# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1854_S285
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— Page 285 —

The Grabau Case.

Unfortunately, the Grabau case still belongs among the standing
items in our annual synodical proceedings. However unpleasant this
may be on the one hand, since other important matters of deliberation
are thereby hindered or even crowded out, on the other hand the
necessary and repeated reopening of this matter has the great benefit
that all members of the Synod, and especially those who joined only
later, must become ever more convinced of the justice and correctness
of our cause, both in doctrine and in practice, as against Grabau. All
the brothers present at this year's convention felt this afresh and
vividly. The occasion for reopening the matter was the need to draft
a twofold letter of response, one to the Venerable Leipzig Conference,
the other to the Venerable Fürth Preachers' Conference, in reply to
their communications, printed in Nos. 10 and 12 of the tenth volume
of "Der Lutheraner," which they, as is known, had sent to our Synod
as a result of Pastor Grabau's complaints. It lay very much on the
Synod's heart, and it devoted much time and all possible diligence,
to giving those Venerable Conferences in the beloved old fatherland an
answer and report, so as to put the brothers on the other side in a
position to render an impartial judgment in this distressing dispute.
The fruit of this deliberation and labor has already been
communicated to the readers of "Der Lutheraner," in Nos. 24 and 25 of
its 10th volume, in the two letters of response to those Venerable
Conferences.

The Catechism Matter.

Among the various matters laid before the Synod for deliberation,
the catechism matter now also came up for discussion. Since Pastor
Keyl did not have on hand the relevant report of the Eastern
Conference, Professor Walther drew attention to the excellent
catechism of Conrad Dietrich, which was deficient only in the
articles on church and ministry [Kirche und Amt], and therefore
proposed supplementing only that part from another good old
catechism and then having that catechism printed. Objections were
raised against this method of supplementing; and from another quarter
the proposal was made to have a catechism suited to the present need
of the time worked out by a qualified member of the Synod; a proposal
which, in the course of discussion, was broadened to charge the
ministerium of St. Louis with the task; and the Synod finally adopted
the resolution: "that, in order to meet a need that has become
urgent, the ministerium of St. Louis be charged with once again
carefully reviewing the catechism of Conrad Dietrich, carefully
rendering it into pure church language, supplementing it in those
articles where its provisions do not suffice for our time, in
keeping with the pattern of sound doctrine; sending the manuscript to
the district synods for their judgment, but reserving the right to
take the objections raised by them into consideration for the time
being, or not; and finally submitting it to the general Synod meeting
in the third year for final examination, so as then to proceed as
quickly as possible to its printing." —