# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1847_S22
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 22 —

From the first report the following results emerged:

a, Pastor E. M. Bürger had, earlier, out of overwhelming doubts about
the divine legitimacy of his call, left the office assigned to him in
Missouri and separated from the fellowship of the Lutheran ministers
there — something which, by his own statement, he would not now do,
having come to better understanding.

b, Later, when he intended to return to Germany, on his way through
Buffalo he accepted a call from a number of Lutherans there who had
been excommunicated by Pastor Grabau, to serve them with Word and
Sacrament, after he had satisfied himself, through credible documents,
that they had been placed under the ban by Pastor Grabau without
sufficient cause, and after an attempt at reconciliation with Grabau had
remained fruitless.

In support of this, Pastor Bürger presented convincing evidence to the
committee.

From the other report the following results emerged:

a, Pastor Bürger had been deposed from his office by some members of
his congregation — represented here by Mr. C. Faude — because he had
excluded several congregation members from Holy Communion, a
measure that those members regarded as an unlawfully imposed ban;
he had also been accused of false doctrine by his opponents.

b, Regarding the above, Pastor Bürger admitted before the committee
that in this matter he had probably not spoken and acted cautiously and
with sufficient Christian circumspection, and may have given occasion
for the suspicion that he wished, on his own authority, to carry out the
church's Last Judgment himself, although he had explicitly stated the
opposite in so many words. C. Faude, for his part, became convinced
that Pastor Bürger could not be charged with false doctrine regarding
the matter in question, and admitted that he and those he represented
had, in this affair, made themselves guilty of repeated transgressions of
the commandment of love toward their pastor, and had too hastily
deposed him from his office.

c, Some other points of difference — particularly regarding Pastor
Bürger's administration of the sacraments outside the congregation, as
well as a letter against him and several congregation members, which
had been the cause of the measure he had taken against his opponents —
had to be reserved for sharper resolution, or, as the case may be, for
mutual understanding within the congregation itself.

Since the synod now recognized from all this that Pastor Bürger, on the
basis of the evidence presented, partly oral and partly written,

1, had the right and the duty to accept the call of those Lutherans
excommunicated by Pastor Grabau, and that he

2, could be convicted of no false doctrine or willful sin or unfaithfulness
in his office,

it was therefore resolved by the synod that Pastor Bürger, after a
colloquy had been held, be admitted as a voting member of this synod.