# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S92
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 92 —

it was asked, for example, whether, in the course of time, our
congregations located in the state of Ohio would have to join the Synod of
Ohio. The answer given was: the method of achieving this goal cannot be
specified. How everything can best be achieved we leave to God above.
For now we want first to become of one mind on the principles. We stand
with the synods united with us in unity of spirit. This unity should now
also receive some outward expression. It is in order to bear witness to our
oneness in spirit that we come together at the Synodical Conferences. The
striving toward a territorial delimitation certainly has biblical grounds, in
that St. Paul commands Titus (Titus 1:5) that he should appoint elders in
every city, city by city (*kata polin* [Greek: "city by city"] = by cities).
In establishing congregations, and likewise larger church bodies, one should
not proceed according to personal attachments — not as in Corinth, where
one party called itself of Paul, another of Peter, a third of Apollos, a
fourth of Christ — but a territorial delimitation should take place, so that
it can be said: in this territory, this person is the pastor appointed by
God; here one is not choosy, but holds to the person set at this post by
God. — It was then demonstrated from the history of the Lutheran church
of this country how it came about that so many synods calling themselves
Lutheran arose in this land side by side and intermingled, standing in
opposition to one another, and this was lamented as a great evil. — Over
against this now-existing condition, the biblical order would be: every
state has its own Lutheran synod. Striving toward this order is in any
case our task. We will hardly live to see it carried out ourselves; perhaps
our grandchildren will. But we want at least to come to agreement among
ourselves on the principles. Thereupon § 3 was adopted.

§ 4 concerns the authority of the Synodical Conference. Regarding the
second point of this paragraph, that only the whole body of the synods
represented in it is to decide on the admission of church bodies into the
Synodical Conference's association, and so on, the following discussion
took place: no synod, then, can enter without our consent, and so there is
no danger of the Synodical Conference falling into a falsely unionistic
fellowship. If we admit a synod that is evidently not standing rightly, that
can only happen if we ourselves are no longer standing rightly either; it
could then only be a sign of our own falling away. — But if only certain
particular evils show themselves within the united synods, then it is at the
Synodical Conference that help can most easily be given and further harm
prevented. After this discussion § 4 was likewise adopted.

§ 5 designates the objects of activity. In general it was noted that the
Conference is merely an advisory body. One might think of the
Conference's activity as similar to that of the consistory [*Konsistorium*]
originally established by Luther, which was originally something quite
different from what it later became. There, the theologians appointed to
it had letters