# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S90
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 90 —

Concerning the Synodical Conference.

At the request of the Reverend Präses [president] Sieker, the matter of
the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference [*Synodalconferenz*] of
North America was taken up early in the first days of the convention.
Before the Synod, for discussion and final adoption, lay the constitution of
the said Synodical Conference, which reads as follows:

Constitution

of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America.

§ I. Name.

"Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference."

§ II. Confession.

The Synodical Conference confesses the canonical Scriptures of the
Old and New Testaments as God's word, and the confession of the
Evangelical Lutheran church of 1580, called the "Concordia" [the Book of
Concord], as its own.

§ III. Purpose and Goal.

An outward expression of the unity of spirit among the synods
concerned; — mutual strengthening in faith and confession; the fostering
of unity in doctrine and practice, and the removal of any disturbance of it
that occurs or threatens; joint activity toward common goals. — A move
toward delimiting the synods along territorial lines, provided that
language does not become a dividing factor. — The union of all Lutheran
synods of America into one orthodox American Lutheran church.

§ IV. Authority.

The Synodical Conference is merely an advisory body in all matters in
which it has not been granted decisive authority by all the synods
constituting it; — only the whole body of the synods represented in it is to
decide on the admission of ecclesiastical bodies into the Synodical
Conference's association, and such admission can therefore take place only
by the concurring resolution of all the united synods; — it is to see to it
that regular joint pastoral conferences are arranged and held, through the
mediation of the district presidents [*Distrikts-Präsides*] concerned; —
without the consent of all the synods represented in the Synodical
Conference, none of them may enter into ecclesiastical-law relations with
other church bodies.

§ V. Objects of Activity.

Church doctrine and practice; — the relationship of the preachers and
congregations of one synod of the union to those of another; — the
relationship of the whole body, and of individual parts of it, to church
bodies outside its union; — matters, external and internal,