# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1850_S137
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 137 —

not fitting, since in holy baptism Christ is already put on
and so the full abundance of the gifts of grace is given to the baptized child.

The conference then declares itself in favor of gladly meeting
the wish of the Shiboyangk Indians to receive a preacher of their own.

Finally, the conference judges that daily worship services should be
arranged without legalism according to the needs of the congregation, but
should not crowd out family worship. —

Only two preachers attended the South Indiana Conference —
held at Indianapolis on October 18 and 19 of last year — who,
since it had not yet been determined how many conference members were
required to form a quorum, did not wish to presume to pass any resolutions,
although they could have regarded themselves as a quorum. They
therefore contented themselves with discussing several matters of
particular pastoral care, church discipline, etc., and sincerely lament having
lost the benefit they could have enjoyed had all conference
members come together — they also complain that those who did not
appear had not even excused their absence. For several reasons they
wish that such a thing not happen again, and they present to their
conference members a draft conference constitution for consideration. —

The Synod holds that the two conference members in question could
not only have regarded themselves as, and acted as, a quorum, but
should have, since it is not advisable to adopt a fixed number as a
quorum in order to act as a conference. The Synod fully agrees with
the two brothers' just complaints; but regarding the
constitution it remarks that it seems better to it to word
§ 1.C. thus: "Whoever cannot appear in person must submit his motions
in writing or orally through another member" —
and instead of the words under C. § 2: "Every member shall, at the beginning of the
conference," etc., to say: "Every member shall, if at all possible, at the
beginning," etc., since it can easily happen that a member of the conference
is not in a position to hand in the subject to be discussed
in writing right at the start. It would also be good to
amend § 3.C. so that the local pastor must also indicate to
whomever he wishes to have preach in his congregation the text on
which the sermon is to be preached, because the freedom of choice of text could
easily give rise to the awkwardness of two choosing the same text. Beyond this
it is hoped that the constitution will also come properly into effect for the
benefit of the brothers.

The conference of the Chicago District dealt with the following questions at
its meeting the previous year:

1. "Is a preacher obligated, according to God's Word and Christian love,
to admit even the children of parents who do not belong to the congregation
to the congregational school and confirmation instruction, even
if the parents in question refuse, out of malice or other improper
reasons, to join the congregation?" The conference answers
this with "Yes!" on the basis of the following Bible passages: Ezekiel 18:20:
"the son shall not bear," etc.; Isaiah 45:11: "concerning my children"
etc.; Matthew 18:5: "Whoever receives such a child," etc.; John 21:15: "Feed
my lambs," etc.