations involved
in such situations are to be represented at district conventions
and electoral and visitation circuit meetings. The Commission
on Constitutional Matters (CCM) has from time to time been
called upon to opine on questions of representation for such
parishes and has reached a variety of conclusions on the basis
of various principles and inferences. Of these, the following
are held at present:
• No parish divided across circuit or district lines is
entitled to additional representation on account of the
division (i.e., each parish gets one pastoral and one lay
vote and garners no additional votes in the “other”
circuits or districts in which it may be involved).
• No pastor, due to a multi-congregation parish involving
multiple districts, votes in the convention of a district in
which he himself is not a member (CCM Op. 11-2618,

• Multi-congregation parishes are now represented at
circuit forums by one pastor and one voting lay
representative (lay representatives of congregations
other than the one supplying the voting lay delegate are
possible, but advisory/nonvoting). Previously each
congregation got a voting lay delegate.
The convention’s new bylaws did not, however, provide
clarity about which district conventions and circuits these
representatives and delegates attend when multicongregation parishes cross circuit and/or district lines. While
the several congregations of a multi-congregation parish
reside ideally within one visitation circuit, this is not
necessarily the case. Congregations of one parish may belong
to distinct visitation/electoral circuits and even different
districts. As of March 5, 2021, records appear to indicate 13
parishes involving congregations from more than one district:
• four established cross-district parishes involving a nongeographic district and a geographic one;
Resolutions

Committee 9 Chairman Timothy J. Scharr
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION | 195