# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1884_S52
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

52   Proceedings of the 19th General [Synod], or

"Now the last General Synod did indeed resolve to combine the presidency with the directorate for Addison, but left the other vacant presidential offices unfilled, and settled nothing thereby as to whether, and by whom, their previous functions should continue to be exercised. Time and the necessary preparation were probably also lacking at that time for a satisfactory settling of this matter.

"The present state of affairs can, of course, go on this way for a while, if no particular difficulties arise, and if in the faculties concerned everyone pitches in and works hand in hand with the others. But it is plainly not an orderly state of affairs. Disorder and shortcomings of every kind may be the consequence.

"But so long as things are still going tolerably well, it is time to guard against future ills. And even before the Synod convenes again,*) something can be done in this matter. For we could, and by rights should, in smaller and larger circles, try to become clear about the following: What is to become of the functions of the presidents of the institutions? — The following may now serve to answer this question:

"If oversight over the teachers, too, is still necessary going forward — which probably few will dispute — and if one does not want (and rightly so) a president who does not teach and live at the institution, then clearly one of three things must happen: either 1) these functions must be transferred to the Board of Control, or 2) to another teacher, or 3) to the Director of the institution.

"As to 1. To assign them to the Board of Control is already impracticable for the reason that these functions (as distinct from the Board of Control's own proper functions) are, in their essential nature, thoroughly of the kind that cannot be exercised by a body (least of all by one that, for the majority, does not consist of actual experts and specialists in the field), but that strictly require one person. If, now, in order to evade this objection, one wished to entrust a particular member of the Board of Control with it, one would again have (only under another name) precisely what one does not want, namely, a president of the institution in his own right who, however, does not teach and live there, and who, besides, would himself be a member of that very body which, as a body, would have to oversee him.

"As to 2. To transfer the presidential functions to another member of the teachers' faculty also appears, at first glance,

*) The functions named in what follows, together with this justification for them, were, before being deliberated on and adopted by the Delegate Synod, sent out beforehand and submitted for prior deliberation as a "Memorandum to the Reverend Faculties, Teachers' Colleges, Presidencies, and Pastoral Conferences of our Synod." This was done on the part of the General Presidium.