# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1848_S30
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 30 —

Opening of the Sessions.

On Wednesday, June 21, at nine o'clock in the morning, the pastors and
deputies who had arrived assembled in Trinity Church [Dreieinigkeitskirche] of
the German Ev. Luth. congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession at
St. Louis. Under the chairmanship of the Präses [president] and *pastor loci*
[pastor of the place] C. F. W. Walther, this first session — like all the
synodical sessions that followed — was opened with hymn-singing, the reading
of a chapter from the Pastoral Epistles or Acts, and prayer. The names of the
pastors belonging to the Synod were then read aloud, and the credentials of
the deputies were received. The Präses then delivered the synodical address
and gave his annual report, both of which are reproduced here at the Synod's
request.

Synodical Address.

In the name of the holy, most blessed, triune God — the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Venerable brothers, beloved in Christ, in office and in the faith!

For us, as members and servants of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
this land, days of great joy, of refreshment and strength, have come once
again in this recent time of trouble. God has granted us the grace to gather
here — we who know, and have known, ourselves united in one faith, though
some of us had not yet met face to face and, mostly working far apart from
one another, have had to labor and struggle alone — so that we might
publicly testify to this unity of spirit through action and strengthen
ourselves in it, jointly confess our most holy faith and build ourselves up
upon it, and jointly take up the burden of each individual and bring it to
God in united prayer. While at present our brothers in the faith in most
other lands — especially in our old fatherland — find themselves, amid the
unrest and confusion of a violent dissolution of all existing conditions in
state and church, left almost entirely to lonely sighing in their chambers,
we, by contrast, have been able to gather here in peace, to refresh one
another's spirits under the shadow of an undisturbed peace. Thanks, humble
thanks, be for this to Him whose kindness endures forever.

Yet we are not here merely as individuals; for the most part we have come,
as servants and members of the church, in the name and on behalf of our
congregations, to deliberate in the fear of the Lord on what they and the
church in general need. We therefore bear a heavy responsibility for our
being here, for the confessions we make here, and for the resolutions we
adopt here. Many eyes are fixed upon us; some look on our deliberations with
concern, others with hope. But it is generally demanded of our gathering —
and, we must admit, with full justice — that it be of use not only to us
personally, but bring a blessing upon our congregations and upon the whole
church. —