# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S96
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 96 —

...[experience]. There were still, he said, defects in doctrine and
practice; he himself had lodged complaint, but as far as he could see
nothing had happened. Pastors Schaller, Köstering, Fick, and Professors
Crämer and Brauer, who had been present partly as delegates at that
synod's assemblies, partly otherwise in contact with members of the
Illinois Synod, testified that they had always found the greatest
willingness among all its synodical members and had constantly been able
to observe the synod striving to order everything within its sphere
according to pure Lutheran doctrine and practice. Members of the Illinois
Synod reminded the complainant that his accusations had in fact been
heard and investigated and settled in St. Louis. A reconciliation had been
achieved at the time, but afterward, unfortunately, not kept. The Illinois
Synod as such, or rather its officers, had intervened every time a
complaint was brought to it. Since it had also been alleged that
un-Lutheran catechisms were still in use in some congregations, the
pastors of the Reverend Illinois Synod present testified that a number of
them used Dietrich's catechism, others the old Pennsylvania one, and still
others the one published by Krotel and Mann. Our former delegates to the
Illinois Synod testified that even then the synod had already declared
itself in favor of abolishing all false books and procuring orthodox ones.
Through everything said on this occasion, the Synod became convinced that
the Reverend Illinois Synod, as a synod — despite all the weaknesses and
defects still found in its congregations and with individual preachers —
not only confesses pure doctrine but also carries it out in deed and
strives to put into practice a course consistent with pure doctrine. On
motion made, the Synod then voted for the acceptance and validity of the
agreement reached.

The Delegate Synod, together with the bylaws made necessary by its
establishment, for the synodical constitution.

The preparatory committee had drawn up several bylaws to the synodical
constitution that would become necessary if the Synod gave its consent to
establishing a *Delegatensynode* [Delegate Synod] in place of the previous
General Synod. The need to establish a Delegate Synod became especially
clear in these very days, so that the Synod voted for it, although in the
course of discussion a number of misgivings first had to be resolved and
various fears dispelled. — The bylaws drawn up by the preparatory
committee, as amended by resolutions of the Synod, read as follows:

A. Concerning congregations entitled to vote:

1. That congregations numbering from two to seven shall be entitled to
send one pastor and one deputy as their representatives, in such a manner
that...