# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1847_S9
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 9 —

in which he asked the synod to send him a commission to examine him
and grant him ecclesiastical ordination. After due inquiry into the
petitioner's qualifications, the secretary was instructed to write to him
that the synod could not grant his request, because it found nothing in
him that recommended him for the holy preaching office, but rather had
learned several things that made him unfit for it — that the synod,
however, left it open to him to recommend himself through better
documentation, and, as the case may be, to clear himself of certain
accusations made against him.

Finally, an important letter from Pastor E. Leonhardt of Lancaster,
Ohio, became the subject of long, careful deliberation. In this letter he
requested and gave grounds, first and chiefly, for an amendment to
Section 10 of Chapter IV and Section 14 of Chapter V of the
constitution.

In the wide-ranging and repeated discussion of this subject it became
clear that the synod did indeed wish for a certain uniformity and
agreement in outward worship within the synodical district, yet without
regarding this uniformity of ceremonies — as that Section 10 itself states
— as necessary to the true unity of the church, or wishing thereby to
infringe in the least on Christian liberty.

IV. Proceedings of Thursday, April 29.

The deliberation over the amendment to Section 10 of Chapter IV, etc.,
proposed by Pastor E. Leonhardt, was continued today, and his many
remarks were duly weighed. After various proposals, the following
addition to that section was finally adopted:

"When the synod, under Chapter IV, Section 10 of its constitution,
makes it part of its business to strive for the greatest possible uniformity
in ceremonies, it does not proceed on the assumption — as Section 14 of
Chapter V states — that such uniformity is necessary to the essence of
the true church; rather, it regards such uniformity merely as beneficial,
especially given the circumstances in which our church presently finds
itself here. The synod also intends that in introducing any ceremony no
compulsion whatsoever be applied, but that, after thorough prior
instruction of the conscience, everything be left to the Christian liberty
of the congregations concerned."

The remainder of that letter was then also read aloud. Regarding Pastor
Leonhardt's remarks on Chapter VI A, Section 7, the synod declared that
it did not share his misgivings about the call [*Beruf*] and about the
presumption of the synod's Präses [president] acting as visitor — for
reasons set out in more detail during the discussion of this subject. It
decided, however, that the provision should remain provisional by which
the Präses, during his three-year term of office, is to take care, either in
person or through the vice-president, to visit all congregations of the
synodical district. A further addition proposed by Pastor Leonhardt
concerning ordination found no support, because the matter itself is
already contained in the constitution. His complaint about the fixing of
the time and place of this year's synodical assembly did not convince the
synod that anything had been done there contrary to Christian love. His
grievance