# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1851_S167
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 167 —

which he has served since 6 April 1851, the day on which he was
installed there into his office.

8. Pastor Baumgart has succeeded Pastor Fürbringer in office, on a call
from the congregation at Elkhorn Prairie, Illinois, and was installed
into it on 11 May 1851 by Pastor Fick.

V. I report to the venerable Synod that the electoral college has
conferred on Professor Biewend the professorship of philosophy at
Concordia College near St. Louis.

VI. As for the church visitations [Kirchen-Viſitationen] incumbent on
the president, I have unfortunately been prevented from making them by
illness and an excess of business.

Finally, I still have to inform the venerable Synod that Pastor Löhe
expresses to it his heartfelt thanks for the invitation extended to him
to this year's session, together with his regret at not being able to
attend it.

Respectfully, F. Wyneken.

Delegation to Germany.

This important matter was taken up first as a subject of deliberation,
although the final resolution on it was not reached until the close of
the Synod. At the extraordinary conference of the St. Louis District
held on 14 and 15 May, as a result of the declining answer of Pastor
Löhe in Bavaria — who, by a resolution of last year's Synod, had been
invited to pay a visit here — the proposal was made to send two brothers
of our Synodical body to Germany, in order in this way, under God's
blessing, to bring about a desired understanding with the Lutherans
there, with whom we had until now stood in closer connection, regarding
the doctrinal differences [Lehrdifferenzen] at issue.

The president of the Synod, Pastor Wyneken, then urgently pressed this
matter on the Synod's heart in a special letter, pointing out that we
are bound above all by the commandment: "Be diligent to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace"; that we would bear a heavy
responsibility before God if we wished to put the light granted to us
on these questions under a bushel; that the duty of self-preservation
alone requires us to do everything to avert a complete rupture, since
the ongoing and ever-growing disruption within the Lutheran Church must
have the most damaging consequences for ourselves; that our great
shortage of pastors makes a firmer connection with the brothers in
Germany a necessity for us. That now, precisely, was the right time, and
that any delay could become dangerous, he demonstrated by the fact that
the dispute over church and ministry [Kirche und Amt] was still being
treated as an open question; once it were settled, our efforts would be
of little or no use, and under the present circumstances of the German
church an early settlement was more than likely.

At the same time a letter reached the Synod, signed by Dr. Sihler and
several other brothers, recommending the same matter, and, besides the
reasons already given, also emphasizing that it would thereby dispel
many prejudices and false views about our doctrine