# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S108
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 108 —

Support for infirm pastors.

A motion concerning this had come in from Pastor Brohm. The preparatory
committee had assessed it favorably. — Both papers were read aloud and
the following remarks were further made orally: It may seem as though
something could be said against the Synod as such establishing an
institution of this kind, since the point is not that aged pastors should
receive charity ["Gnadenbrod," bread of grace] from the congregation, but
rather that they are to be maintained as a matter of obligation owed to
them — yet it must be considered that it is not always stinginess, but
real inability on the part of small and poor congregations, that is the
reason when infirm pastors do not receive the support due them. Moreover,
the Synod is itself a number of congregations standing in fellowship with
one another and members of one another. Each, then, is to care for all,
and all for each. If infirm pastors spend their last days "with
groaning," eating the bread of tears because they are abandoned, this
brings the Synod no blessing. Against this stands the sure promise: "And
whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water to drink
in the name of a disciple: truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his
reward," Matt. 10:42; and again: "I was hungry and you fed me, etc. Truly
I say to you: what you did for one of the least of these my brothers, you
did for me," Matt. 25. If Christ himself came to us infirm with age, we
would surely do everything to care for him in the best way possible. Now
he truly does come to us in this way, in his aged servants. Therefore let
us take steps so that the proposal made may be put into effect as soon as
possible. — What should move us to this is, first, love for the infirm
pastors, but also proper care for the congregations, so that they suffer
no harm. In the old fatherland it has always been the custom that a fund
*pro emerito* was maintained, or that half of the annual income was
assigned to the emeritus pastor. The Antichrist even provides for his own
creatures — monks, nuns, and other vermin — and should we not take up the
"needs of the saints"? Thereupon it was resolved:

1) to appoint a committee to take this matter in hand;

2) the members of this committee shall be Pastors Bünger and Brohm, and
the general treasurer, Mr. Schuricht;

3) the present sick-fund for pastors shall henceforth be a fund under
the Synod's direction, and shall from now on also be extended to
emeritus [retired] pastors;

4) the General President and the district presidents shall decide who is
to be supported and who is to be regarded as emeritus.